Downsizing - 2 yrs and counting
I'm two years and one day away from my planned retirement, and transitioning into full-timing. My wife and I realize that we've got a LOT of downsizing to do as we'll move from a 4 bedroom house to a ...
Forum Discussion
If you think about it, you really only live in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom. You have two years - get rid of the stuff in all the other rooms first. Get rid of the stuff piled in the attic or the basement. That should keep you busy for six months. Then start whittling down the duplicates and triplicates you have.
The first, most important thing: stop buying stuff!
I quit my job on June 30 and renovated the house and got rid of stuff for six months. January 26, we went full time. We also had a four bedroom house. After the first two rooms were emptied and painted, I used one for storage stuff and one for full time stuff. Any time I noticed the pile in either getting too big, I went in and parsed what was needed vs. what was wanted. Moving the stuff around, particularly the stuff destined for the RV, helped pare down what was left - all that weight and bulk had to be carried...
We have now been fulltiming for 1.5 years. We have space and weight to carry more stuff but I often think we have too much stuff. We have stuff we haven't used in more than a year! So we will pare down some more before we hit our second year.
As for an exit plan, we sold our house after fulltiming for six months - we wanted to make sure we liked it. We did. We put the profits away for a rainy day - the day we decide to stop full timing.
We don't miss our stuff. Everything we need we have. Replacing the stuff we don't need - household furniture - won't be too expensive; people buy new furniture every 10-15 years anyway. Our storage stuff fits in a small closet in a relative's house. Most of it is photographs/keepsakes and power tools.
The first, most important thing: stop buying stuff!
I quit my job on June 30 and renovated the house and got rid of stuff for six months. January 26, we went full time. We also had a four bedroom house. After the first two rooms were emptied and painted, I used one for storage stuff and one for full time stuff. Any time I noticed the pile in either getting too big, I went in and parsed what was needed vs. what was wanted. Moving the stuff around, particularly the stuff destined for the RV, helped pare down what was left - all that weight and bulk had to be carried...
We have now been fulltiming for 1.5 years. We have space and weight to carry more stuff but I often think we have too much stuff. We have stuff we haven't used in more than a year! So we will pare down some more before we hit our second year.
As for an exit plan, we sold our house after fulltiming for six months - we wanted to make sure we liked it. We did. We put the profits away for a rainy day - the day we decide to stop full timing.
We don't miss our stuff. Everything we need we have. Replacing the stuff we don't need - household furniture - won't be too expensive; people buy new furniture every 10-15 years anyway. Our storage stuff fits in a small closet in a relative's house. Most of it is photographs/keepsakes and power tools.
