So You Are Moving into Something Smaller – Good Grief! Where will you put everything?

There is nothing that can done about it. Demographics in America are such that the bulk of the Baby Boomer Generation is nearing retirement. The kids have grown and have families of their own. That big house with all those stairs is no longer your dream home. You find you live in only a quarter of the house. Your bedroom/bathroom, living room, kitchen and breakfast area. Oh! And you use the laundry room and garage….But the rest? Not necessary anymore and pain to keep clean. What’s more, the house seems to have grown more stairs that are steeper than they seemed a few years ago when you were running up and down keeping up with the little ones. So it is finally time to downsize. I found a great 12-Step Guide that I want to share with you. No reason for me to draft something new when someone else has covered the topic so well.

But what they don’t cover is the emotional dynamics of downsizing. I just want you to be prepared.

Mom, Dad, as you know, starting about the time they become teenagers, your children start finding their friends more interesting to spend time with than you. You start to see them less and less. Then they grow up, get married and have children of their own. You have kept all their old memoirs in safekeeping for the day they have their own home and can come get everything. But they don’t. Their first home is either too small, or their jobs have forced them to move away or move often. The day comes that you want to sell and move into something smaller.

One of two things will happen with regards to those memoirs. They will either come get them or they will tell you that they really don’t want all that junk from their childhood. They have moved past that….. It saddens you and as you go through things you must make tough decisions of what to keep and what to get rid of. My advice? Sell it all and set the funds aside for your grandchildren – or spend it on your next vacation.

The next emotional dynamic? Half the kids want you to sell and move into a ranch style home in a nice 55+ Community where you will be able to enjoy friends your own age. The other half doesn’t want you to sell the home they grew up in and hoped to raise their own children in someday. (Well, not really, but for some reason they feel impelled to say so.) Don’t let them make you feel guilty. Take lots of pictures and give them to them. Don’t forget to include pictures of all their old memoirs they didn’t bother to come get and you subsequently sold at the yard sale.

Don’t let the past hold you up. Even though you may now be considered a Senior Citizen, you are vibrant, have a whole lot of living to do and not quite as much time ahead of you as behind you to do everything, so you better get crackin’!  Sell the old place, move into the newer, smaller, less cluttered and easier to keep clean homestead and invite the kids over for dinner. And order pizza so you don’t have to cook!

Oh! And those of you who are downsizing and don’t have children to deal with? Here’s that link again for the 12-Steps to downsizing.

That’s it for this blog. Hope you found entertaining as well as helpful.

 

Open House or For Sale Ready?

For Sale by Susan Carroll with BHHS

This particular home was the property of Stanley and Kim, that was sold by Susan Carroll just a few months ago. They particularly viewed the declutter stage of their home as a nuisance and a very stressful process. While this may be the case, there are steps we can take to make the process easier and less stressful than this couple made it out to be. The biggest mistake that Stanley and Kim made is that they looked at their entire house in all of its chaos. That is what we want to do if we want to become stressed. To combat this stress, get out a wall calendar and begin planning what room will be tackled when. Create a plan and go day by day. The more little things you begin to do, the less big things you have left to do. Now is also a great time for you and your family to go through all of your belongings and decide what you are getting rid of and what is coming with you to your new home. This can allow you to slowly start packing as well.

Selling your home, whether you are having an open house or not, is a mind change. You are transitioning from having a home, to selling it, to buying a new one. So the first major transition is one of the mind and heart, transitioning them from your current home to being just a house. So, walk around your home as it currently is. Yes get up and walk around, reminisce all the memories that were made, all the laughter and tears that occurred there. We know your home has emotional and intrinsic value to you. Now your value has to shift to somewhere new. So from this day forward you need to say goodbye. If you sell this home like it is your own flesh the process will be so much harder to let it go. So this is no longer your home, this is the property you have up for sale. With this being said, the declutter process that is essential for open house and the selling process is going around and taking all personal items down and out. Whether that is family pictures, kid’s artwork on the fridge, memorabilia from graduations, weddings, anniversaries etc., anything that says anything about you, your personal beliefs, or political beliefs. This is because you need to allow potential buyers to be able to see themselves in the home as they are walking around, not you and your family in it.

Ask yourself: what stage of your life did you buy this house in? Have you outgrown it? What type of lifestyle does the house you are selling cater to? What kind of lifestyle does the neighborhood cater to? Identify who you are selling your house to and see what changes you need to make to update it to fit that generation or type of potential buyers.

The main thing about selling your house is transferring from “mine and ours” to “your and theirs.” The Buyers need room to “move in” mentally and emotionally before they do physically. Do not do as Stanley and Kim did and get overwhelmed. Set up a plan, get organized, and begin. The process goes a lot smoother if you have a checklist that you can see things getting done as you mark them off.