Are you ready to start living your dream life? You can do it without retiring! Just downsize!
Eighteen months ago, while chatting with my husband, I floated the idea of selling our big house, buying something modest in town and also purchasing a lake house, so we could try out a retirement life without actually retiring. He found it intriguing enough to give it a go, and our youngest child, who is still in school here, gave his blessing.
Before I started searching for my dream home, I made a list of all of the features I wanted in it, and also began looking for an estate sale company. I felt that I had too much stuff to try to sell myself or haul to Goodwill, and it was too valuable to just throw away. And putting it in storage for possible future use is not downsizing. So I’d say the two biggest obstacles to downsizing are wrapping your brain about leaving your family home and getting rid of your stuff.
So, we sold our 4200 square foot house, and purchased a 1400 square foot house in town and a 1200 square foot lake house. We moved into the little house ten days before the pandemic shut everything down and brought two additional kids back to the nest. Not exactly how we expected to begin our new experiment but it turned out great. Like many other families, having our children home was a gift and the small house promoted togetherness, we wouldn’t otherwise have had in the bigger house.
It’s been seven months living in our little house and we have no regrets. We bought a place with a gorgeous front patio and entertainment-friendly back yard. We’ve hired landscapers to take care of our yard and flower beds. We are thrilled with the lower taxes and utility bills. We love being in a smaller space that has just enough room to escape when need be.
While I’ve made downsizing sound easy here, make no mistake, it is a lot of work. Downsizing requires a big effort, mentally, physically, emotionally, but hopefully not, as in our case, financially! We happened to sell our big house during the pandemic for less than we’d anticipated and paid more than we expected for the lake house. But net net we are ecstatic with the results.
If you are thinking of downsizing and don’t know where to begin, I have created some really useful worksheets to help you get started! You can access them by clicking here!