Downsizing
 

Now that I've made the decision to move I'm overwhelmed with the idea of trying to fit 27 years worth of 'stuff' from my current home into half the space with no basement or attic I know there's room above the garage but no way am I climbing those stairs - anything stored in there would never be seen again! To complicate things I just inherited a very large collection of antique glassware that I would like to keep. So my question is - how do you decide what to keep, how it will fit and what to do about storage? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It is a hard decision and I had 43 years worth of stuff and a house twice the size of my new home. I really had to grit my teeth and decide what I really wanted to keep. Kids only wanted a few things. I did get rid of my 12 place settings of China that I really haven't used that much in the past 8 years. I sold stuff, donated stuff and gave stuff away. I tried to be practical but was hard at times. So my best advice is figure out what is really important and you truly want and get rid of the rest of it. Even so it seems like I am bringing a lot of stuff with me and may get rid of more once it is all unpacked.

Good Luck.

We am going through that right now. We already own a home in TV and it looks like we will have to try to sell it furnished, because we have this other house full of furniture here....Oh...I have listened to a lot of you go through it and you are so right,it isn't easy.

Downsizing
 

Mikark-
Don't overtoss like I did. There have been several things I wish I still had and can't replace.
My suggestion is if you are doubtful bring them with you. There are many consignment furniture and accessory shops here that can sell them for you if you change your mind about keeping them once you have moved in.
I used my garage for storage until the dust finally settled.

I used the five second rule. If I couldn't think of where to store or use it within 5 seconds, it went into either the sell, donate or dump it pile. I don't regret any of my decisions.

Welcome, Taylor, to perhaps the biggest challenge relative to moving to The Villages. We had already downsized twice prior to moving here so we had a little experience so we opted to rent space in a climate controlled storage facility. We did not feel any pressure to make an immediate decision. If there was any doubt, it went into storage. We soon whittled the "stuff" down to a point where it would fit in a smaller unit and then we finally fit the remaining "must keep stuff" into our house.

The cost was well worth it. As someone else suggested, don't over toss.

I have a friend who had boxes built between the studs around the ceiling of her living and dining room for her antique dishes. The boxes are pretty flush with the wall and she has some low watt lighting in them so they can shine. This said she has a cleaning service and doesn't have to dust them herself.

Several good ideas - thanks so much for your thoughts. I like the storage facility idea - then I can see how things fit once I get there. Does anyone have thoughts on moving vs buying new furniture? I don't have a strong attachment to what I have now and I like the bright airy look I see in the models. Another question (slightly off-topic) - I get the impression that if you build you don't have the option for modifications. Can anyone comment on their experiences? Enough questions for now - Thanks to all!

Downsizing
 

We just moved from "the north" and after 23 years accumulated A LOT. We moved the same stuff several times and this time decided to part with it before we moved here. We did ship about 10 boxes of "stuff" but no furniture. We found beautiful things, from our fellow Villagers and nearby neighbors, who answered our ad "looking for gently used, newer furniture" and love our bargins! The furniture we got is more appropriate to this house and area - no regrets; we have memories of the our Ethan Allen, Pennsylvania House furniture, etc. and that's just fine with us!

Good luck and welcome!

taylor -
i would have no qualms about buying all new for my retirement home - the move provides a new beginning and needs only the most cherished memories for my foundation. i would only hope that i had amassed sufficient capital at my yard sales to shop as i would like.

when we bought our snowbird nest in t v, we furnished anew - only duplicate goods such as small electronics, kitchen wares and telephones came to fl with us. it was a ball having a blank canvas to develop! prior to our closing i posted here to ask where the members shopped for and bought their furnishings - and i used that info to research the stores on-line. where a store had no website, i called it to ask which lines of furniture they sold so that i could go to the manufacturer's site to look at thier goods. by the time we got to t v i had selected furniture for each of our rooms - we went to the multiple stores, viewed my selection, bought something entirely different and arranged for delivery as of our closing date!

but may i offer you a couple of suggestions when it comes to the decisions re downsizing...after you have trashed/donated/sold whatever and you are ready to store the questionables and must haves, place the items for a particular box around/in front of the box and snap a photo of the contents-to-be...said photo can then be printed out and taped to the outside of the box with clear packing tape...thus providing a quick reference to the contents when you start to wonder if the item you want was packed in the bedroom carton or the guest room carton or miscellaneous 1 carton. it also helps you to set the priorities of carton unpacking or storing.

sorry for running on so - but my television fried last nite so i am hanging around the 'puter until i get sleepy.

Great idea about taking a picture - wish we had thought of that before we packed 20+ boxes of collectibles from my mom's home before she went into Assisted Living 5 years ago. The descriptions we wrote on the boxes seemed sufficient at the time, but now...Oh, well - it will seem like one big Christmas morning when I open them.

Same story for us...
 

We recently purchased one of the models, in St. Charles and it is FULL of furniture. Unfortunately, we have furniture on two continents, since we are currently in Germany.

Re-Tire..you have the right idea. We went the auction route, when we had to clean out my folks house. They took every single thing in the house and I do mean everything. Had an auction, sold it and sent me my portion of the proceeds. Nothing could be any easier.

It will be tough to part with some things, but it make us really think about what we have that's important and the rest goes..

Can you say new start. ???

I have a cousin who went the auction route several years ago and is so happy she did it. If I could talk DH into it, I'd take a very few things down to TV when we move full-time and auction the rest. We've lived in the same place for 28 years and have accumulated way too much "stuff".

This seems to be everyone's biggest challenge. I know it will be mine. Maybe buy two homes? :smiley:

been there, done that.
 

What we did was sell, give away, donate or throw out anything we have not used in the last year even if it was brand new and never used. Even then we still ended up with two extra Televisions and enough winter clothes to allow us to go two weeks without wearing the same clothes twice.

Round two occurred once our garage in our new TV home was filled up and we had no room for even one car or a golf cart. This time we got rid of anything we did not miss or need, had no room for or scratched our heads and wondered why we brought those items in the first place.

The funny part is that while we had too much of many things, we did not have enough of others. We left behind a lot of funiture as we thought our CYV was small. When we got here we discovered that although we had fewer rooms than our last house, the rooms we had were larger than the rooms we left (at least in our model). We also had more areas screaming for something to be placed there. We also left behind a lot of paintings as every wall in the house had a painting or two or three on it. Now we are short a few pictures and have to buy some.

We are now waiting for our attic stairs to be put in so that we can store our Xmas decorations and other seasonal items in the attic. I looked around it standing on my ladder and it is not too bad if you put a floor down in it. But, as the original poster stated, once something is put up there, it stays there forever. We have did the same thing with our last house. I never learn. Consider it a black hole for the things you cannot let go of.

Somehow throughout this, my closet still contains 15 long sleeve shirts, winter boots and heavy duty hooded sweat shirts. I think I will weed those out as soon as I get rid of the two pair of long underwear in my dresser drawers. :icon_wink: