Why or why not would you consider downsizing?

[georgina]

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.

It's been a year, we mostly got rid of furniture and knick knacks, extra sets of dishes, random junk, etc, nothing so far has come up. DH was able to borrow a table saw from a neighbor when he needed to cut something.

 

[tvguy]

It's been a year, we mostly got rid of furniture and knick knacks, extra sets of dishes, random junk, etc, nothing so far has come up. DH was able to borrow a table saw from a neighbor when he needed to cut something.

That's great. Seems that is the biggest issue folks face after purging, something they didn't keep is now needed.

 

[Disneychick75]

It's been a year, we mostly got rid of furniture and knick knacks, extra sets of dishes, random junk, etc, nothing so far has come up. DH was able to borrow a table saw from a neighbor when he needed to cut something.

We've been going through our house. So far, we've donated to Habitat at least 30 contractor size bags of items plus furniture. I told my husband our slab must have risen 5 inches!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

We downsized in 2018 and it was the best thing we ever did. We went from 6800 square feet to 3100 square feet. We could have gone smaller, but I wanted each child to have their own bedroom. Most of our living is on one floor, but we do have a lower level walkout with a huge media room that we love We have an HOA and irrigation system and all I do is water the two ferns I put on the front porch. We leave for our lake house on Thursday night and come back Sunday night with no worries and no maintenance to worry about. The house was more expensive, but our living expenses are much less so in the end it will all be a wash.

 

[disneyseniors]

Well, we have downsized already for many of the reasons others have mentioned. We are older, retired, and both can't do many steps now. We have a ranch style house 2 BR and 1 and 1/2 baths, no basement, large room for my sewing room and den, and attached garage on 5 wooded acres outside of town. Since there is no basement, we have a mud room and a storage shed on the property. My husband has a huge work shop with a lean to storage area for his extra wood, etc.
We do all the lawn maintenance and house maintenance too. The drive way is long and curved.
We bought this house because we loved the landscaping, not especially for the house, though it is nice. It is beautifully landscaped which we love, and only about one acre is cleared, so alot of privacy.
We are trying to clean out our many years of stash, but it is hard to do. I keep thinking what our kids would have to do with all our stuff, so am systematically getting rid of it.
I love reading what others are doing.
As far as going to less bedrooms? Just because you are less people in the house, doesn't mean kids and grandkids and great grandkids won't come to visit.

 

[Stratman50th]

As far as going to less bedrooms? Just because you are less people in the house, doesn't mean kids and grandkids and great grandkids won't come to visit.

Our last house was a 4 level split including the basement. Four bedrooms, 3 bath on the top floor. Living room, dining room, kitchen with eat-in on the main floor.
Three steps down to the family room and through a door to an equal sized walk in storage room, laundry room, an office my wife used and a powder room. Downstairs was the semi finished basement.
Our new house is all on one floor. Two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Could have/should have added the office/small bedroom. We have had enough guests at one point where that third room would have come in handy. (To your point on family visiting). The one advantage we have is a large garage attached to the house where our RV is parked. There's water, sewer and electric in the garage and we used the RV as overflow. My daughter used that and basically had her own condo. Only down side is not many windows to the outside.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We had two kids, so our house was 3 bedrooms. 1 bedroom has become the office and the other will be a guest room. I'm not sure sizing down makes sense. Besides, I hate moving and stuff.