Why or why not would you consider downsizing?

[kanerf]

I own a smaller house out in AZ which I currently rent out. It is fully paid off and was built in the 90s so not too old. If I chose, when I retire, I could just move back out there and sell my PA house.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm still wondering about the zip code part as I haven't really heard of that. That's why I wondered the size of the zip code and the number of residents. There's a huge variance in number of residents in each zip code in my county from just over 1,000 to over 70,000. Big difference in impact for a minimum square footage requirement.

There are some townships in my area that have rules like that, though I'm not sure if any have their own dedicated zip code. It is a popular way for "country people" to attempt to stave off development/subdivisions not only during their tenure in community leadership but going forward into the future as well. One that comes immediately to mind is about 6 miles from me... they have a minimum lot size of 1 acre and a minimum sq. footage of 2500, which has successfully kept the developers that have built subs in other townships in the area out of their borders. But someone looking to downsize could do so within a 5 minute drive in any number of less restrictive townships or in either of two small towns that have a wide range of housing ages/sizes/styles without even leaving the school district. So you'd have to be pretty inflexible to feel locked into a larger home because of those rules.

 

[georgina]

We downsized 6 weeks ago. Youngest child about to graduate college. We went from a house with in law apartment to a condo. We love it! Purged a lot !

Purging feels good afterward!

We moved from our suburban family home (4-5 BR, 3 bath, 1/2 acre lot) to a 4 story urban townhouse (3 BR, 3.5 bath, no basement storage). Moved to be closer to oldest child and new grandchild. Had to purge quite a lot, though we treat the 4th floor BR as our attic space and only put 1 car in the 2 car garage because of DH's tools and scuba stuff. Not that much smaller square footage-wise but different configuration, and more expensive area. Nice to be able to walk most places and use public transportation, which was non-existent in our old suburb. I can't see us in a condo for many years. Guess it will depend on how our knees feel.

DH is happy to have no lawn maintenance or snow shoveling. I was concerned having people on both sides with shared walls, but no noise issues. Plus I think it keeps our utility costs down. Plenty of natural light.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

My parents finally downsized in September. They moved out of the house they had lived in for almost 40 years. The maintenance on the property including an in ground pool plus it being a split level so stairs everywhere was too much. They moved into an over 55 community where they have no outside maintenance, all on one level, walk in shower to the primary bedroom and a guest bedroom when one of us stay over. It has been such a blessing and as happy I am that they made the move. they are even happier. No mortgage. No worries. Cleaning is a breeze. The process to move was rough but it is like a weight has been lifted and they are so much happier now that it is done.

 

[xipotec]

Personally, I never understood the “show” houses people buy in retirement. If its just 2 people, how much space do you need for your crap?

Sure a spare bedroom , maybe 2 if you have a big family….but a 5000sqft house?

We are doing the downsize as soon as out kids are out.
3 Bdrm, 2 bath, maybe 2000 sqft.

And lots of land for our hobbies.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Personally, I never understood the “show” houses people buy in retirement. If its just 2 people, how much space do you need for your crap?

Sure a spare bedroom , maybe 2 if you have a big family….but a 5000sqft house?

We are doing the downsize as soon as out kids are out.
3 Bdrm, 2 bath, maybe 2000 sqft.

And lots of land for our hobbies.

If you only saw my in-law's 3 car garage no cars have ever been parked there.

Granted they aren't retired but they are in their mid to upper 60s and the amount of crap they have obtained in the last few years far outpaced the crap they obtained in the middle aged years.

Most of it is my mother-in-law got into the habit of antiquing....

But my step-father-in-law has amassed random stuff (tools and other things) that are stored in the large outbuilding (almost large enough to fit their 43 ft 5th wheel)

T

 

[NotUrsula]

Honestly, I don't think we could go down much from what we have and not drive one another nuts, unless the layout was absolutely perfect. We have just about 1100 sq. ft. The house is paid off, so we will not move unless we relocated to another part of the country.
Our DS lives in the Tampa Bay area, and we would like to eventually. DD is still in HS, but wants to live where it is colder, so she is looking further north for college. We should be able to retire around the time she completes undergrad, so that would make a certain amount of sense. If we were to go for the perfect dream house, we would probably wish for around 1900 sq. ft; this place has always been cluttered because there is just not enough room for even the necessary amount of furniture. If we had another few hundred square feet of storage, life would be much tidier.

 

[georgina]

Personally, I never understood the “show” houses people buy in retirement. If its just 2 people, how much space do you need for your crap?

Sure a spare bedroom , maybe 2 if you have a big family….but a 5000sqft house?

We are doing the downsize as soon as out kids are out.
3 Bdrm, 2 bath, maybe 2000 sqft.

And lots of land for our hobbies.

Our townhouse is 2149, seems plenty big so that we are not on top of each other.

 

[OKW8297]

Purging feels good afterward!

We moved from our suburban family home (4-5 BR, 3 bath, 1/2 acre lot) to a 4 story urban townhouse (3 BR, 3.5 bath, no basement storage). Moved to be closer to oldest child and new grandchild. Had to purge quite a lot, though we treat the 4th floor BR as our attic space and only put 1 car in the 2 car garage because of DH's tools and scuba stuff. Not that much smaller square footage-wise but different configuration, and more expensive area. Nice to be able to walk most places and use public transportation, which was non-existent in our old suburb. I can't see us in a condo for many years. Guess it will depend on how our knees feel.

DH is happy to have no lawn maintenance or snow shoveling. I was concerned having people on both sides with shared walls, but no noise issues. Plus I think it keeps our utility costs down. Plenty of natural light.

Our condo is a townhouse and an end unit. I agree about yay to no lawn or shoveling!

 

[dvcgirl67]

We're increasingly leaning towards selling our home (1600-1700 sq ft on three floors)....in five years as we head into retirement. We kicked around keeping it as a rental property, but we really don't want the hassle. Our plan is to sell and spend the first ten years of our retirement moving around the country and world...in small studio/one bedroom apartments. If we hate this lifestyle, we can always settle down somewhere, possibly another country...maybe back here in the states, but not likely in the northeast.

We have a three bedroom home with a dining room and big office on the third floor and a basement full of "stuff"....that we mostly never need. We're just looking to really shed/sell a lot of this stuff. We need each other, one dog, two laptops, two iPads, two iPhones, one guitar for my husband....and we're good to go. We'd look for furnished apartments/studios....and buy little things we may need here and there. Honestly, I can't wait.

 

[Snowysmom]

I am downsizing from a 1900 sq ft house to a 1325 sq ft condo. The house is too big for me and I don't want to be responsible for the maintenance and repairs. The condo is one floor, 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths and is a good size for me and has alot of nice touches. I can "age in place" even though right now I do not consider myself old. I will be on the 4th and top floor so I plan to use the stairs for now to get some exercise. Plus there are walking trails around the complex which I really like. I will be 2 towns over from where I lived since 1978 and raised the family. I can still visit my old haunts.

 

[Disneychick75]

My husband and I were thinking about downsizing. We live in a 4200 sq ft house. Thing is after Hurricane Ida, it became a seller's market in our area which would have been good for us to sell but houses half the size of ours and not as well built would cost as much as we want for our house. So, for now anyway, we're staying put.

 

[MrsPete]

The "how many rooms in your home" got me thinking about this.

We still have one kid at home who will just be starting high school next year, but we are older parents and have already started discussing our future retirement so it's something to consider before too long.

Why do you think downsizing may be a good idea for you and why not?

For us, we will most likely not need the space we have now. It's hard to know for sure, though. If my daughter and son marry and have families I would expect that the family holidays in our home would not continue since they'd probably want to celebrate in their own homes, spend some holidays with the in-laws, etc., but I may still want the space for visits. And what if they don't marry and/or have children? I want to have the space for them for as long as they may want to utilize it.

My other hesitation is yard size. I do not want to be right smack up against the house next to me, and I definitely don't want to share a common wall with another home. I like the large lot size we have now, and I know that smaller homes are generally built on smaller lots.

What I would like to change would be the ability to shut off (or at least reduce) the need to heat/cool a large section of the house. The way our current home is constructed that would be impossible. We have two air-handlers but the house is too open to shut any of it off. Ideally, I'd like to have a couple bedrooms and bathrooms and maybe a playroom (maybe with built-in bunks for grandchildren) in a part of the home with not only its own air-handler, but with doors that can be shut so that we're not constantly heating/cooling that space.

Has anyone else been thinking about this?

We're definitely thinking about this. The only hold-up is that -- with supply chain problems and inflated house costs -- this is a bad time to buy /build a house. Reasons we will downsize:

- We live in 2400 square feet, which is -- as someone said above -- "stupid large". We only use about half the space we have. Honestly, even when the kids were all still at home, we didn't use all the space; my kids called the formal living room "the Christmas tree room".
- I want less to clean. So many things about my current house are too much work; for example, my kitchen cabinets are ornate and collect "grime" in bitty little pretties. This isn't so much about "less stuff" as it's about better arrangement; for example, my laundry and my master closet are literally the whole house apart.
- I want better storage -- it's not that I want to get rid of everything, but I don't have nearly enough closet space here. Maybe that's not exactly downsizing -- it's more like right-sizing.
- Related: I want a house with less maintenance. For example, I want a metal roof that'll outlive me, and I want to arrange the yard so it doesn't require so much edging (which is 10Xs as much effort as mowing).
- Money is a reason. A smaller house with a smaller heating /cooling bill just makes sense for us as we reach retirement. Yes, we've saved, and we have money, but we'd rather use it for traveling and our grandchildren. Smaller houses also come with smaller bills when it's time to replace the roof or the carpet.
- The area where we live was perfect when we moved here, but it's grown bigger /more crowded in the years we've been here. We own land in a quieter place.
- This isn't really related to downsizing, but I want to build a house that's elder-friendly. We're only in our mid-50s, but I was a caretaker to my grandmother as she reached 99 years old, and I saw the things that made her life easier /I saw the simple things that could have made her life easier. Oddly, it's not the things people talk about (narrow doorways and hallways, for example) that made her life difficult; the #1 thing that caused her trouble was transitions in flooring -- I saw the linoleum-to-carpet transition between the kitchen and the family room throw her to the ground more times than I care to recall.
- Also not really downsizing, but I intend to build a bedroom suite that would be suitable for a live-in caretaker someday. An adult-sized bedroom, bathroom, closet that would work for an adult child or grandchild (or a paid caretaker) if I ever need such help.

 

[tcufrog]

I had to make my parents downsize from a 2,400 sq ft ranch to a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment because the house was too much for them to maintain and most of the space was full of junk anyway. It was very difficult to get my mom to purge because she is a sentimental packrat. When they started having health issues I had them move to a 2 bedroom, 1 bath senior living apartment near us where meals were provided because my mom was having trouble cooking food that met my dad's diabetic diet. After my dad passed away, I moved my mom to a 1 bedroom in a brand new active living senior apartment complex because she wanted to have a kitchen again and living surrounded by memories of my dad was too hard for her.

Each move has been hard for my mom to accept but each move has been good for her. She loves her current apartment which is close enough for DS15 to bike to and she's gotten involved in all of the great activities the complex offers such as book club and wine tastings. She's also joined a church and joined a senior continuing education program offered by my alma mater.

I like the fact that she's close by so I can help her if she needs help. Because my dad took care of so much, she doesn't know how to do things like get her car inspected. She also has a lot of major medical problems so I worry about her. My kids love having her nearby so they can spend time with her often and she likes helping out with the kids and attending their various activities such as concerts and other events.

 

[tvguy]

Purging feels good afterward!

Purging feels good afterward, until you have to go out and buy something you got rid of because you thought you would never need it again, but you did.

 

[Darcy03231]

Personally, I never understood the “show” houses people buy in retirement. If its just 2 people, how much space do you need for your crap?

Sure a spare bedroom , maybe 2 if you have a big family….but a 5000sqft house?

We are doing the downsize as soon as out kids are out.
3 Bdrm, 2 bath, maybe 2000 sqft.

And lots of land for our hobbies.

We bought a 4 bedroom/2 bath home as our "retirement" home. We're on a lake so we get plenty of company. We both wanted a place where there was room for our children and grandchildren to stay. With the layout it's pretty easy to block off rooms that we aren't using all the time.

 

[Colleen27]

- I want less to clean. So many things about my current house are too much work; for example, my kitchen cabinets are ornate and collect "grime" in bitty little pretties. This isn't so much about "less stuff" as it's about better arrangement; for example, my laundry and my master closet are literally the whole house apart.

That is one of the things that kills me about my house too, and that I think will be more and more an issue as we age. The two things could not possibly be further apart - one on the north wall on the second floor and the other on the south corner of the basement. I've already told DH that if he gets his way and we stay put, I expect him to take a chunk out of our oversized kitchen (once upon a time it was kitchen, breakfast room and butler's pantry, but a previous owner opened it into a single space) to move the laundry to the main floor, at least. Unfortunately, there's no practical way to move it to the second floor.

Purging feels good afterward, until you have to go out and buy something you got rid of because you thought you would never need it again, but you did.

So far, that's only happened with very minor things - I could have saved a few bucks on used paperbacks when my older kids were in school if I hadn't purged my copies of Gatsby and Hamlet somewhere along the line - but honestly, I'd rather run that risk that have a house full of stuff that we might need someday just piling up and stressing me out today and tomorrow and all the days between now and the day that might never come. I don't purge stuff we use regularly, even if "regularly" is only the once a year or so that we entertain or when we need to do a particular household repair or even something as oddly specific as "when the lilacs are in bloom" (I have a specific Mickey Mouse vase for that occasion), but I refuse to have a closet or cupboard full of things that haven't been touched in years.

 

[Jeannie]

We thought we would be downsizing, but if anything, we might end up going bigger! Most of the smaller houses I've seen have the small rooms to go with them. I want a large, open kitchen and a BIG great room; not separate LR, DR, kit, FR. In addition, most of the smaller homes are in older neighborhoods where not all of the houses have been maintained. I'm looking for pride of ownership. And sidewalks... I want sidewalks, lol. We plan on moving in the next 1-2 years. That would be to a 10-15 year house. At that point our grandkids would be older teens and we'll be approaching 80. At that point we'd look for a condo or some type of independent living situation.

 

[SC Minnie]

We're not planning on downsizing. It's just the 2 of us now but we use every room in the house. We have ~2500 heated Sqft. I work from home most days now and DH is retired. The yard gets him out of the house and out of my way most days.

We have been purging a lot and try to do that every year to keep things from getting out of control. We cleaned out my dad's house, yard, and building after he passed and the amount of 'stuff' was unreal. I don't think he ever got rid of a stitch of clothing. HIs yard looked like Sanford and Son. I don't want my child to have to deal with so much stuff once we pass.

 

[loves to dive]

It is just the two of us and we have a 3 story (if you include the finished basement) 3 bedrooms, bonus room, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, dining room, great room, kitchen and laundry room house. It was just the two of us when we bought it but my son and friends would often come and stay or hubby's family would come and stay. My son has his own home now and hubby's family are too old to travel. It's way too much for us and I would love to downsize. Hubby is fighting it because he is afraid we wouldn't be able to find anything else with a reasonable price right now. We know we can get at least $150,000 more then we paid for the house right now, as is. The mortgage is 75% paid off so, in normal circumstances, we could easily buy something smaller and pay cash for it. These are not normal circumstances right now and when houses come on the market in our area they are way over priced and go just about the day they go on the market. I'm not opposed to moving to a different area/state/country. Hubby, on the other hand, loves this area and does need to be within a 4 hour driving distance of all the offices of the company he works for. He works from home but is head of IT security so does have to travel to the other offices every once in awhile to do upgrades. That limits us to the southeast. I've talked to him about buying a condo. It has it's advantages, no lawn or other upkeep but it also has its disadvantages. The one he is most against is a condo assoc. and it irks him to buy an apartment. The company I work for is shutting down this year so my job isn't an issue, I'm ready to retire. I actually hate the house and hate the area, it wasn't meant to be our forever home but 25 years later and here we are. He doesn't like change and loves this area.