hello to all.
We will be downsizing soon. Lots of reasons for it but most are
all for the good...so I am not sad about it. We close on the house
August 31st.
I use to be able to help with the mowing (we mow 17 acres of the nearly 30 acres)
but I can no longer help my DH. Also when we bought this place I did extensive landscaping
quite a bit very far out from the house and watering hose. Who knew 11 years ago
that it would become too much for me d/t sjogrens and RA showing up ??
We will be staying in our current home while the "new" house
has some things changed about it and then we will slowly move in it.
It will probably be spring when we put our current home on the market.
I get fatigued just thinking about all this......the cleaning...packing...
etc.....
Another good point in this is that the house is a cute little 1890 farmhouse
just down the road from us and I will still live on the same road as
our youngest daughter and her husband.
Anyone else move since being diagnosed with sjogrens....and how
did you survive??? Any tips for me?
shelly
We called on our friends and family to help. We had 3 weeks and I took 3 months to recover. After several years we still have not gone through all the boxes.
last week I took 1/2 of my clothes to good will. I do not fit in them or can not wear them since heath issues.
Now on to the sort... donate, keep, or toss. No yard sales for me.
eye2dry,
We downsized 3 years ago. It was quite a huge under-taking. We sold lots of furniture & other things. We too, like Joe, still have some boxes to go through for sure...but it was well worth it.
I loved gardening and miss that. But the reality is that; that had gotten so hard & painful with my hands & fingers, it was not the same anymore. I can do some container gardening on our porch. We gave up a big house for a condo.
All of our landscaping, grass-cutting, snow-blowing & exterior repairs/upkeep are done for us & covered in our monthly condo fee. We have not missed it at all.
I hope everything goes well for you. While it is a big, tiring job, when it is done, it's done!
Good luck.
SjoDry
How timely a post! We have recently decided to sell our house and opt for condo life too. Just the looking around is causing some stress, but I know we are both uncomfortable with the unknown and with leaving our home of 20 years.
We are culling out unnecessary stuff right now and have financing in place, just in case.
I look forward to reading anyone's experiences in moving too, eye2dry. Thanks for this post. Glad to hear you are loving condo life, SjoDry. Joe, I have no plans for a yard sale either.
Hi All,
I would seriously love to be able to downsize myself...I still live in the home where I raised my two sons, who are now both grown and in their twenties. I also lost my beloved dog a year ago, so I am no longer in need of my fairly large fenced in backyard.
However, I feel as if I need to stay put because my elderly parents need my assistance and I live only two minutes away. Also, I work just 5 minutes away and its fantastic not having a long commute to my job, which would only add to my exhausting days.
The yard work such as mowing and raking leaves has not been too bad, except last winter, OMG, the snow was just too much! I live in New England and we got foot after foot of snow all winter long! When I had to snow blow and shovel,...the arthritic pain in both of my hands was absolutely unbearable.
If at all possible, I need to stay put and stick it out working for another 6 to 8 years and then I hope to be able to downsize. At that time, it will be donation and dumpster for me as well! I don't do yard sales either Joe. Good Luck to all of you currently downsizing.
My goal is that within the next 3 years, we join the "Tiny House Nation." We live in an old victorian duplex right now. A lot of run for clutter for two people and a dog. I want a house that is no bigger than two of our rooms now. Seriously. I want a nice outdoor area so we can spend most of our time outside.
We are starting to declutter. Make life very simple is my goal.
Hello eye2dry,
This post is perfect for me to answer, since we just moved and have only been in the "new" house just over 3 weeks. I have survived (still unpacking and arranging) but had days and nights of pure exhaustion, mental and physical.
Our differences: You have time (appears to be several months) to manage what you need to do. I decided to retire in April and we sold our house in June, moved in July.
You are moving close, we moved 4 hours away and hired a moving company (we packed all our own boxes, unpacking too, they just transported the boxes and the furniture. Not sure how you are going to manage your physical move).
Our similarities:
We have hired out the mowing for a couple years now.
I gardened a lot too. Though our land was much much smaller than yours, it was getting to be a lot of work every spring.
Downsizing: we downsized to a house 70% the size of the old one. That's 30% to get rid of more or less, plus all the rooms were overfilled...too many years of collecting things. A lot of things ended up getting moved and we are getting rid of some things now we are here. I am thinking you can avoid that since you have time. Time is on your side.
Even after going through the move, not sure which should be done first.
Are you considering a garage sale? If not that, a donation to a group that can benefit from your things?
We had one since our community had one, but we only had 2 weeks to prepare, and so although we sold a lot, much was missed that could have been sold, and we had to deal with it later, some even now as we try to fit everything in the new house.
That said, this would be my order now....
[before I begin, make time for naps, we napped every day after lunch, and take some days off]
First, go through every thing, every room, drawer, closet, attic, etc. and organize, bag or box up, or whatever it takes to prepare those things to "vanish" from your home, will make it much easier to focus on what you will keep, and aid in cleaning, though I would probably put cleaning late on the schedule. This includes marking furniture as well. We put the going "out" pieces in one room at first, and then in sections in the garage. Our mistake was that we did not have time to thoroughly go through every things. I will plan better if/when there is a next time.
Just do what you can in a day, not more, and try to be realistic. I nearly always overdo, but am learning to stop sooner and rest more. You'll have time to do that.
There are points in the process that will be very very messy, but as you work through it, they get straightened out in the way of your new lifestyle and future. Hang in there.
After deciding what goes and stays and getting those things organized, you can think about packing. Knowing we were having movers to move the boxes, we packed them tightly, which meant we had unrelated items in boxes. HAving more time, and being able to move a short distance, maybe you can avoid that (which becomes a disaster when unpacking). You could move a room at a time or a room over a couple of days.
Leave yourself a week or more for cleaning.
Don't forget the utilities and changes of addresses, that sneaks up on you, but at least being in the same area will help with any misses.
Best of wishes!
Spring
We moved into our current bungalow just over a year ago, from a four bedroom family house. We had lived there 18 years, and had lots of clutter, mostly belonging to our sons who had their own homes. They called the stuff 'treasures' but somehow didn't want to take them away with them. So, over about a year, before putting our home on the market, we had a plan of decluttering and making the house more presentable. And it worked!
We unpacked everything we brought with us within a couple of days, and settled in really well.
After this first year, I have started to get rid of things again - I don 't ever want to have so much stuff that is never used. It's actually quite therapeutic to get rid of some stuff. And usually someone else can make use of it.
Good luck to all you lovely people who have to start this process. If you are as lucky as we have been, it will be well worth it.
Kathyx
Thank you to all who offered advice.
As with lots of you......I am going to de-clutter our new home.
Going to downsize in not only house but in possessions.
I will probably have a garage sale and what is left over go to Goodwill/or Salvation army
With my fatigue and lack of stamina issues, I guess I can count my blessings
that I won't be rushed as in the past moves we made. I admire all of you who had to do it
in a rush.........
take care and thank you.
shelly
Last October I moved into a larger house but I had to downsize into it. Mainly because I then moved my parents into the house (they moved in from FL the day after Christmas) and besides the fact that the three bedrooms on the first floor are "their" rooms, the common rooms (kitchen, living room, and dining room) became a combination of some of my stuff and their stuff.
There are three rooms upstairs that are just mine. Also the house in NC don't have basements and my ohio house did. And I now have to share my garage with a second car and all of my dads tools. So I went from a four bedroom house with basement in ohio to this house in NC. Storage inside my area is a bit sparse since rooms have those partly slanted walls and closets up there are small.
Shelly, funny that you posted about a move. You had some serious acreage at one time. I hope you don't miss it too much. It seems so wonderful to have that much land until you have to keep it mowed.
We are going through a move right now. I am taking a break from packing. Moving is just a crazy time and when you have a disease like this, it's much more difficult. I remember the days when I could work on my feet all day long and get home and work or go to exercise class.
I don't plan on doing any heavy lifting but I've done a ton of housework and packing! I am looking forward to the move because we will be back at the coast again.
Now, if I can just get my pack rat husband to throw away his old VCR tapes of his favorite football games. Those things only last so long.
I've never seen him pull one out and watch one........