Downsizing?

[Janice]

I've talked to friends and family and want to throw this out to the Specktra community as well.

I'd like to hear from people who have "downsized".

My story:

My husband and I bought a home in our mid 20's, it's a great house in an "okay" neighborhood that we got a fantastic deal on. I love my home, but over the years many factors both environmental and personal have changed. Several times over the past 18 months we discussed moving from the small city our house is located in to more metropolitan area. We also discussed moving out of state, but that's too costly so we're considering moving back into town (Austin).

Moving back into town would be great because we wouldn't feel so isolated from our family / friends and also because my husband would have a larger employment marketplace. Most importantly, it would allow us to get back on top of our finances by lowering our cost of living (things are pretty tight for us right now). Aside from our other financial obligations, the utilities on a large house are really hurting as my husband is currently under-employed.

My plan is to rent out our current home and move into a apartment. My brain is totally okay with the logistics of this, but I harbor concern over halving the amount of living space I've grown accustomed to. I also practically have a panic attack every time I think of a renter trashing our home!

So please, if you've downsized from a house to an apartment or simply downsized in some way share your story so that I know this can be done and I just need to stop obsessing over it. What difficulties did you encounter? How did you deal with selling your furniture / furnishings that you knew would not fit into apartment living? Did your long term plan for downsizing work for you?

If you've "downsized" your lifestyle in any manner, I want to hear your story too!

 

[Junkie]

I downsized when I moved in with my boyfriend. I went from having a very large 2 bedroom apartment with en suite storage & private bath in the master bedroom on the first floor of an apartment building (complete with large balcony and huge windows) to a very small sardine can 1-bedroom in a basement. Heck, I even had a convenience store downstairs in the basement! THAT was awesome.....

He's a pack-rat and so am I. I have a lot of the amenities that came with living alone while he rented a room and lived out of storage containers before me.

I'm not gonna lie - sharing space and moving into such a small place has driven me crazy over the past 2 years, but I've stuck it out. We had to get rid of some furniture - like the entire kitchen and dining area - because the one here is so small. We eat off an island in the kitchen with one stool, so we pretty much eat on our own at our computer stations. Having people over is next to impossible and the place has to be spotless before I allow anyone to come in. Its THAT small!

We also have only 4 windows in the whole place and I yearn sunshine and that connection with being able to see LIFE outside haha.

The only real upside was being closer to downtown. I'm a 10 min bus ride and 20 min subway ride closer to work, so I get to sleep in a bit. I can relate to that the most. And the lacking space.

But I can totally see how you might be afraid of some nightmare tennant trashing your house. Just remember to check references and do a credit check if possible. Most people don't do this if they are private renters. It also helps to rent to someone you know or atleast know mutually through someone else who can vouche for them.

Good luck!

 

[anita22]

Is there any particular reason why you're planning to rent out your current home, rather than selling it? Perhaps you could reinvest the money in a different property? (Not sure how much you'd be charging in rent - but properties can vary widely in terms of the return on investment, so it could be worth considering what your other options are?). I think mentally it could help if you know that tenants are residing in a designated rental property - rather than your beloved home!

In terms of "downsizing", I think as long as you have a positive attitude and are able to let go of things you haven't used in a while, you should be fine. I've had to "downsize" a couple of times now - first when hubby and I moved across the globe (we sold all our furniture and just shipped over clothes & essentials) and more recently we shifted into a much smaller flat. Yes it was sad to see some things go (hubby still occasionally gets a bit grumpy even after 2 years, that he couldn't bring his beautful set of wine glasses over to the UK), but you just have to tell yourself it's just, well, stuff. Decide what's truly dear to you and hang on - the rest can go! (Having said that, I did gift or sell some of the more "special" items to friends and family though - so at least I knew it was going to a good home!)

As long as you can tell yourself that the positives outweigh the negatives, I think that makes it easier - for instance, the commute from our new place to my work is 40mins shorter each way than it used to be! So even though it's smaller, at least I have way more time to myself. Mentally that makes it easier to deal with.

Be ruthless with getting rid of things you haven't used in a while - it can actually be quite cleansing. And lastly, you just have to think about smart solutions for small spaces - I'm surprised at how well I've been able to organise my things once I actually put some time and thought behind it (and with very little expenditure!).

Best of luck...!

 

[LMD84]

me and my hubby haven't downsized yet. However i understand how you feel about getting some 'trashers' to rent out your home. perhaps you could ask around with some friends to see if you or they know anybody that would want to rent it? That way you'd sort of know the people and hopefully friends would only reccomend decent people. Also try and see if you can do visits on your house every 4 months or so just to make sure things are ticking over ok with the people who are renting it

Good luck with everything and keep us posted!

 

[Susanne]

I lived in a big apartement with my ex-boyfriend. This was the perfect apartement for me - the rooms were well-spaced, we had a nice balcony with lots of sun, a new bathroom and I had a great office. Lots of my money went there.

Then I decided to leave him in 2007 - which was totally right! - and I thought: You can't stay just because of the apartement!

So I moved in a smaller apartement I could afford on my own. I have a small bedroom and bathroom now and my desk in my living room.

At first it was not easy (not just the change of the place of living) - but meanwhile my new small apartement is furnished very well - I have made best use of my space

and I enjoy it here!

I am really organized with all my stuff - everything has its place now. I had to give up some old furniture because it was not practical anymore - oh, but my big wardrobe is in my living room now, as well

I could not give it up. This way I have space for my makeup area in my bedroom

So "downsizing" is a question of organizing I think - but it is worth it!

 

[blazeno.8]

I used to live in a single studio (I guess it was a studio by a legal technicality, but it felt much larger) and now I'm in a unit that is a double. Needless to say it's been quite the change going from having my own living room, fairly spacious kitchen (with fairly modern appliances), hallway, and bathroom, to just having a small bedroom to myself. I now share the bathroom, and even though I love to cook the stove/oven isn't as reliable as what I once had (some of the burners don't work or they tend to only burn on high). Despite this, I'm quite happy with the place. It's different, and it took some getting used to, but I like that I have to pay less rent and I'm in a safer area than I was before. I guess for me it's not just downsizing, but moving to a safer area and having someone else who lives with me.

 

[Jessica0984]

About two years ago I got married and moved in with my husband. My mom passed away earlier that year and since my dad is disabled he moved in with us as well. We went from having two seperate apartments to just having one space for basically two families. We had to look at everything we had since we had doubles of everything and choose which one of the doubles we wanted to keep. We even got a storage unit for things we didn't want to take up space in the apartment. Like seasonal decorations for christmas etc. I was really worried about doing this but since the apartments floorplan is so open it worked out. It even has a screened porch which I love. I think overall it was a good experience for me. I learned to only keep things that are dear to me and that downsizing isn't the worst thing in the world. The best thing that came out of it is that my husband and I are building our house right now! So even though we are going to have all of this extra space we are still going to streamline our clutter because there really isn't no need to keep things you aren't going to use. The best piece of advice I could give you is that look for an open floorplan and I think you would enjoy it since you would be closer to family. A support system is nice to have. Good Luck!