Is It Time for Me to Downsize?
August 21, 2020 | CC Young General
While embracing change isn’t always the easiest thing to do, it can often lead to exciting new chapters in your life. One of the biggest and most common changes you may experience as you get ready to retire is downsizing from your home of many years. This can feel intimidating at first, with many details to sort through and determine – what to do with all the furniture, artwork, and other household possessions.
Fortunately, there are many benefits and perks to the downsizing process. In fact, you may not even realize how much your current home is holding you back from embracing a newfound hobby or spending more time with your grandchildren. Try to keep an open mind about the idea of downsizing and remind yourself that change can be a good thing.
How to Start Your Downsizing Journey
While everyone’s downsizing journey is unique, there are some general steps that seniors tend to follow to begin the process:
- Recognize Your Feelings. One of the first steps you can take toward the downsizing journey is to recognize and accept how you feel about the situation. This is especially important if you’re feeling hesitant. Acknowledge your emotions, stress, or concerns and have honest conversations with family members. Once you resolve these feelings, you can focus on the benefits and enjoy this new and exciting chapter of your life.
- Focus on What You’ll Gain. Consider the new location and focus on everything you will gain. For instance, if you sell your home and move into a senior living community, like CC Young, you’ll adopt a new, active lifestyle that includes various amenities, services, and activities.
- Enlist Family and Friends for Support. Downsizing is a large task to approach on your own. Instead of trying to manage it alone, ask family members and friends to help you sort and organize your belongings. Storage facilities and downsizing professionals can be a big help. These can simplify the process and ease your downsizing timeline and can also serve as quality time with your children, grandchildren, and loved ones.
5 Downsizing Tips for Seniors
As you make this transition and get started on your downsizing journey here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Declutter Your Space. Begin with decluttering your current space. Take a room-by-room approach. Sort through items in the spare bedroom one day, then move on to the living room the next day, getting rid of anything you aren’t using or has no emotional attachment.
- Organize Your Belongings. After you’ve decluttered your space, begin to organize your belongings in boxes that are labeled for donating, selling, and discarding. This will help you downsize and organize the items you’re taking with you.
- Become Familiar with Your New Home. An important part of the downsizing process is becoming familiar with your new home. Learn what amenities come with the new space, the size of the new space, and how much room you’ll have for your current belongings. If you’re moving into a smaller space, knowing the dimensions will help you determine what you will and will not bring with you in the move.
- Consider Getting Professional Moving Help. Downsizing is a huge task and it’s okay to seek the assistance of professional services along the way. Storage facilities, downsizing, and moving professionals can be a big help in easing the process and reducing stress – for everyone involved.
- Give Yourself Time. Downsizing is a lengthy process and it can be very emotional to go through all of your belongings. Set aside ample time to go through all of your items and make thoughtful decisions about whether or not you should keep certain items when you move.
Find Your New Home in CC Young’s Independent Living Community
As senior living experts, we know it can be emotional to make the move from your home of many years into a new community and we are dedicated to making it seamless, comfortable, and welcoming for you and your family to make CC Young your new home.
The CC Young community offers three unique Independent Living residential options-The Overlook, The Asbury, and The Thomas. Each provides maintenance-free living and gives you the freedom to live an active “lock-and-go” lifestyle.
To learn more, contact us or call us at 214-304-2828 or visit our website.
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