Downsizing Your Life

I hung on to court case divorce documents, which piled three feet – yes, three feet worth – in my closet for 12 years. Just last week, I finally dumped them where they belong, in the dumpster. I don’t know why I kept them…

There’s a cultural shift taking place right before our eyes. The generation that created consumerism is now embracing the idea of choosing to live with less… much less! For years, baby boomers’ big wallets and significant disposable income…

When we move from one home to another, we anticipate a learning curve. We expect that waking up those first few days will feel strange in that unfamiliar room, even if it’s in the same bed. We know we’ll have to set up yet one more kitchen…

How can I giggle while I’m getting rid of things I’ve had for a very long time and have been important to me? What’s joyful about getting rid of my kids’ favorite toys? There’s no way I can smile as I trash album after album of our family’s pictures…

Open to the idea of living with a roommate to save on monthly costs, but worried about charting the unknown on internet listing sites? Having a hard time keeping up with all of the latest scams that may pop up during an online roommate search?

How would you feel if a relative or friend died, leaving a house full of clutter behind them, and it fell to you to sort it all out? Unfortunately, this situation is very common. I often meet people who have toiled for months, or even years…

I love the change of seasons because it gives me an opportunity to do one of my favorite things: purge my closet. The good thing about purging one’s closet at the beginning of the season is that the things you get rid of are still wearable by someone else…

Simplifying, downsizing, decluttering… these topics seem to be very popular. Why is this such an issue for so many people? When I went through a major downsizing last year, one of the things I learned was that I needed a very small percentage…

Maybe you’re still living in the house where you raised the children: Bedrooms remain unused. Closets are full of things accumulated over decades. Memories are in every corner. The garage is stuffed with who knows what…

No matter how often I clean out my closet, I always seem to accumulate more clothes than I ever need. Some old, some new, and most that I know I will never wear. Every time the season changes, I set a new goal of clearing out the excess…