Downsizing Your Life

Moving after age 50 differs from your younger days when you could recruit a friend with a pickup truck and pay with pizza and beer. Moving later in life presents a more significant logistical challenge. For one thing, you probably have more stuff…

At this stage of life, you’re looking forward to a simpler lifestyle with less clutter, more freedom, new friends, and new memories. Your kids are now grown and have left the nest. You might be single, widowed, or a couple. No matter what, holidays…

I began my downsizing journey many years ago. I found that it is more of an ongoing process than an event. Even though there were many events within the process, it was always focused around the removal of things. All of those cherished possessions…

As noted in an earlier Sixty and Me blog in this series, your health status may be the deciding factor in the location for your next move. After getting input from trusted medical professionals and your family, think about what you’ll need in a living situation…

Richard and Jane Brown sold their four-bedroom home in the suburbs. And moved into a new two-bedroom condominium. In their 60s and still active, they chose this condominium for its amenities. It was two blocks from the ocean…

Most of my girlfriends have warned me that shoes would be the hardest category of clothing to reduce. My friend Maureen says she’d have trouble choosing 100 pairs from her collection of shoes – and trust me, she can pull off the most amazing…

Recently, a friend told me about the transformative journey she had been on after diving into Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. She applied Kondo teachings to her closet…

A minimalist lifestyle is relatively easy to achieve if all you ever say is the word no. It is so simple to say. No, I won’t buy that new dress or No, I won’t accept that gift, or in my case, No, I won’t buy more bangles. No, I won’t complicate my existence…

No matter how far you move, much work is involved. However, the further you move, the greater the effort in terms of cost, time and stress. Moving close to your current home allows you to keep some of your established patterns…

When I began my reductionist initiative a few years ago, I assumed I would actually end up with fewer things to think about. Less stuff to worry about and more emotional freedom. Seemed a logical expectation at the time and in fact was my motivation…