Anyone moved home in their mid 60s? What did you get right? And wrong?

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We downsized and built a bungalow in our garden. One of our daughters and her husband bought our old house and that financed the new build. We have our grandchildren in and out of the house which is lovely. We tried to future proof it as much as possible - level flooring - under floor heating - amazing insulation - solar roof panels - easy access shower - running costs are a fraction of the previous house. Only downer is our village has absolutely no public transport at all so the fact that at the moment we have a brilliant postoffice/village shop is a massive bonus. It is working well.

I moved just before my 60th birthday from the 2bed flat my daughter and I lived in, to a 1bed over 55s flat. Best thing I've done. I was still working, new flat nearer to one of my jobs and equal distance to my second. It's near to my main shopping centre..30 seconds for my front door to supermarket, if there's not lots of traffic!! There's a lift so no more dragging heavy shopping up stairs. Took a few days to adjust to less space but I got rid of so much rubbish upon moving that it wasn't a big problem. A positive attitude helps, looking for all the good things your new home brings with it. Being friendly towards the new neighbours can bring new friends. I'm certainly glad I moved even though the idea was daunting at the time.

We moved down market for our retirement and it worked out extremely well for us. We live in a village rather than a town and the people are lovely and friendly we are very happy here.
We are only three miles from the nearest city.

I think once you get over 80, transport is always a concern because there is a high probability that if you live long enough you may well no longer be able to drive, even though you are still living independently and getting around.

This is one of the things governing our move, as well as moving somewhere more convenient for our children. We are looking at 2 towns. One is on the Cambridge Guided busway, a real plus and is the prettier of the two, but all ones main needs, supermarket, doctors, dentists etc are situated around the periphery so you cannot live conveniently for everything.

The less attractive town has three supermarkets off the central market square, doctors, dentists, evrything you can name with in a hundred yards of the town centre, plus plenty of housing with parking well intowards the centre. Also much better in town parking. The reasons for our preference are obvious

I moved myself from a lovely village with three buses a day, going only 10 miles each way. No shop.

I now live in a small market town short walk to shops and all facilities including buses.

Lovely people, good toilet block in the car park etc. No trashy shops, betting shops etc. There are several nice artisan shops. I don`t need to use the car here We now also have a community bus, good if people have hospital appointments. No train station, which I would have liked. Somerset is upgrading its bus connections

No gym, I would have liked that. I did not downsize much as in numbers of rooms, now have 1200 sq feet of living space compared to 1500. I use everywhere and love having an upstairs and small private sunny garden

House is detached and I have a garage accessible from my garden, it has an electric door. Flat paving to town. Good for future proofing. Stairs are wide enough for stair lift, if ever needed. I am 76 and often ride one of my 3 cycles around the hilly country lanes a few minutes away

I was 70 and widowed when I moved. I packed everything myself and fixed all the fittings in my new-build myself, I could still do that

I have a good town/country compromise where I live, can hear cows and church bells yet am only ten minutes walk from the centre. It really is a small town but quite sought-after

Though not something i have had to do yet reading this a lot of people seem to name transport as a major concern; most places I have lived there are community transports schemes which are excellent for getting you where you need to go. a lifeline for Drs Hospitals etc but also shopping hairdressers etc. our local one does trips out too such as to the garden centre. to join you pay a one off fee then each journey pay per mile

grassgreen

Have recently sold and living temporarily with family. Previous home was 4 bed detached in a safe, semi rural area but it was time to move on. Didn't need all those empty rooms or such a large garden. Yet when thinking about my next home, I'm struggling to know what would not only meet my needs now, but also in the future.

Currently I'm 66, fit and well, drive, and happily work part time. I'll be living on my own.

Tell me what worked well for you when you moved, and what didn't. Are there things you wished you'd known about or considered?

My knees like ground floor living, storage areas with easy access.

I know someone who joined his son in Australia at the age of 93.
Age is a number and if you still have the ability to enjoy life and an ambition to change things for the better, why not?

About to move at 81, once our house sells.

Glad to hear it V3ra......

Anyone else?

CariadAgain my Dad moved from a 4-bed detached house on the south coast to a 1-bed retirement flat in the Midlands when he was 87. He's 93 now.
Mum had died earlier that year and he was bereft. He moved to our town and is now four miles away from us instead of 160 miles.
It's been the saving of him. Initially he was independent and had his car, he went out and about exploring.
Now he has developed vascular dementia but the in-house care team, plus a private day centre he goes to four days a week, look after him extremely well.
He says he "feels safe" living where he does. I do all his admin and banking, my husband does a lot to help as well.
It was the best decision ever for all of us.

On this topic - what is the oldest age someone has moved at - and do you feel it was a successful move (especially if you moved to a different area)?

I moved last year. Still in my home town just a bit closer to shops etc. Sold a 3 beds, 2 bath bungalow for a brand new 2 bed house. Ok, so moving from a bungalow to a house at 68 probably wasn’t ideal but I couldn’t afford a bungalow. Apart from that it was a great move. Everything brand new, freshly decorated and a tiny courtyard garden.

grassgreen

MilestOne
Has anyone any ideas or inspiration for how to get OH ready to move?

Seems like it's time for you to put your wants and needs first. Your husband can recline in his chair anywhere. Can you get your DD on board with this?

If you have funds removers can be paid to pack everything and move it even if you don't feel able to declutter at this end.

Its easy to let the years slip away. You know your husband best - start chipping away at his reluctance to move and take some daily action, however small, to reach your goal of moving.

I had to do something similar with my son who had become far too comfortable living with me yet had anxieties about moving. The first step was telling him it was going to happen - he would be getting his own place ad I was moving. 18 months on and we are both moved and both happier.

Each day in my actions - throwing out some items etc; reseaching property - I demonstrated to him and myself that change was going to happen and it did. You can do this.

Thank you for the encouragement. I promised myself that I would live longer than my mother who died aged 84. So Instill have 3 years to go. I do miss the sea and would love to move back to our hometown.

Milest0ne

I responded, a few messages above, re how to get your husband ready to move but spelt your name wrongly

We have just moved from a 2 bedroom semi to a park home. Love it should have done it years ago. One level, manageable garden. Friendly neighbors and helpful, our previous area was noisy too many power tools every week. Controlling and noisy inconsiderate neighbors. Now I live in a peaceful, beautiful area with nice people who just want peace and quiet. We are early 60s

When we first moved to Scotland as a family, 49 years ago, we bought a bungalow. It was very practical with small children. It was like living in a flat but without the stairs. I loved it. With 2 more children and my mother to care for, we grew out of it.

mh1953

I'm 71 and in July I moved from a small town to a large city. I woke up 2 1/2 years ago to find that my husband of 37 years had died during the night. He just slipped away. I live in Louisiana and my 2 grown children live in a suburb of New Orleans. So after being paralyzed with the shock of my husband's death, I gave in to my children's urgings, sold our home and moved to Metairie, LA. After owning a home in a neighborhood with an unreasonably strict Home Owners Association (HOA) I decided to rent. Not to mention Biden has all but destroyed the housing market here. I prayed and prayed about the house I would find and God found me one tailor made for me. I love it and I am free of that darn HOA! If the dishwasher breaks I just pick up the telephone! Yea me! As I said I am 71, live alone, drive even in the metropolis and feeling very free.

So sorry to hear you lost your beloved husband so suddenly. It must have been the biggest shock of your life not to mention the hardest to come to terms with. Congratulations on making a decision that has improved you life going forward.

fancythat

Calendargirl

I notice many are saying how convenient moving to a bungalow has been, no stairs to worry about.

And no one has mentioned the dreaded ‘bungalow legs’, which many seem to see as a consequence of bungalow living.

As a bungalow owner, I am very happy with it, no desire to have stairs again.

Keep using your legs and hopefully they will be ok.

Personally, I dont understand the concept of bungalow legs.
I dont know anyone who has them I dont think?
But would I know if I did?

And then older people sometimes move to a bungalow. So then no one cares any more about them??

As I say, I dont get it.

I could start a thread sometime I suppose. So as not to derail this one.

I've always believed this is an Urban Myth. After all no-one who lives in a ground floor flat gets accused of having ''bungalow legs''..

MilestOne
Has anyone any ideas or inspiration for how to get OH ready to move?

Seems like it's time for you to put your wants and needs first. Your husband can recline in his chair anywhere. Can you get your DD on board with this?

If you have funds removers can be paid to pack everything and move it even if you don't feel able to declutter at this end.

Its easy to let the years slip away. You know your husband best - start chipping away at his reluctance to move and take some daily action, however small, to reach your goal of moving.

I had to do something similar with my son who had become far too comfortable living with me yet had anxieties about moving. The first step was telling him it was going to happen - he would be getting his own place ad I was moving. 18 months on and we are both moved and both happier.

Each day in my actions - throwing out some items etc; reseaching property - I demonstrated to him and myself that change was going to happen and it did. You can do this.

I'm 71 and in July I moved from a small town to a large city. I woke up 2 1/2 years ago to find that my husband of 37 years had died during the night. He just slipped away. I live in Louisiana and my 2 grown children live in a suburb of New Orleans. So after being paralyzed with the shock of my husband's death, I gave in to my children's urgings, sold our home and moved to Metairie, LA. After owning a home in a neighborhood with an unreasonably strict Home Owners Association (HOA) I decided to rent. Not to mention Biden has all but destroyed the housing market here. I prayed and prayed about the house I would find and God found me one tailor made for me. I love it and I am free of that darn HOA! If the dishwasher breaks I just pick up the telephone! Yea me! As I said I am 71, live alone, drive even in the metropolis and feeling very free.

Farzanah - you're spot on re the older you are the harder it gets to move. Therefore it's as well to get on with it. One doesn't want to spend time deciding what to do about a house, find the tradespeople to do it and you're not getting as much "payback" for it (as you won't be living in it for many years to reap the benefit of all your hard work and paying out). Then there's the "social life" aspect - having to get out and about and make friends/get to know a new area/etc and one's patience for that runs out as you get older and think "Am I going to have enough years use out of this to make it worth it?".

melp1

Moved 3 years ago aged 68 & 69, from a 3 bed semi to a 3 bed detached. We now have a newer warmer house with a utility (which is great after winter walks with the dog) and a downstairs toilet, nice wide drive (our old drive was very narrow & difficult to to reverse out of. Our garden is smaller but unfortunately hubbys health has deteriorated so hes now happier with a smaller plot. Chemists, doctors and park a few minutes walk away. Bus stop round the corner. Only thing I miss is the large garden with a pond. The hardest thing was getting rid of stuff after 40 years in our old house.

I can understand re the "getting rid of stuff". I got rid of a fair amount when I moved here 11 years ago. I'm now thinking "Well I'm early 70's now - so I've got an estimated 15 odd years to go" and so I'm onto a second round. I want enough of my "stuff" because it is things like books on topics of interest to me and generally to help me remember who I am iyswim. But there's an element of Swedish Death Cleaning going on now - as I'm thinking "15 years isn't that long really....and I don't want a long life anyway personally and so hopefully it won't be due to be longer than that. How many things am I going to need within the next 15 years?" So there's an element of keeping clothes, for instance, that are "older" (ie when I was "my size" - rather than 2-3 sizes bigger than that as at present and when clothes were "normal" quality, rather than more recent poor quality) for instance - as well as the cheapo bigger clothing I'm currently wearing. I keep older factual books to remind me I was once considered "ahead of my time" in my thinking in many ways - and now the exact same ideas are having me labelled as "old-fashioned racist etc etc". The same ideas in the same lifetime?!!! But yep....I don't have to read a book about it to get the general idea it means = declutter/simplify/etc. It makes life easier not to have to hunt amongst surplus belongings to find the ones one actually requires....