<p>“Thought I was one of the few who wanted to sell the house and spend some time traveling anywhere.”</p>
<p>This has been a regular topic of conversation in our house. I wonder if it’s even possible for a lot of folks. DW takes three suitcases for a weekend getaway. Exactly how does one mentally downsize from 200 outfits to six? Two closets of personal items to one small bag? Four computers to one … or none?</p>
<p>I have just been corrected–our home is 950 square feet, containing 3 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms. We also have a carport with two large cupboards that need to be purged. Our home is 950 square feet and the carport is 240 square feet. It is just right and there is space for our kids. In theory, it could even be built on, to have a 2nd story above the carport or the main part of the house (as others in the neighborhood have done), but we have no particular interest. Hopefully, our kids will be able to afford homes of their own. It feels fine with all 4 of us there as well if it just has hubby & me. It would also feel OK with just one person living in it. </p>
<p>My folks have a huge rambling 4 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms + HUGE living & dining rooms & covered patio & carport, plus a storage room (where I currently stash all my non-profit supplies). It must be several times the size of our place & it’s just the two of them! They also have a huge yard & lawn; someone does some by & mow it periodically.</p>
<p>Are you sure 950 sf?? My pool is 900 sf…</p>
<p>Yep; my folks’ pool is 800 sq feet! We have a small place, so don’t feel any need to downsize or rightsize. Have always been comfortable in our smallish footprint. We have no basement & no attic, only one story. Hubby grew up in a 800 square foot home–3 bedrooms & 1 bath with 5 people living under one room. Worked for them. 
We do recognize that our entire home would fit in many of our relatives’ living rooms or kitchens, but it works for us pretty well. ;)</p>
<p>I like my house, and the size (around 2400 sq ft). I already have a cleaning service every two weeks, getting a lawn service will not be that expensive when I get tired of the yard work. We’ve spent years and $ renovating it to just how we like it, so we really don’t want to move.</p>
<p>But…</p>
<p>Real estate in my area is pretty strange - it is all based around which tiny town you live in. I could sell my house, move one mile west (across the town line), and buy a house the same size as the one I have for cash from the sale proceeds. And reduce my tax bill by around $8000 per year. </p>
<p>It seems like a no-brainer, but it will be hard to leave this house.</p>
<p>I have gone the opposite route of the OP and what appears to be the majority responding on this thread. After becoming an empty nester, I did a major remodel of my home (including an increase from 1500 to 2000 square feet and complete landscaping). I’m completely enjoying my home and the effort to have a space that suits me. I intend to stay put. I can walk to local retail area including movie theatre, restaurants, and farmers market. </p>
<p>While its true that I will be working quite a while to pay all of this off, for me; it is worth it.</p>
<p>^^“Location: SF Bay Area” </p>
<p>^^I would be staying put, too :)</p>
<p>Yea, none of us plan on leaving HI when our kids have grown, as far as I know. In fact, we expect our kids may well return to HI–that’s what all have said so far, but it’s too soon to know yet.</p>
<p>My cousin remodeled her home after her kids left. She’s now remodeling as a widow and isn’t sure what she wants to do next, tho she may retire in the near future. The house is way too big for her to live in alone & she’s contemplating what she wants. I know a lot of folks who remodeled (or bought a big place) when their family was growing & now have a pretty large house they live in with just two of them. Some have sold & bought condos & several of my folks friends are moving into retirement communities.</p>
<p>My fantasy is to sell my home, get rid of tons of stuff and buy a lovely little hobbit house in the Berkeley/Oakland area. Keep stuff to a minimum since the place would be small. One car. Lots of walking, reading, going to theater and dance; hanging out in a college town with its vibrant population what would keep the mind sharp and the heart young.</p>
<p>On nights that I can’t sleep (many!), I lie in bed and mentally go through the house, room by room, and think of what I would like to get rid of. I find the idea of owning less, calming.</p>
<p>^^Agree that owning less is calming…which is exactly why I had a HUGE yard sale last fall after S went off to college. He was lucky he had a bed when he returned for Thanksgiving lol I’ve always been a ‘tosser’ and can part with material things fairly easily. If it’s not functional, beautiful or particularly meaningful, out it goes!</p>
<p>Our house is just fine for us. We did the right thing by not overbought and now the house is just the right size(3000sft vs 4000 sft). Get rid of the mortgage and stuff is what will reduce the stress. I’m a minimalist and I don’t buy expensive stuff. However, I do feel like getting rid of my jewelries, I have not worn them for years, but the girls are too young to take care of them.</p>
<p>I need to get rid of more of (& better organize) the “stuff” I keep getting from the many meetings and trainings I attend. I greatly admire my favorite pulmo who manages to keep his office so neat that it’s not apparent that anyone works there. He is mavelously organized and brilliant…one of my many heros! His employees and co-workers are astounded by him as well.</p>
<p>The nice thing about getting rid of excess stuff is if you really ever do decide to downside you don’t have to go through that painful process all at once. Do a little bit at a time now and it’s not so overwhelming.</p>
<p>I do think after a certain point, it begins to feel like your ‘stuff’ owns you, not the other way around. I feel a lot less stress since I started the decluttering process, even though I still have a lot to do.</p>
<p>When my aunt was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, she slowly started going thru her possessions so her loved ones wouldn’t have to. I thought that was very loving of her and she enjoyed reliving happy memories while she did it. My clutter certainly plays a much larger role in my life than I’d like it to, so I will be going my best to help declutter (tho wish I had S"s ruthless skill in it).</p>
<p>Stuff is your enemy. It’s both a mental burden and a physical constraint on your ability to move. I can speak with authority, as I used to be the King of Stuff. We were empty-nested for a few years and decided to move to a warmer climate and downsize at the same time. We had 20 years of accumulation in a huge old house that had more storage space than most houses have living space. (Sounds like an asset, but turns into a liability.) After a year or two of very slow progress at preparing for sale we decided to go flat out. Had the fixups completed, held a huge auction, took thousands of books to the local libraries, made many more trips to Goodwill et al. At the end of it, we still filled up a big moving van.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we were looking on the other end (luckily enough, both kids had moved to a city that met all of our criteria for weather and tech climate). We looked at condos, but found we could buy more house and more privacy for the same price, and hire most maintenance for less than condo fees. We ended up buying bigger than we had planned, but got a house we like that feels like its own vacation destination. Like qdogpa, we like the lifestyle (makes long hours in the home office more tolerable) and enjoy hosting family get-togethers.</p>
<p>My main takeaways from the whole process were:</p>
<p>1) I don’t miss the vast amount of stuff that was donated/sold/trashed. I’m happy I’m no longer the custodian of all of it, and feel unburdened. I’ve still got a small storage unit with stuff we couldn’t part with, and now our objective is to work through that, too.</p>
<p>2) The time is never perfect, nor can you be perfectly prepared. We set dates for several key phases of the dejunking/selling/moving process, did the best we could within those constraints, and nothing terrible happened. I recommend that once you decide, you work out your plan, set real deadlines for what you can, and just do it.</p>
<p>Free business idea: a company that delivers a moving “pod,” a dumpster, and a Goodwill bin to your house. When you fill any one, they change it out for an empty one so you keep right on going. At the end of the process, they deliver or ship the pods to your new destination. :)</p>
<p>Maybe I just don’t have that much stuff, but I really don’t find the stuff that I do have to be a burden or stress-inducing or whatever. It’s just stuff… it doesn’t argue with me, talk back to me, spend my money, employ me, or whatever. It just sits there.</p>
<p>:confused:</p>
<p>For those of us with allergies, “stuff” can be the medium for mold & other stuff to grow on and make our allergies worse. That was what helped my S turn into a VERY neat young man & have the Roomba (electronic vacuum) be one of his best friends!</p>
<p>notrichenough - You’re welcome to the stuff in my house. (Come during the workday, so DW won’t see you removing things!) Start with a thousand books or so, and move on from there.</p>
<p>That is part of the crux of the problem–one spouse is OK with the removal & the other spouse (or other family member) can’t bear to part. Definitely ID with this.</p>