Category Archives: downsizing

The Ultimate Small House: Downsizing to an RV

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Simpler Living Tagged , ,

Starting off your retirement by buying an RV and traveling the country is an old concept; I think that’s where I first began seeing those “We’re Spending Our Kids’ Inheritance” bumper stickers, many years ago. But today, more people (and not just retired people) are actually living in RVs.

While some are forced to do so because of financial problems, an increasing number of people are choosing to live in RVs in order to escape the rat race, the cubicle farm lifestyle, the burden of working to pay for a huge mortgage and/or property tax payment, or for some other reason related to freedom. This article explains this current trend.

Of course, all the principles involved in downsizing to a smaller home apply even more so to moving into an RV. With minimal storage and living space, you’ll have to whittle down your possessions to the bare minimum.

I love living in a small house, though at some point down the road, I might be ready for a small condo. But I don’t think I could live in an RV full-time. There are too many things I like to do that require some space in my house, and I also love having a garden to work in.

But for many people, this is the alternative to spending years of your life commuting to a job you hate in order to pay for housing, clothes, furniture and cars to impress your family and friends, some of whom you may not even like. In fact, while it may be an overreaction to a lifestyle they’re rejecting, it could prove to be the smartest decision they ever made.

In either case, they’re going to learn to pare down their belongings, and that’s a very good skill to have. Not everyone is willing to do it, but it is worth the effort, whether you’re moving to an RV, or just finding a way to make your home feel much bigger.

 

My Book in Print!

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Good News, My Books, Personal, Simpler Living, Writing Tagged ,

The Sentimental Person’s Guide to Decluttering will soon be available in print! I’m so excited 🙂 E-books are great, but now I know how it feels to hold your actual, physical book in your hands and it’s wonderful!

You can hold a copy in your hands, too, just as soon as the book comes out on January 2, 2019. You can even pre-order it from Amazon, I’m told. In any case, many thanks to all of you who bought the book in eBook form; the eBook sales convinced the publisher that a print edition was needed. 

Decluttering, Denial and Retirement

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Debt-Free, downsizing, Retirement, Simpler Living Tagged , , , , ,

(The third of three posts on Decluttering and Denial.)

We were pushing 50 when we were forced into downsizing our lives. Our kids were going out on their own, and while we still had a few years before the younger ones left home, it was clear that we no longer needed our 5-bedroom house. Empty nests don’t need to be that big.

So we discovered the freedom of living small, and we love it. But the act of giving up so many belongings, and moving to a much smaller house (so long, two-story foyer and giant master suite) made perfect sense for a couple heading toward retirement age. That said, accepting that we were that couple was kind of hard. I much preferred to think of the whole exercise as a prudent financial move than something that was appropriate for people our age.

The fact is that most people our age don’t have unlimited funds. Buying ever bigger houses and nicer furniture, and redecorating every few years, is fine for millionaires, but for us normal people, well, we don’t have that kind of money. For those of us who lost livelihoods in the lousy economy of the 2000s, it’s imperative that we live carefully, even frugally, because we don’t have a big, fat retirement account or pension awaiting us. We put everything into our businesses and our families, and now that those are gone, we need to look out for ourselves.

But those who are in denial about the fact that they’re nearing retirement age, and live like they’re still young and amassing houses and possessions, are putting themselves in danger.  It used to be common sense that you paid off your mortgage before retirement so that no matter what happened, you’d always have a roof over your head. Now people are retiring with mortgages, multiple car loans and several credit card accounts nearing their limits. Retiring on a fixed income with that kind of debt load is a recipe for disaster.

Denying what I see in the mirror, that I am getting closer to retirement age, would be an exercise in futility. Time marches on. Those of us who can admit that and make the tough decisions that will minimize future pain (including decluttering and downsizing as well as paying off debt) are doing ourselves a big favor. Those who remain in denial had better have ample retirement funds.

Decluttering, Denial and Aging

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Simpler Living Tagged , , , , , ,

(The second of three posts on Decluttering and Denial.)

As you get older, you don’t need so many belongings to survive, or even just to keep yourself entertained (whether you’re entertained by hobbies, redecorating or recreation.) We learned that when we were forced to downsize our lives several years ago. However, I can’t help but notice that many friends and relatives near our age (or older) continue to live in large houses packed full of stuff. I remember how stifling our clutter burden was before we were finally forced to go through it. I can’t imagine how these people my age live with the burden of all their stuff, most of it packed away where they can’t see it, while the mental weight of knowing it will all have to be dealt with someday weighs on their minds.

The most interesting situations are those of people quite a bit older than me. We know some people who actually bought bigger houses in their old age. Now they struggle to take care of those homes, but won’t give them up. Forced to hire cleaning people, they no longer live with dirt, but the burden of all their possessions continues to haunt them. They’ll complain about it, but they won’t do anything about it. If you offer to help them go through it all, they’ll say no (at least, that’s been my experience.)

I suspect they are in denial about the fact that they are in the final years of their lives. Going through possessions, giving meaningful items to loved ones, giving up items that once meant something but now collect dust….such activities are a little too much for them to think about, because they’ll be forced to confront their own mortality.

Most of us don’t like thinking about dying. But to stick your head in the sand and ignore the burden you’ll leave behind, whether you can handle the idea of dying or not, is unfair to the people you’ll leave behind. They’ll have to go through all of your belongings. In many families, this activity brings out the worst in people, because greed seems to rear its ugly head when there’s an estate to be divided.

The people who accept that they won’t live forever, and who downsize willingly while in their 50s, 60s or later, should be praised by their loved ones for not leaving them a mess to go through someday. When you whittle down your belongings to just what you need, downsize your living space to just what you need, and live simply, you make your life easier, and the lives of your future heirs inestimably easier. That is to be applauded in this world of overstuffed attics, basements, garages and storage units!