There are many reasons why you might be moving to a smaller home. Maybe your children have left the nest and you’re ready to fly the coop to a smaller, more manageable home, or maybe you’re about to return to the city after living in the suburbs for a couple of decades. Perhaps you’re exchang ing one large home for two smaller ones—summer and winter or a suburban condo and a city pied-a-terre. Maybe you’re following the southern and southwestern migration. You might be relocating to accept your dream job or retiring and trying to reallocate your disposable income. Perhaps you just want to simplify your life so that there’s “less work for Mother.” Or you could be downsizing for quite a few other reasons.
Whatever your motivation, moving is always stressful, but downsizing is more about adapting than it is about moving. When you’re telescoping a lifetime’s accumulation of belongings from a larger home into a jewel box, the task can seem overwhelming, and so can your emotions. How do you decide what to pack and what to part with? Where will you put the contents of your attic, basement, and garage? What if the ceilings are lower—or in some cases higher—the windows are smaller, and the living room rug would fill the entire space? How can you use the stuff you’ve got so that it functions well and looks right?