This is such an amazing post. My husband and I moved during lockdown to a red state and used the opportunity to downsize from a 3,200 sq foot two car garage home in a socially cold, sterile suburb to a 1,800 sq foot no garage home in a small, socially active lake community. We had to get rid of half of what we owned, and then after moving realized we needed to downsize some more. (Pro tip: If your house is cluttered and you move into a house half the size and only get rid of half your stuff, your new, smaller home will also be cluttered. You have to get rid of 60-70% to truly declutter when downsizing.)
I'd love to say it all went perfectly and I was no longer decluttering, but it went really well and our quality of life greatly improved. I am still shedding items and am getting better about bringing stuff in. Cleaning the house is so much easier! The only real negative is we can't host large groups anymore because we don't have the space and some people have a negative perception of us. You would be surprised how many people think we have money troubles now and are hiding it. They can't accept that we would buy less house than we could afford on purpose!
This is such an amazing post. My husband and I moved during lockdown to a red state and used the opportunity to downsize from a 3,200 sq foot two car garage home in a socially cold, sterile suburb to a 1,800 sq foot no garage home in a small, socially active lake community. We had to get rid of half of what we owned, and then after moving realized we needed to downsize some more. (Pro tip: If your house is cluttered and you move into a house half the size and only get rid of half your stuff, your new, smaller home will also be cluttered. You have to get rid of 60-70% to truly declutter when downsizing.)
I'd love to say it all went perfectly and I was no longer decluttering, but it went really well and our quality of life greatly improved. I am still shedding items and am getting better about bringing stuff in. Cleaning the house is so much easier! The only real negative is we can't host large groups anymore because we don't have the space and some people have a negative perception of us. You would be surprised how many people think we have money troubles now and are hiding it. They can't accept that we would buy less house than we could afford on purpose!