Have you Downsized (Voluntarily)?

[jgreco]

I literally want to get of everything I own, expect for my photos and laptop of course!

If I sell my house right now we will take a huge hit (about $150k loss) from we've put into it. But should be able to buy a decent much smaller house for cash. We bought a rehab on the water at a great price, but updated the hell out of it. Someone will get an incredible deal, but I am so over the maintenance and upkeep.

I miss the simple life of being in a tiny house with little to do for it and I cry all the time about missing my old house. Someone please tell me I am not crazy.

PS- we don't have any debt and are not in any financial trouble whatsoever, I am just tired of "things".

 

[girli565]

That's a big hit to take!

You said you don't have debt, so that means you own the house free and clear? If you feel comfortable taking that size of a hit and you feel like it'll be better for you in the long run than do it. It's ultimately up to you. if you're ok with it than go for it. Think about it as good karma credits, since the person buying the house will get a great deal!

 

[jgreco]

We have a small mortgage with a super low rate that I could pay off if I wanted, but its cheap money. If I sold this house, I could buy one like my old one free and clear.

 

[sydneysmom]

Personally, I wouldn't take that kind of a hit. if you don't HAVE to sell, hold on to it. The market will come back, then sell it. Sure, you could buy a smaller house free and clear, but if you wait, you can sell (and not take the hit), buy a smaller house and have money in the bank. Just my opinion.

 

[Pakey]

We downsized when our youngest child left the nest. We had a gorgeous custom home out in the country on 5 acres and we sold it and moved into a much smaller subdivision type home in the city. The new owners of our large house also purchased most of our furniture. We kept our master bedroom furniture and our artwork and purchased more casual items for the new place.

That was 12 years ago and I've never regretted it for a second. I was worried my husband would miss it but he also says he is happy not having those huge yards/landscaping maintenance.

 

[Debbie Jean]

I literally want to get of everything I own, expect for my photos and laptop of course!

If I sell my house right now we will take a huge hit (about $150k loss) from we've put into it. But should be able to buy a decent much smaller house for cash. We bought a rehab on the water at a great price, but updated the hell out of it. Someone will get an incredible deal, but I am so over the maintenance and upkeep.

I miss the simple life of being in a tiny house with little to do for it and I cry all the time about missing my old house. Someone please tell me I am not crazy.

PS- we don't have any debt and are not in any financial trouble whatsoever, I am just tired of "things".

I totally understand how you feel... I sold my large colonial last year and moved to a 2 bed/2 bath condo and honestly am happier than I have been in a long time. There were a number or reasons why I decided that it was time to sell. I've been divorced for many years and my DD is grown so it was a lot of house and the upkeep and maintenance was getting to me... like you it was just full of "stuff"... 4 bedrooms, full basement and attic. Let me tell you the clean out I had was so therapeutic! I treated myself to new furniture and brought surprisingly little with me from the house... it fells so freeing not to have so many material things... easier to keep clean but also just simpler.

After long discussion with my real estate agent, it became apparent to me that the real estate market isn't going to "turn" dramatically in the next few years so holding out for more money didn't make a whole lot of sense. The trade off was selling for less... I priced it low enough that it sold in a week with multiple offers. The bonus for me is a peace of mind that is hard to explain... unless you have felt it. It had gotten to the point that I dreaded going home... not that it wasn't a lovely house in a wonderful area... it was just too much for me. Now I love coming home... easy to keep orderly and clean it is such a serene and comfortable environment.

Another reason was that I needed 2 knee replacements and that would have been very difficult in the house with the stairs.... had the operations done this summer and it was so much easier in a single level condo!

Overall I am delighted with my choice... I only wish I had done it earlier!
There are some who questioned my decision from a financial perspective but there are some things that are more important... this was something I could do for myself that totally transformed how I feel. I would say that if you are not going to jeapordize your financial future, it is a step worth considering

 

[Cynt]

I bought a 4 bdrm house and it's just me. I sooo want to downsize. Too much house for one person. The maintenance and upkeep is a weekend project most weekends. I wish I would have realized this before I purchased my home. I love it but I want to sell it and purchase a small 2 bdrm condo. I say do what makes you happy. I just had my home appraised and it is $20K less than what I purchased it. Live and learn.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Personally, I wouldn't take that kind of a hit. if you don't HAVE to sell, hold on to it. The market will come back, then sell it. Sure, you could buy a smaller house free and clear, but if you wait, you can sell (and not take the hit), buy a smaller house and have money in the bank. Just my opinion.

That's really the issue, isn't it? How much of a "come back" and when will it happen?

This is typical of most of what I have been reading:
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/where-home-prices-are-headed.html

If you are young then you are in it for the long haul and can afford to wait until the market rebounds... at a more reasonable rate than the mega over inflation that happened before the real estate bomb exploded.

I was lucky... I owned my house for over 20 years so I didn't have the financial problem of being underwater. That gave me more options when I finally reached the point I wanted to sell... even at a much lower price than I would have gotten 5 years ago.

 

[ilovemk76]

You can get rid of stuff and still keep the house. We purge stuff all the time. As soon as a piece of clothing is no longer in style, out it goes. We get a new TV and the old TV stand no longer works; out it goes. We give away usable but not longer needed to others who can get a used out of it.

Everything in our house has a place to "live" so it is not cluttering up the house. If a new item comes in the house then the item it displaced goes out the door.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

This makes cleaning the house very easy and we still have the enjoyment of space.

 

[RitaE]

I think we will downsize in house eventually but we still have one kid and a dog at home here. I understand the exhaustion though, there are times that I'm so sick of having to clean 3 bathrooms a couple times a week that I'm ready to scream.

Maybe you should start by purging some "things" and trying to mark one or two rooms in your house as not for use. See how you adjust to that reduced living space.

 

[SaraJayne]

You can get rid of stuff and still keep the house. We purge stuff all the time. As soon as a piece of clothing is no longer in style, out it goes. We get a new TV and the old TV stand no longer works; out it goes. We give away usable but not longer needed to others who can get a used out of it.

Everything in our house has a place to "live" so it is not cluttering up the house. If a new item comes in the house then the item it displaced goes out the door.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

This makes cleaning the house very easy and we still have the enjoyment of space.

Same here.

And I can't wait to upsize to a larger home.

 

[Colleen27]

We plan to downsize dramatically once the kids are gone. I love my house, a 4 bedroom late-1800s Victorian, but this is a place for raising a family. Once the nest is empty we plan on a small condo in the city.

In the meantime, I have fairly regular bouts of decluttering and downsizing to keep from getting overwhelmed by stuff. It piles up so quickly and so easily gets overwhelming!

 

[Patience]

We plan to downsize when our youngest, who is now 5, is in high school. Our house will be paid off by then. We currently have a big house and a big yard in a nice suburb. I don't mind taking care of the house but neither my husband nor I really like taking care of the yard. Condo living will suit us perfectly fine once the kids are grown. Actually, it would suit us perfectly fine right now but we like our school and our neighborhood so we are staying put until the youngest is close to going off to college.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We did five years ago. We moved from Colorado to the East Coast and took that opportunity to downsize. We went from a huge four bedroom on five levels in a nice subdivisoin...to a ranch style 3 bedroom in the country on 5 wooded acres. We LOVE it here! Much easier to clean, and more than enough house for us...especially since one child is off in college. I found that even in the huge Colorado house, the girls were still always in the exact same room we were in at all times other than sleeping!!! So why have a huge house?

 

[yoopermom]

We live in a tiny by DIS standards (1100) sq ft 3 bd, 1 bath home, and my relatives all roll their eyes at "how" do we do it, but there are days I wish I still just had my motorhome and nothing more than that!

As others have said, start out room by room, and just shut the doors when they're done . Once it's all done, then you can see how you feel, whether you really want to move, or not. I don't blame you, though, if you do!

I'm like you, give me my laptop, my photo albums, and my dogs, and I'd be happy (oh, I guess I'd have to include DH, too ).

Good luck!

Terri

 

[estherhead]

We were in a similar situation with too big of a house and too much maintenance when housing values fell. No way I could stomach the loss so we just cut our house in half and turned it into a rental. There was still grass to mow, but the rest of the gardens are perennial. And there was half the house to clean, half to pay for, etc. And no financial loss.

I said in the middle of the process, "Simplifying is complicated!" but it was a great decision. If you are willing to own a rental, imho, it's better than taking a loss though not as simple as you'd (I'd) wish.

 

[howlongtildisney]

We recently downsized by half. We bought a home in 2009, thinking it would be our "forever" home, or at least long term. Then I got a job cross-country and we moved. We wanted to get something small because I work full time, DH does too, DH is in night grad school, and we have a one-year-old. We're in 1100 sq ft or so now, and we love it. Even if/when we buy here, I don't think we'll ever have anything as large as the house we left. We spent so much time cleaning that huge place! Plus, even though we tried to be diligent about cleaning out regularly, stuff just expanded to fill the large closets we had. We're much happier now.

 

[Kate and Pete]

We started small, and instead of buying bigger, like many of our friends are starting to do, we've decided to stay small!

DH and I bought our house when we were 26 - a little (1200 sq ft), 3 bed, 1 bath house. The main living space is open - so kitchen and living room all in one "big" space. We built on a mud room (needed, here in Maine). One of the two small bedrooms is my sewing room/guest room, the other is a "man cave" . No basement, which my DH really wants (so he can fill it with stuff, which I'm against!!!), but we might build a garage with some storage in the next five years.

Now that we're older (we're 34), our friends are starting to buy bigger homes, with bigger mortgages, even though many of them are living paycheck to paycheck. We have a tiny mortgage (couldn't rent anything around here for what we pay in a mortgage) and our income has increased by $30,000 since we bought it - so we're in a good place!

I love my tiny little house - the only thing that I really want is a second bathroom, but, otherwise, I'm happy to live small!!

 

[DawnM]

We are considering it. The thing for us is that it is SO overwhelming of a job AND we have looked at some smaller homes and really, for what we can sell for + realtor fees and what we will get, I am not sure it will be in our best interest.

We are still debating.

 

[shelwoj]

We went from 1500+ square feet to 750 square feet last year after the youngest went away to college. We're mortgage, clutter and neighbor free and LOVE it! We have just enough room for visits from children and friends. The only time we question our sanity is when we have to drive an hour one way to get to "civilization".