Downsizing

6 years ago, I downsized from 4 bedrooms to a tiny cottage - 2 beds, sitting room and dining kitchen. There is an outbuilding that used to be a henhouse, containing a separate outdoor loo that I've converted for use as a potting shed with a sink. It's absolute heaven - very little housework to do and easy to maintain, but I have still have gardens to enjoy and it backs on to a large wood.

It was relatively easy to do. I left some furniture for the new owners of my big house, and my children all took their beds an wardrobes to their own houses. Got rid of the mortgage when I retired, which took some doing, but the running costs are so low.

I had a new kitchen so I could fit in a large farmhouse table and get lots of people round it, as I didn't want to lose out with having family round for dinner. I had some other structural work done and now it has my stamp on it, and I love living here. Go for it - life's too short to clean rooms you don't need

We planned to down size but failed! We moved last July from our family home, a We looked at small and quaint cottages, modern 'estate' houses, 1960's town houses, bungalows, 1930's semis but we felt comfortable as soon as we looked around this place.
I think if you feel comfortable when you see a place then you will make it your home.
Think our big adjustment was moving to a new town and maybe moving to a similar style house helped. If you are staying in the same town maybe that will help the adjustment to a different house? Memories will be connected to your current home but sometimes that 'life laundry ' effect of a house move helps you to keep and highlight the things that really matter and to get rid of the unimportant clutter. Good luck in the decision

teddymac We had to downsize from a large farmhouse to a small cottage style bungalow when DH was made redundant as the house went with his job as a farm manager. A much smaller property was all we could afford but we haven't regretted it for a moment. To begin with it felt like we were permanently living in a holiday cottage. I could do the housework in half the time. Once the novelty wore off I started to worry about where everyone would sleep if we wanted to have family get-togethers but somehow everyone squashes in - the best invention for me has been the Eazi-bed. Don't worry about the work that needs doing just think of the money you'll be saving not having to maintain a large property.

Like merlotgran the get-togethers have to be more creative. I have a trundle mattress on wheels that slides under a single bed, and a sofa that turns into a bed, so people can always be put up at short notice. If a couple are stopping, they can have my room and I'll use the single.

And, yes, it's just like living in a holiday cottage but with all the mod cons.

Like when, I downsized from a big 4-bed detached house to a two up two down end terrace with a good-sized garden. I have never been keen on housework and always been adept at accumulating clutter. And after almost 12 years I find myself needing to de-clutter again. Help!

nanaej - same here. Failed totally lol - but we just love space! Only clean and heat the part of the house we use- and then have a quick clean and tidy before visitors come to use the rest.

We have been trying to down size a little while now, we almost got there once only to have it with drawn at their end at the last minute but we are over that now. We are carrying on looking but at the moment we have had no luck

We are down sizing as we need to release capital to boost the pension - which was the plan when we brought the property 27 years ago. Hopefully will be moving within the next few weeks. Having lived here so long had to have the biggest clear out ever. Sentiment had to go out of the window.

OH still working (aged 67 and hopes to go on for another couple of years). We are going to spend some of the capital doing the place up, adding new kitchen/diner etc.

We live in a small hamlet and are only moving 1.5 miles but it is back into our home town which will be easier once we can no longer drive - family nearby, public transport, doctors, shops etc.

Really looking forward to it.

PennySue tell me about it! The clear out, I mean. We've done it, and are now waiting...

Ariadne know what you mean - waiting is the worst, not sure how much to sort out and get rid of, trying to work out in my mind where I am going to put all my crafting goodies, whether to order the shed yet. Keep telling myself if it is meant to happen it will!!

It is a very stressful time..our moving date moved several times but we made it!! The sorting and trips to charity shops, tips and evenings on freecycle kept me distracted!

We too are waiting to move - hopefully at the end of the month. We have had a major de-clutter and have tried very hard to recycle as much as we can - I'm feeling very green as a result! Just the garden shed to have a second look at - DH did the first session on it and I just know he will have missed more of what I call "rubbish" and he calls "important accessories".

We are moving to a smaller house and I am determined to keep it clutter free. The removers are going to pack what we can't manage and that will be a big help. I'm not looking forward to the whole process though and will be very glad when we are actually installed!

It's just so stressful waiting for the actual completion date to be agreed and we only have a chain of 4! Must be he**ish with a longer one!

I'd like to downsize but my house is a sort of 'second size up' property. If I sold it I would have to buy a house that would be a quarter of the size but would probably only be @ £50,000 less. By the time I'd paid for removal costs, solicitors fee's etc I wouldn't make much money, and I'd have to do up another property to my taste. If I moved to the next vilage to be closer to my daughter I'd have to pay a lot more for a property. It's well insulated, reasonably well maintained, and the neighbours are lovely as well. So, what I'm doing at the moment is tidying it up so it would be ready to sell if necessary, but I can enjoy living in it [I'd hate to spend money on it doing it up just to put on the market]. Mind you, sometimes I'd like to go home to a different house and have that 'being on holiday' feeling. And I've always wanted to live in a cottage, although I sometimes find old properties a bit spooky. Difficult decision to make, isn't it.

I moved to release some cash and get some peace and quiet out of Oxford - but I upsized - unintentionally, I just liked the house!

Downsizing before you're past it is a very good idea. It's very traumatic the older you get so my advice is to do it sooner rather than later. We did it at the early age of 60 because we wanted to stop working and to beable to pay off the mortgage. All of our family say that we were very sensible and look on in envy - ones who now are older and contemplating what to do.
The big plus of doing this is having a good sort out of all your possessions and drastically cutting them down.
We've always loved our outdoor space so looked for a garden flat. We are extremely happy with our situation and released a good chunk of capital with which to enjoy life as neither of us have an occupational pension.

P.S I would just like to add that we only moved threequarters of a mile from our old house. Sometimes it is not helpful to move near to siblings as this can be a disappointment - they lead very busy lives and may not beable to give the time to you that you expected.

We downsized from a large three bed detached in essex to a medium sized three bed semi in North Yorkshire -not good - we fell over each other all the time, the villagers hated us and we felt very isolated and a long way from family. So we came down to the East Midlands, got a larger house a new 4 bed detached for a quite a bit less money put on a conservatory and now we have more space and can give each other elbow room. We love the town and are nearer our families. If I was left alone though I would definitely get a nice new two bed flat in Cambridge and a sports car.

Downsizing often means making improvements to old (or not so old) properties and we often wonder whether we should have knocked down a couple of walls to make our property more open plan. We spent last Christmas with our children and grandchildren in a converted barn in Devon and were so taken with the design we had to resist the temptation to pick up a sledgehammer as soon as we returned home.

One thing that puts me off open plan living is the ever increasing cost of heating. The woodburner in our sitting room does a great job keeping us warm and cosy but would not be enough to heat a much larger area. There would also be a lack of privacy for visitors as our quite large dining room doubles up as a spare room. I really can't make up my mind.

What do other gransnetters think?

We downsized from a four bedroom family home with a large garden, and a large double garage/workshop, to a 'Park Home'. Our friends thought we were mad, but I had always wanted to live in a Park Home, I liked the idea of being sort of 'detached' but close.
We not only downsized, but moved out of the area we had lived in for 50 years with many good friends, but we were only an hours drive away, and have kept in touch (that was 10 years ago). My daughter who only lived 20 minutes away from us at that time, was a little upset, but since she has a pressurised job, we saw very little of them, their weekends were taken up with family things, as they should be. People seem to get the impression that we are a close family, so perhaps that is so, without actually getting together.
We had a house full of clutter, we had colleceted both my mother-in-laws and my mums bits and pieces, apart from our own accumulations, and having done both those clear outs, I knew how distressing that could be, so I decided that I did not want my daughter to go through all that. She was asked to choose what she wanted, the rest we sent to auction/charity shops, some things I wish I had kept, but these would only have been put away, so really did not need to be kept. Memories and photographs are lovely, and we have spent a lot of time putting cinefilms on to dvd.
I am of course lucky I have a rather garrulous, out-going husband and we have joned the local bowls club, and of course we live in a very close community on the park. Our home came with a small garden and a garage.
We moved when we were in our 70's.

We did want to have room to entertain all the family to meals - 11 of us and have a lovely big lounge/diner in our flat. merlotgran I can sympathise with your open plan vision and if I hadn't to worry about finances I would try to find a plot of land on which to build a green oak style barn so that the main portion could be open plan. It wouldn't have to be excessively large and perhaps could be insulated well so as to be cheapish to heat.
If you think that you can convert your current home to something near as you would like - it would probably be the cheapest option. Go for it!!

gangy5 how lovely to still have the energy to entertain 11 people! The thought just wears me out. The most we can accommodate is 8, and after that I need to have a lie down.

PRINTMISS I'm not that clever or energetic really but just happen to have been a professional cook most of my days. This makes the catering much easier for someone like me.
Last Christmas it was 13. I have to admit though that it takes me a few days to recover!!

But if you really enjoy it then it is worth the effort isn't it. We have two lovely friends coming to stay shortly, and it will be a joy to have them here, but it will also be lovely when they have gone. We don't make any 'end' date to their stay, we all know when we have had enough. and the will say 'Oh! we'll go home tomorrow, if that is o.k. with you' It is of course a long-standing friendship.

I find that although having visitors is quite hard work, we do enjoy having them and because we've been about a bit it almost feels as though we've had a holiday. It lifts us out of our day to day life. I agree though about the departure and that should usually come within 3 to 4 days!!