Downsizing Your Life

“Who do I leave my belongings to?” is one of the most common questions amongst those who are childless, who are estranged from their children for some reason, or whose children live on the other side of the world. Bethany, aged 70, has never had children…

I love IKEA. I have loved it since I first heard the store name on an old episode of Trading Spaces on the TLC channel. When I say I love it though, I am not talking about the meatballs in the cafeteria or the cute, little, blue, shopping bags…

If there is one thing we all noticed a little more of during the Covid lockdown, it was the amount of clutter we had accumulated and the impact it can have on how we feel in our own homes. Perhaps for the first time, you clearly felt the impact…

You can learn a lot about a woman by looking at her closet. Some closet spaces are tidy and arranged by color while others are in disarray with heaps of clothes that didn’t quite make it onto a hangar. I think that the way we feel about our aging bodies…

I have always loved a good front porch (though I love a nice back porch as well). There is just nothing as enjoyable as starting the day sitting on my porch, sipping on a cup of coffee, and watching the sun fill the sky with the promises of another day…

My mother had a fabulous collection of what is now called “fashion” jewelry, much of it acquired through her sister’s costume jewelry company. One of the greatest thrills of my childhood was walking through the aisles of stacked wooden drawers at my aunt’s…

A couple months back, I had an enlightening conversation with Melanie, a 63-year-old in central California who had decided to give homesharing a try. Melanie had an interesting account of her path to homesharing. She explained to me that she’d been working…

We all know the old saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the same principle can be applied to clutter clearing too. The trick is to begin small and take it a step at a time. Begin by choosing a small area that contains things you…

We are entering a gradual post-pandemic period. Over the past year and two months, there are a number of subtractions I have made that have been positive. Going forward, I would like to hold on to the positive subtractions that came about…

Moving is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 most stressful things in life. In the past seven years, we have moved three times. That’s a lot of hours x weeks and months devoted to planning, packing and pining over personal wares that found…