Grandpa and I were really among the first. We thought about downsizing before we were eligible for AARP (for the youngsters reading this post, that is age 50). We knew we wanted to be close to the ocean and that is expensive. We knew we would only be able to find something smaller. We were not prepared to pay much more for much less space.
To be honest, we knew we were the brunt of most of our friends’ jokes at the time. We have actually been in our perfect retirement location and home for more than fifteen years. We have watched each of our friends come to the same realization we did. All of a sudden, we are the experts as we listen to our friends lament the expense of downsizing — not only to our pocketbooks but to our brains.
Downsizing means going through a lifetime of possessions and letting go. Our friends wonder how they part with everything they collected on their vast travels. We tell them you don’t have to. We brought all ours. They have been stored in unopened boxes in our storage area that came with our home. We have not opened the boxes in fifteen years. We did get an additional storage facility to handle overflow of grandchildren stuff as they appeared in our world.
Downsizing means facing the reality that the home we thought was priceless is worth a lot less in the current marketplace than we thought. And it could be a problem to unload. Again, we listen and remember.
The experience of downsizing is bittersweet. We know it was the right thing for us. Who needs the maintenance of a big house. But what we underestimated is what we listen to and remember.
We remind our friends that our future is bright and we are different than our parents’ generation.
We are forever young. Downsizing our homes is not downsizing our lives. We are just making room in our brains and homes for more
Joy,
Mema
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