I should have addressed post #58 to @Harvestmoon1.
Oops.
“Whenever the eventual move takes place I want to be streamlined when it happens.”
@eastcoascrazy - yes. This is exactly how I feel. I’m just worried there are things I am not realizing about being in a smaller place. The “where to store the vacuum” lists above is a great example.
I know it’s hard to downsize and let go of “things.” Six weeks ago, my Dad lost his wife of 48 years. He is in the process of going through his house to get rid of things he can’t take with him to his next place. It’s a very daunting task, but he doesn’t want to stay there, and he doesn’t want this to be something he leaves to his kids to do after he is gone.
I have been with him for the last two days, touring a retirement community 5 hours away that has independent living (homes, villas, duplexes, and high rise apartments), assisted living, nursing care, and memory care all in one beautiful location. It has a golf course, walking trails, ponds, bike club, tennis groups, every other group imaginable: glee clubs, bridge clubs, mahjong clubs, craft clubs, singles groups, etc. He is totally in love with this community (largely comprised of retired military such as himself). Yesterday we toured many of the different home options here, and all were occupied by current residents. These are active elderly people who have all surely downsized to a very large degree in order to live here. Yet I noticed in place after place that even these people haven’t totally succeeded in giving up their belongings. Too many tchotchkes, paintings taking up every inch of every wall, too many furniture pieces, etc.,for my taste. That’s why I never want to go quite that small. I hate that kind of noisy clutter in my living environment. Dad is a neat freak and doesn’t like clutter, either, but that was a losing battle with my stepmother, who loved her collections. Now that he doesn’t have to consider anyone else’s preferences, I will be interested to see how his place looks and how much he will actually be able to part with.
It’s a challenge, for sure.
Really enjoying this thread. I am currently in a 3,400 sf house with 1,700 sf of basement, 2 car garage, a barn, and a large shed. The out buildings have mowers, machinery, tools, etc. needed to maintain the yard and gardens.
We want to downsize; not sure it will happen–mostly because we won’t be leaving this area and there’s really nothing to buy. I don’t want to build again. We use 1 bedroom upstairs, as does D when home from college. We mow 8 acres/week–far too much.
We were going fairly well on the de-cluttering, but our current issue is my sister has given us tons of baby/toddler items for grandchildren. We have one and will have more. They live close and I babysit often. Toys and child stuff is BIG. I feel like I just got out of this phase and I don’t want it again!
Hope all of you have better luck with holding onto furniture for when your kids move out. I wish I’d never done that. S1 and S2 didn’t want any of it. It’s a job to get rid/get to their house all of “their” stuff. In retrospect, I wouldn’t have hung onto extras for their future houses.
“We mow 8 acres/week–far too much.”
Have you thought about letting some of that just go natural? Or converting to hay or gardening? You could find someone else willing to do the tending of either for a substantial cut of the harvest.
@Nrdsb4 not really sure but my ideal would be a 1500 to 1800 sq ft place in the city and a small house or townhouse in the country or at the beach. Over the last 5 years we have spent a lot of time in a mountain state as kind of an experiment but I am not sold and much prefer the northeast.
The large home we are in was bought 20 years ago when we were starting our family. We wanted 4 children (maybe 5 if all went well) so we wanted space and land. As it turns out we were only blessed with 2 children but I have no regrets about the purchase. Over the years we filled it easily with the children’s friends, our friends and family. It also afforded us a lot of privacy which we value.
I now have one in college and one on the way. As teenagers they tend to spend far less time at home and I definitely feel like we are rattling around in the house. It also sits on 12 acres so the overall maintenance costs are also getting tiresome. Time for a change!
@doschicos 1.75 acres is house yard; 2 are in front of barn, 3 are along state highway/in front of our fields (the state used to mow this–now the owners do), another couple are a 15’ wide path bordering the farm back to our woods, I guess it’s more like 9 acres. All but the path border the highway and are very visible.
I would fence the barn area and have pasture–H wants it lawn. It was all do-able when I had 2 teenage boys at home; now it’s getting untenable. Maybe this is morbid, but I want a place I know I can take care of if H dies.
I’d like to add that when we do downsize to a smaller home ( 1500 sq ft above, 750 basement) that I will also need a shed. I love sheds!! My wife and I have a lot of toys. Bikes, kayaks, snowboards, golf clubs, etc. and also some yard tools. I like to take care of my own yard, so I’d like a small yard. My wife has been dreaming of a pool the whole time we have lived in our house now, and I’d like for her to have that and nice outdoor sitting area.
Inspired by this thread, I just donated some stuff the other day, and got rid of some clutter in a closet. I think I will really start to remove unwanted items from our house over the winter. We don’t have a lot, but it’s amazing how much stuff we don’t use/need.
That sounds awesome. DH has recently pondered the same kind of deal: buy a small apartment/condo in the city and move our primary home somewhere else “pretty.” But we’d still never go less than 3000 sq. feet in the primary home, I predict.
I should add that 2000 of that 5000 in our house is the finished walkout basement. I don’t know if that “counts”, but we have to heat and cool it, and it has its own full bathroom. We probably spend about 3% of our time down there-H’s office is down there and we have an epson projector and some recliners for watching movies.
It is a constant battle not to let stuff go down there to get stored and then never seen again. Nothing goes into the attic, and it’s empty, but it’s big.
As for how small we’re going-we’re saving for a 40 foot sailing catamaran. Three bedrooms, two bath. Not sure on square feet, but if you look on you tube and put in 40 foot lagoon catamaran, you get the picture. We got back and forth about whether to have a storage space or condo as a way to keep some stuff that just can’t go adventuring with us. We don’t know yet-we’ll see how much stuff we end up with when we sell the house in 2 years, lol.
I let our tiny back yard (about 20x50 feet) go “natural” and stopped mowing the lawn back there. I think it looks like a nice little field, but it’s driving H crazy (when he sees it, which is not often because he doesn’t go back there anyway). I think next spring I’m going to plant miniature sunflowers back there. I have a nice zoysia lawn in front, but I’m kind of over dealing with the backyard, because nobody sees it or uses it.
Late to this thread, but wanted to share some insights based on my major downsize from a 5-bedroom home with a den and an enormous finished basement to a 2-bedroom 2 bath cottage the main floor of which feels like a large apartment, with the second bathroom and additional guest room located in the small finished basement.
Second upstairs bedroom is a den/study with a trundle bed, so it can double as a guest room. The basement bathroom/rooms serve as the primary guest area. We made sure to make it feel cosy and well lit to ensure it’s a welcoming place for visitors.
I love my “things” - items collected/gifted after decades of travel - and books. While we purged A LOT, a fair amount was kept - it’s just part of who we are. These items live in built-in book cases and decorative shelving so that surfaces of coffee table/dining room table/hutch, dressers, etc., remain clear. Keeping major surfaces clear and your stuff contained in shelving cuts down on visual clutter.
We got rid of 90% or our extra bedding and towels. Now guest beds have 1 set of sheets which stay on the bed: no need for storage. DH and I have only one additiona set of sheets for our bed, for the winter. There are only a few extra towels for guests.
We got rid of our “everyday dishes” - we use the good stuff now! - donated 90% of our mugs (collected/given over the years, they breed like rabbits!) and really pruned our cookware to the best/most used items.
Our new house was built in the 1940s, so the bedroom closet is small. I gave it to my husband, and I got a well-designed wardrobe from IKEA. During the summer, all my winter clothing is stored in decorative containers that sit on top of the wardrobe. Splitting up clothes by seasons helps me to get rid of things more often: if I don’t love an item I take out /put away for the season, I donate it right away.
We have/bought pieces of furniture that can also store items. My knitting stuff now lives in a large chest we use for a coffee table. We got rid of ottomans for the arm chairs and replaced them with footrests in which we can store throws and blankets we take out for the winter.
I try to be disciplined about acquisitions: we just don’t have the room for additional random “stuff.” It’s sort of refreshing/freeing not to be tempted to buy things while traveling for the very sane and practical reason that our house is too small.
Ok, I will play. 3000 sq ft. Now. We are long-term planning for when D2 (7th grade) graduates HS. In the process of researching acreage to build on. Planning on 1700-2000 sq. ft. in the country. You could not pay me to live in a condo. I like my neighbors on cc, not too close. Don’t want them unhappy if my dog barks and I don’t want to deal with their dogs or other issues either. I also want a place big enough for the kids to come home and not have to get a hotel. Once we are retired, I am fine with doing yard and farm work as I don’t have to squeeze it in between work and school functions. Planning on some chickens for eggs and Sunday dinner. 
The difference in living expenses from the city (where jobs are) to the country (2 hours from here) is considerable. We can sell this house and buy 10 acres and build a new house and have 100K left to help with retirement.
The only big fear right now is how either one of the idiots on tap for DC will attempt to destroy the economy between now and then.
I have a constant fantasy of downsizing. Our house - about 1,400 square feet for four people - is pretty small by a lot of standards and is considered a starter home where we live. It was our second house together and was actually an upgrade from where we used to live, lol.
I think I’d love a house that’s a bit under 1,000 square feet. An adorable, perfect Craftsman bungalow is my dream.
When our girls are out on their own, we might move depending on where they end up. I am torn between moving - we have nothing holding us here once they are out of high school - and having a family home they can always return to. Both of our parents bought and held onto their first homes, and it was kind of nice to know there was always somewhere to come home to. I know a house is not a home, but there is something special to me about having a home base that my family was raised in.
Our lake home is 2600 sq ft. I don’t think we could go smaller than that here at home. The lake home is perfect when everyone is here and will be a little more crowded once grandchildren are here. H and I like our own space so he can watch whatever sports is on TV and I can get away to read or scrapbook. We also like a private outdoor space so urban won’t work for us.
We are in the process of downsizing from an @ 3800 sq ft 4/4.5 home with 3+ car garage and partially finished “basement” (the house is on piers so the basement is really the ground floor) to a 1750 sq ft 3/2 house with no garage or basement. My plan was to spend the last year sorting and decluttering our current home and getting it market ready. Somehow, life and work got in the way. I now find myself overwhelmed by house projects - both current house and the remodel of the “new” house.
We took the new house down to the studs, removed a wall and vaulted the ceiling in the living areas among other things. My biggest regret is not adding a master bath and walk-in closet. The baths and closets are tiny, which together with the change in neighborhood and lack of a garage, will likely be my biggest adjustments. Otherwise, I’m looking forward to less space to maintain, less junk, no stairs, and more freedom.
We are doing some built-ins for added storage. And we’ve made the attic climate controlled so I can store more things up there. A shed will be a must for all the yard stuff. I plan on replacing most of my furniture (too large and formal) with more functional, streamlined items.
I feel like I could do much better with 1,300 - 1,500 sq ft. It’s that 935 that has me concerned!! Time will tell, and we can always sell and buy bigger if that is just too small for us. I don’t want to maintain space that we only need a few weeks out of the year, however.