The Benefits of Downsizing Your Home, when you are ready

Update on downsizing December, 2017

I wrote this article in 2014, 6 months after we had downsized from our family home to a beachside apartment. Have a read and then see what out first 3 and a half years in an apartment has really been like, and whether downsizing was the right move ..for us

Downsizing in 2014

To say that it was a massive decision to move from the family home to downsize to an apartment is an understatement. We had toyed with the idea before, but I was not in the zone to move from our cherished home. This is something that is really important – you need to be ready and willing to make what is a huge emotional and physical adjustment.

Why did we decide to downsize?

I think that many factors came into play to put me into that “zone”. Watching my parents struggling in the family home with lots of steps, having a broken leg myself and seeing how difficult it was for me to get out of the house and even more difficult for Gordon pushing me in and out in a wheelchair, where big determiners. Traveling a lot was also a factor as there is a lot to consider when leaving home to go away – mail, lawns, leave curtains open or shut; it all has to be dealt with.

We had been away to Amsterdam and Belgium, with a broken leg, and when we came back, I surprised Gordon by saying – let’s look at apartments.

Finding the perfect apartment ..not always easy

He was delighted, and we started looking. We didn’t look for long. We saw our now apartment 1st, and I said no. Simple. I didn’t like the color of the balcony railings, yet Gordon loved it. I am nothing if not shallow 🙂 We continued looking, and I found what I considered the perfect apartment. One night I sat down and did all of the positives and negatives of both the units that we liked. As we were coming from a very large house I didn’t want to compromise too much, and I wanted views and I wanted privacy. I also wanted our friends and family to be able to park easily when they came to see us. On paper, Gordon’s apartment was winning hands down. Size wise, location, parking and everything else – his was the winner.

I scheduled some other viewings  the next day, including the one Gordon liked. He was surprised that we were returning to this one to say the least Yes, I now saw what he had seen at first. This was the one, but the dumb real estate agent said, ‘it’s sold.’ I asked, not nicely, ‘then why are you showing it to us?’ Long story short,  we counter generic cialis super force offered, and we did get this apartment.

Selling the family home

I knew that I would still have a hard time letting go emotionally of the family home, so with a huge amount of organization and type A overkill, I organized things – my way. As we were already flying out on a certain date in February, we had to have our house show home perfect, sell it, then pack what we were taking with us and jettison the rest. We had 4 weeks to do this and yes; we did it. Our old family home sold Day 1, and not without a lot of complications, and we moved in on a Tuesday, unpacked like demons and flew out on Friday. I wanted to come home to our new home already set up.. to create that distance that travel can allow you to have.

So what did downsizing look like, for us in 2014?

I could not imagine a more perfect lifestyle, albeit hedonistic one, for both of us. For us, this lifestyle leaves us in permanent holiday mode. Every morning we wake to look at the sea and the park. We walk the 100 meters to the beach, walk for 2 kms along it to a coffee shop, though there are others closer. We know lots of people, so it ends up taking a long time, but its nice. We walk back, stop and look at things happening. We do it all again later in the afternoon taking in different walks and yes, different coffee shops. The other day we watched the fishing fleet pull into the harbor and upload the haul. It was amazing. We watch the festivals in the park in front of us from last weekends Islamic Festival to the Color Run. We watch the people exercising. Riding bikes and having picnics and we know that for us, at this time, downsizing was the absolutely correct move for us.

The moral to this story is you have to be ready to make this change, and not be forced into it. You will know exactly when you are ready to downsize. I hope that this just helps you to understand that I do know that it is hard, but I can say it is an amazing and much easier experience than I thought…when you are ready ..both of you if that is the case.

Three and a half years later, was downsizing the correct decision?

It is ironic but as we moved into our apartment, our business as travel writers here at Contented Traveller took off in a big way. This meant we are away from our apartment a lot of the year, and can I tell you, we love coming home. We may spend a lot of time working overseas, but coming home to our home is pure bliss.

Physically leaving here is easier than having a home. We lock the doors and walk out because it is a security building. We don’t worry about lawns and gardens because that is part of the levy fees we pay. We don’t worry about mail, because we got a post office box. We have feral possums that we feed when we are at home, and then they have to fend for themselves when we are away, and they can.

We/I was worried about whether we would like the other people in our apartment block, and lucky us, they are fabulous to the point that we are friends.

Our lifestyle when we are at home is as hedonistic as ever. We have the beach, and the cafes, and we have a lot of festivals on our doorstep, like the recent Harley Days, Beats and Eats, and more.  We have lots of parties and love to have our friends and family over.

If I had known how much easier our life would be, then I would have downsized earlier. But as I said back in 2014, I was not ready, emotionally. Downsizing should occur when you are ready…but we do recommend it.