![\"Townhouse](\"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-15-at-12.49.50-PM.png\")
<\/h2>\nWhen we downsized seven years ago from the family home in the suburbs to a townhouse in the city, we thought about it long and hard for over a year.\u00a0 My husband mentioned the idea of downsizing to me, and at first, I was absolutely insulted.\u00a0 How could he even think that I would consider moving from a home that held so many memories and that I loved so much?\u00a0 Why would I possibly want to give up a yard that overlooked a small lake, my flowers, the space, and our neighbors?\u00a0 On the practical side, though, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.\u00a0 A smaller house would mean less upkeep, and living in a townhouse would mean no lawn work.\u00a0 For two people who travel as much as we do, those to factors helped me buy into the idea.\u00a0 After all, I love change, I love an adventure, and taking on a new lifestyle would offer both of those things.\u00a0 Over the course of a year, downsizing started to seem like a good idea.\u00a0 Why hadn’t I thought of it?\u00a0 We decided we would only move if we found a place we both really liked, and we also decided to not force the process.\u00a0 We would just let things fall into place, and they did.\u00a0 We put our house on the market and had a contract within two weeks.\u00a0 We found three townhouses that we liked and rated them from favorite to least favorite, and we were able to buy the favorite.\u00a0 It all just happened very smoothly.\u00a0 Now, if you have been thinking about down-sizing, there are a few factors you need to consider before taking the plunge.<\/p>\n
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<\/h2>\nThis is a question that all people involved need to ask themselves, and here are some points to consider?\u00a0 Are you at a point where you are ready to simplify your life?\u00a0 Are you empty nesters?\u00a0 Do you have frequent out-of-town guests who spend the night?\u00a0 Do you have hobbies that require the space your current house offers?\u00a0 Do you enjoy gardening and doing lawn work?\u00a0 Do you travel a lot?\u00a0 Do you like to entertain large groups?\u00a0 Do you have a lot of grandchildren who visit frequently?\u00a0 The answers to these questions might make you realize you need to stay where you are.\u00a0 On the other hand, they might tell you it’s okay to move to a smaller location.<\/p>\n
![\"Townhouse](\"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-01-at-11.31.09-AM.png\")
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No matter how much you love your stuff, some of it has to go.\u00a0 Part of downsizing is getting rid of items that won’t fit into your new place.\u00a0 For instance, if you have family heirlooms, would you be willing to give them up?\u00a0 Would you be willing to sell things or donate them?\u00a0 Do you have family members who will take the extra stuff? For me, getting rid of stuff was very liberating.\u00a0 I love an empty drawer, and having less belongings to deal with made me happy.<\/p>\n
![\"Townhouse](\"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-01-at-11.30.55-AM.png\")
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Downsizing requires more than just getting rid of stuff.\u00a0 It requires getting rid of memorabilia that has no financial worth but means the world to you.\u00a0 Have you saved your children’s school work and art projects all of these years?\u00a0 If you downsize, you will have to let go of those things.\u00a0 You will say good-bye to your children’s bedrooms, the growth chart on the closet door, the trophies and game balls that they earned.\u00a0 Perhaps your children will want some of those items.\u00a0 Let them take what they want, and then get rid of the rest.\u00a0 By all means, don’t rent a storage space so you can keep the stuff.\u00a0 Part of downsizing is simplifying.<\/p>\n
![\"Townhouse](\"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-01-at-11.33.27-AM.png\")
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Downsizing is a lot of work – both physical and mental.\u00a0 When we downsized, we also decided to completely remodel the townhouse before we moved it.\u00a0 That meant we had two moves.\u00a0 One from our house to an apartment during the renovation, and then one from the apartment to our townhouse when the remodeling was complete.\u00a0 It was a lot of work. To help save money, I did all of the packing so we only had to pay movers. \u00a0 It took hours and hours.\u00a0 The mental part for me was living in limbo for a while.\u00a0 I am a nester, and living in a furnished apartment with things that didn’t belong to me was a mental challenge, but I made it.\u00a0 Knowing it was temporary really helped.<\/p>\n
![\"Townhouse](\"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-01-at-11.28.39-AM.png\")
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Although this should not be a determining factor, your life will be a whole lot easier if your family is on board with your decision to downsize.\u00a0 They will be letting go of memories, too.\u00a0 So, it might be easier for all of you if you first let them know you are thinking about it rather than just springing this big move on them.\u00a0 Our children were all for our decision.\u00a0 On the other hand, my mother, who was 85 at the time and lives eight hours away, was totally against it.\u00a0 She is a woman of the Great Depression and couldn’t understand why we would move from something big to something small.\u00a0 She created a whole lot of unnecessary stress for me because she didn’t want me to let go of things even though the move didn’t affect her at all.<\/p>\n
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Although there might be other factors to consider if you are thinking about downsizing, these are the biggies.\u00a0 You all have been along for the ride when we moved in to our townhouse (we had just started the blog back then), and now again when we are moving to another<\/a>.\u00a0 Let us know if you have considered downsizing and what factors are helping you make the decision to go or to stay where you are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Take care.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we downsized seven years ago from the family home in the suburbs to a townhouse in the city, we thought about it long and hard for over a year.\u00a0 My husband mentioned the idea of downsizing to me, and at first, I was absolutely insulted.\u00a0 How could he even think that I would consider […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37965"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38000,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965\/revisions\/38000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}