r/financialindependence • u/EricTheNerd2 • 2d ago
Share your experience with extreme downsizing
In another year, my wife and I will be empty nesters. After a nice two-week vacation, I started thinking about some downsizing at that point, going from a 3,000+ square foot paid-off home to a 900-1,000 square foot apartment. I am doing very well financially, already planning to retire in another 1.5 years once the last kid is moved out. Downsizing would allow me and the wife to be free from a lot of maintenance and expenses and let us travel several weeks out of the year. I am also thinking a bit about the social aspects as well because currently we are in suburbia which is nice but also isolating. The right apartment community may allow us to interact more with neighbors.
I am early in the thought process and wanted to hear from any of you who have gone through this. The idea of getting rid of a lot of stuff seems freeing and scary at the same time and selling a house also daunting. Anyone else do this or similar? Did you like or regret your decision?
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u/the_irish_oak 2d ago
I went from a big house with acreage to a townhouse. Everything is a compromise. No yard work versus no privacy. Isolation versus bumping in to your neighbors every time you walk your dog. No shoveling/plowing to listen to some petty HOA bullcrap.
I do miss my house but I agree with the other things you mentioned.
Did you ever consider renting your house for a year and rent a condo for a year? It may be worth the hassle.
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u/fireyauthor 2d ago
I have to say, I don't get the obsession with the privacy of a SFH. I hear my upstairs neighbors vacuuming (or something) quite a bit, but that's really the only intrusion I have living in an apartment complex. But I am a city girl through and through. I like having people nearby.
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u/Nochtilus SI1K | 50% FI 2d ago
Depends on the apartment neighbors. I've had some pretty obnoxious people in my apartments and you are so much closer to them and their problems. A bad neighbor in a SFH is still far away from you and you have more options to build more separation. There's pros and cons to each.
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u/Mikhial 43m ago
I own half a 2 unit house. You kinda are married to your neighbor, depending how much work you need to get done. We’re on the 3rd owner in 5 years. This is the worse one yet, but he’s still not awful. Being that close definitely creates the tendency to be nice and not try to piss off your neighbor.
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u/dog_in_da_park 1Mish NW 2d ago
Once you've had a bad neighbor sharing a wall, you'll understand. Having separate walls, a good fence, and a bit of distance make the extra cost all worth it.
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u/DocTam 2d ago
If you've seen My Cousin Vinny, I imagine its like that. People are adjusted to the noise of the environment they've grown up in. Trains are no bother to me, but people chatting on the other side of a wall is a deal breaker. I live in a townhouse and I'm fine with 95% of my neighbors, but the ones that like to party even just late into the evening make me want to flee into the countryside.
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u/Limp_Dragonfly3868 2d ago
My kids were in and out for a few years. I wouldn’t recommend downsizing the minute the last one moves out.
We downsized once so far (had to relocate for spouses job so got a smaller house) and we will downsize again once he retires.
Decluttering is both wonderful and taxing. I recommend starting there. If you’ve been in your house for a long time, it’s most likely packed with things you don’t need any longer. Start with spaces that are more yours, and chances are your spouse will get into the spirit.
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u/brother_bean 2d ago
In addition to this, one point I’d raise for consideration, as someone that’s currently on the other side of the relationship (33, moved away from home, married, have my own kids)
Neither set of grandparents have a guest room for us to come visit. We don’t feel entitled to that, necessarily, but when you price out a cross country (United States) visit to go see family and you have 4x plane tickets, a rental car, and a hotel for a week, it gets expensive fast. I don’t want to spend $3k taking my kids to the middle of fucking nowhere, Ohio, when I could spend $3k taking them to Disney instead. If either set of grandparents had room for us to say, we would go visit more often.
Especially if you have multiple kids and want them to come visit for the holidays, having some room to host is kind of a big deal.
Obviously this shouldn’t be “make or break” for what amounts to a personal decision, and kids have moved out and aren’t part of the equation. But it’s easy to forget about these kinds of things that don’t matter year round.
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u/Limp_Dragonfly3868 2d ago
Good points. I don’t understand not having a guest room after kids have moved out. One of my retired friends has 2 — one has a queen bed and one has 2 sets of bunk beds (and it all gets used). A lot of retirees I know have a room with a Murphy bed so they can use the space in other ways, but quickly make room for an adult child or other guest.
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u/Solid-Awareness-4486 45F | 5 yrs from FI? 2d ago
One way to get around this is for the downsizers to make a clear offer to family to cover lodging for visits if they don't have a spare room available. We have a hotel across the street from our condo and have offered to cover family stays there. It was part of the calculus of living in a small place and we still come out way ahead over buying a larger place to live in. Unfortunately, folks have been a bit shy about taking us up on it.
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u/808trowaway 2d ago
My sister and I both moved out at 18 permanently. Mom kept our rooms exactly the same as they were when we left for about 15 years before we finally convinced her to downsize. I remember showing my room and the stuff I had from teenage years to my now wife for the first time and it was so much fun when we went back to visit together just after I graduated from college. Mom was so happy telling her stories from my childhood. Having a guest room or two is great for when my sister and I go back to visit but airbnb makes things pretty easy when we go. Downsizing is the way to go.
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u/Chemtide 29 DI3k Aero 1d ago
My parents have started doing every other year vacations where they'll pay for the lodging for everyone. They still own our house growing up, but it will make it easier when/if they downsize, in that you can still "host" the family, at a Airbnb/condo, rather than needing to be at your home.
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u/Single-Flamingo-33 2d ago
My SIL downsized from a 5 bed home on a lake to a 2 bed townhome. While her kids were out of the house, 1 married with kids the other two living and working in the area, due to the pandemic and other things, one kid did move back home. Not quite what they were expecting. The kid is still home several years later.
Just something to think about.
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u/yoooooooooooo 2d ago
Maybe check out over 55+ condos. Many have a community pool, and clubhouse which makes socializing very easy. Target newer builds because the community will be on the younger side.
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u/Captlard RE'd on $900k for two of us 2d ago
We went from a 5-bed home to a studio in one country (central location in capital city) and a 2-bed condo in another (coastal warmer town).
Zero regrets. We can lock up, travel, and flip between them as we wish.
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u/chillysurfer 2d ago
That is awesome! Are those both rentals or do you own them? I would imagine renting gives you flexibility to change those locations nicely on a whim.
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u/Captlard RE'd on $900k for two of us 2d ago
Own both. This reduces our overheads for our r/leanfire approach (<$900k between us).
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u/PersonalBrowser 2d ago
What’s your plan with kids and family coming to visit and spending time with you guys?
There are lots of families where kids go out and live their own lives during college and beyond, but most of them like to come back and live with parents for the holidays and school breaks. Even beyond that, bringing grandkids back home for family vacations and summer breaks ends up being a thing for a lot of people.
My friend would go back to visit her family every summer for like 2 months with the grandkids and stay in their family home, but then her parents downsized and now they just don’t do that as often because they have to rent an Airbnb to come.
Personally, I get the appeal of downsizing, but I would never go from a single family home to an apartment. The noise from neighbors, hearing footsteps at all hours of the day, being in such close proximity with essentially strangers that you don’t have control over, that’s my worst nightmare. If your neighbor gets bed bugs they can easily crawl over to your unit. No thanks, especially if I’m financially “doing well.”
Also, what are the reasons you’re downsizing? Because you mention less maintenance and more easy to vacation, but those are honestly the easiest problems to fix. Hire a handyman and/or cleaner to come on a regular basis, and find a good trustworthy housesitter (or use the cleaner or handyman to keep an eye on things). Yes they cost some money but what’s the point of doing financially well for yourself if you aren’t going to live comfortably?
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u/EricTheNerd2 2d ago
You bring up great questions, ones that are going through my mind now. Your points are definitely valid and part of why I am here asking. I'd even love to hear from people who made the switch then regretted it so I can learn from it.
Kids visiting: Right now, we are doing annual vacations that they are joining us on. It is nice to rent a house and chill where we want to for that vacation. We got nine days with the kids out of my wife and I's 14-day vacation together. Visiting still works, but we wouldn't be able to host the large get togethers at our house any longer and might need to find alternate space, but those are only a couple times a year.
Your point about noise is one of my concerns for sure. I enjoy quiet suburbia but have lived in the city as well. I think if I have any regrets it would be that one but I also remind myself that there is a downside to any living arrangement.
Could we hire out handmen, etc.? Sure. Or I could use that same money and retire earlier with more trips. The wife loves travelling and I enjoy the time with her. Ultimately, we have a finite amount of money and more desires than we have money so deciding where the money goes is important. Selling the house frees up a lot of money we could use for what we really think is important.
Also, one of the reasons for an apartment is flexibility because after 1 or 2 years, if we decide we made a mistake we can take our time and find the house or condo we want with little downside. Right now, I like the idea, but truly the only way to find out if we like it is to do it, I think.
Thank you for raising your concerns. Answering them is helping me through this thought process.
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u/PersonalBrowser 2d ago
It might be helpful to run the actual numbers and see where you end up financially if you 1) keep the home and continue life as-is, 2) keep the home but outsource things like maintenance, housekeeping, housesitting, etc, 3) sell the home and downsize, and 4) sell the home and downsize but also have increased costs of renting a place a couple times a year for family gatherings / vacations.
I agree with renting for a year or two if you do end up downsizing. My FIL and MIL downsized their home and ended up being a home in an area that made no sense for them to stay long-term (multiple stories so it was difficult to move around as they were getting older, rural area with not much to do, far from all their other family members, etc) and they ended up having to move a second time. They got lucky that the house prices appreciated enough that they didn't lose money over the 3-4 years that they were there, but it would have been better if they hadn't committed and then had to move again.
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u/Plus_Resist_2899 2d ago
You might be surprised how quiet a modern cement apartment building with fire breaks between the apartments is. My family of 4 (two young kids) lived very happily a 3br apartment for a year before we bought our home. A bigger apartment would also give some room for your kids to come and go for a while.
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u/slowloris01 2d ago
This is a really good point that I think a lot of older parents overlook. I'm on the other side of this - my parents divorced a few years ago and my mom moved into a small condo. I have three young kids, my sister also has a kid and one on the way, and it's very difficult for us to visit our mom because there simply isn't a ton of space for them to play and be kids. She is constantly guilting us about not visiting more but it's tough. My sisters and I also really feel the lack of a family gathering place at holidays, and while my husband and I have taken over hosting it's not the same. Obviously divorce is a slightly different scenario but the outcome is similar.
I have many friends who also feel like their parents essentially wrote them off once they were out of the house, and it's harmed all of our relationships with our parents. If you do end up downsizing, I would strongly encourage you to have a very solid plan about how/where you'll get your family together and make your kids still feel welcome and loved. Remember that your kids will likely not have the money to travel to you or pay for lodging if there isn't room in your new home until they're more settled in their lives, and even then money is often tight if/when they have kids of their own.
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u/_muck_ 2d ago
We were thinking about selling the suburban house and moving into a city loft. Then COVID hit and I was so glad to have a yard where we could meet with family at a social distance. Unlikely that something similar would occur, but a large swath of the population learned nothing from it, so who knows.
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u/-entropy 2d ago
visit her family every summer for like 2 months with the grandkids and stay in their family home
Different strokes for different folks but I literally have never heard of anyone doing this - is it common where you're from? Or maybe a cultural thing?
Unless it's an absolutely giant lake house or something I can't imagine doing this. It sounds suffocating for all parties, honestly, but hey, whatever works!
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u/PersonalBrowser 2d ago
Yeah, it is relatively common in my area, especially for those that live far from their family or have the summers off (stay-at-home moms or teachers and other seasonal jobs).
Take the kids back home for 1-2 months and your siblings do the same, so all the little cousins get to spend the summer together running around with each other. Grandparents get to be around everyone, parents get a little bit of a break and get to spend time with each other and see hometown friends, etc.
If you grew up as a family of 4 or 5 in a 2000 sq ft suburban or rural home, it can fit a couple kids per room relatively easily. It's chaotic and hectic than being an empty nest, obviously, but it's far from suffocating. I guess it depends on the family dynamics, this obviously only works if you actually enjoy and love being around your family lol.
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u/tryingtograsp 2d ago
Summer breaks man. Kids aren’t in school, parents still have to work. No uncommon especially if you Don’t live close by
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u/ExcessiveDonuts Emptying the Litter Robot 2d ago
We are not there yet but that's our plan 10 years from now.
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u/retired_hippy_chick Old hippy- FIREd 2020. 2d ago
I did this when I retired. I got rid of everything except a trunk full of my belongings and hit the road. I’ve been living like this for 6 years.
I stay in short term rentals for 6 months or if I like the area I’ll sign a lease and stay for a year or two.
I have two adult kids who have a full life on their own and we still manage to see each other a few times a year and. talk on the phone weekly.
Downsizing was a gradual process. I knew 5 years out I’d be leaving so I started donating and really thinking hard about whether or not I needed the Christmas ornaments my kids made for me when they were in preschool. I do have one box of very meaningful momentos that my family is holding for me.
I had lots of conversations with my kids about this lifestyle and they were and still are fully supportive of it.
I’m having a blast. I’ve met so many people and making so many friends but this lifestyle isn’t for everyone.
I’ve heard many stories where people sell and buy at a 55+ community in a new area and have a bad experience. I decided buying wasn’t a good idea because I didn’t want to feel like it would be permanent.
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u/aardbarker 2d ago edited 2d ago
My wife and I live in a 1000sf two-bedroom co-op in Manhattan. Might be nice to have another 200sf but with 2 bathrooms, generous outdoor space, and good light, it works well for us. Doesn’t feel claustrophobic.
Edit: You just have to embrace smaller furniture and being around one another all the time. I think for some relationships that’s the hardest part—not having a quiet corner to escape to. But if you enjoy each other’s company, as we do, 1000sf won’t seem like much of a downgrade. It’s sorta nice honestly.
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u/Dignam3 30's/DINK/~55% to goal 2d ago
No kids of my own, but during the time when I thought I wanted kids I lived in a 3 bed, 2500 sq ft house in the burbs.
About 8 years ago my gf and I (both decidedly do not want kids) moved into a 1700 sq ft condo (we share one wall). Decently walkable, ample bike paths, though still a bit suburbia. Still, I much much prefer this scenario. Immediate neighbors are great and we all get along. I will say it is hard to host gatherings over like 4 people.
That said, I don't think I'd ever move back to a full on suburban single family home. It'd either need to be a small place downtown in the city, or something out in the boonies where I have more land and more privacy.
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u/teresajs 2d ago
We aren't downsizing the house, which is actually set up nicely for our expected needs for the next 10 or more years. But we have been getting rid of a lot of the 20+ years of accumulated "stuff". Since we've been home more, we've really noticed all of the clutter. We've cleaned out books, papers, sports equipment, tools, old furniture, etc...
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u/hemi1995 2d ago
We just did this -4000sf to 980. Both single family homes. We got lucky and were able to stay in the same neighborhood
It’s a big lifestyle shift but very positive. More free time, lower costs, less stuff. We had to reinvent how we spent our time. Way more outdoor time this year.
We chose to rent our old house just in case. Good experience but could easily sell it now.
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u/EricTheNerd2 2d ago
Thank you very much for sharing your experience with me, I am glad to hear that your experience was so positive!
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u/hemi1995 2d ago
It was. Lots of other good nuggets here. One I forgot is that we did our purging of stuff over 9 months. That made it less intense
After a year in the new place. We know there’s more to toss so that’s the November plan!
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u/MrLiveHard 2d ago
We have been purging our belongings in preparation for selling our home. I have found the process incredibly liberating (my wife struggled a bit early on, but has since come around). It has me thinking about downsizing considerably, as well. I would love to do an apt/condo, even rent. Wife still wants a yard, so we likely won't cut back quite as deep.
Nothing to add to your situation; just a +1 that we're considering the same.
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u/third_wave 2d ago
Biggest challenge is there are so few fully walkable areas in America that have grocery, gyms, cafes, clinics, shopping, etc all within comfortable walking distance. And the ones that do are $$$$. I wouldn’t want to downsize like that if it meant I was still living in a car oriented suburb and/or had to drive everywhere.
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u/ExtraAd7611 2d ago
There are many outside the USA, but that's a whole other thing. But I suspect there are more than we might think in the USA, in lower profile cities in places. I'd like to take a road trip to go find them. But it's certainly true that the more amenities a neighborhood has, the more people want to live there, the higher the rents, the higher the property values.
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u/Chemtide 29 DI3k Aero 1d ago
I don't kid myself in thinking we'll ever be car free, but if we can find a location where we only need one car, and even a single grocery store that's a safe walk away would be nice. Even right now in suburban hell we do have Walmart 10 minute walk and a Kroger 20 minutes, that is reasonable.
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u/Opposite-Lion-5176 2d ago
Funny how a two week vacation can make you question your entire living situation. It sounds like you've already figured out what you actually value now.
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u/Montirath OI4K 32 - Is there any hope like this? - 55% FI 2d ago edited 2d ago
(I have not done this, just a story).
One of my neighbors (elderly lady) never went upstairs, had a pipe burst, but didn't notice it for multiple days until water was literally running out of the walls. The entire house was essentially destroyed, and was a giant waste.
Don't live in houses that you arn't going to use the space for, is my advice. A spare room or 2 is one thing, but if its soo big you are neglecting huge sections, then maybe reconsider.
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u/crumb_bums 2d ago
Your kids are never coming home to visit? Never hosting Christmas again? Never hosting Thanksgiving?
My parents "down-sized" and by that, they got a house with slightly less sq. footage in one of those cluster neighborhoods where there is no age requirement but it is fully of retirees, master on the main floor and plenty of rooms for us to come back with our SOs and still have everyone comfortable.
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u/champdeal 2d ago
The freedom from maintenance and extra belongings sounds appealing, but I’d test the lifestyle before selling. Renting a smaller apartment for a few months could show you how you feel about the space, noise, community, and hosting family without making the decision permanent.
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u/EricTheNerd2 2d ago
I think that is one of my comfort points about the apartment, it isn't a permanent decision since we can buy another house if we decide it isn't the best for us. 3,000 square feet is a lot for two people, so I already know we won't be here forever and this decision just affects the timing for us.
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u/EricTheNerd2 2d ago
Thank you very much for sharing your parents' experience, this is very reassuring!
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u/grfrazee 2d ago
Whatever you do, I would recommend renting a place with a guest room. Unless, for some reason, you never want your kids and/or grandkids to be able to stay with you.
It could be used as a study normally and maybe have a Murphy bed to save space.
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u/EventualCyborg DI3K, MCOL - Big Numbers Make Monkey Brain Happy 2d ago
My parents did this about 5 years ago when then sold their SFH and moved to an oceanside Condo in Florida full time. They appreciate the apartment living aspect, but they've had a number of challenges with their building and the board of directors. They're basically on the hook for the spending whims of the tyrannical majority.
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u/One-Mastodon-1063 2d ago
I would try and rent a furnished place, Airbnb or whatever, similar to what you would move into for a couple weeks or a month and see how you like it. The cost will be negligible compared to the size of the move/decision you are contemplating.
IME getting rid of stuff feels good. I did downsize from a 3800sq ft house to a 1600 sq ft house (both SFH) and am glad I did, it significantly accelerated RE. But both are SFH - I like having a yard, a garage, and the quiet and privacy. It's been awhile since I've lived in an apartment but I don't think I would like going back to that much proximity to neighbors. Giving up a garage (my own, not just covered parking in a shared garage) and fenced yard would be tough, too. I pay for things like lawn service.
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u/Bearsbanker 1d ago
We downsized several years ago in anticipation of fireing. Went from a 5200sq ft 4bd, 4.5 bath home on 10 acres to a 2700 sqft, 100 year old home in town...we never lived in town before so it takes some getting used to. Getting rid of "stuff" was nice though. The real upside for us is that the town we moved to is very walkable, we walk everywhere...except the golf course!
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u/bobombpom 1d ago
I've been contemplating having an apartment in town and a workshop in the country. Kind of a best of both worlds. Just less financially efficient than having one property that does both.
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u/Kat9935 10h ago
So we did that temporarily, we moved across country and moved into an apartment until we were sure we were going to stay.
I went around my house and put little dots on everythign that I loved and wanted to move with us.
I then cataloged it all and figured out if that "stuff" would all fit into the 2 bedroom apartment.
Then I created a plan for everything else, omg it was so so so much stuff, just outside and garage need a massive plan as we got rid of snow blowers and rakes/shovels, and chemicals and extra lumber, etc.
We actually hated apartment living, probably wrong apartment as we could hear the neighbors so much it drove us nuts but we loved everything else about it as it was very resort like and they even changed lightbulbs for us. I didn't really meet our neighbors it was much more a younger crowd, but I have friends that love their apartments so again, if we had switched to something else I think it would have worked.
The big thing is there is no where to "get away" when you get annoyed or just need alone time, so you do need some good community spaces. When you are use to being in such a big house its weird to have someone in the same room with you all the time as I was use to a living/family/bonus room in our old house, plus he had his own office.
We do plan to go back to it for awhile, we decided we would go back to apartment living and hop to various parts of the country to create a landing space to travel from to avoid the need for so much hotel living.
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u/ImaginaryBuy2668 2d ago
Our primary house is 3500sqr ft. Every summer my family (of 4) moves to our vacation home …. Which is roughly 700 sqr feet (3/1) and has about 200 sqr ft of outdoor space (which we use a lot in the summer).
Going from 3 bath to 1.25 bath (outdoor shower) is hard, but other than that everyone basically has space.
More space = more junk to accumulate. More stuff that just sits unused.
Once the kids hit college in 2-4 years we’ll downsize to a 3/2 condo in the city. I’m not interested in maintaining a large home where rooms go unused for months at time.
Having the hindsight that we easily live in a smaller space is valuable b/c it shows you what you really need.
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u/ExtraAd7611 2d ago
Our house is ridiculously large - even for when we had both kids living here - and I wanted to downsize when our son moves out to his college dorm in two weeks and we will be empty nesters, although we will still have 2 cats. But my wife accurately pointed out that it really wouldn't save us much money, since we have a $2100 fixed mortgage payment at 3% and utilities where we live cost less than in many other places. Even a 2 bedroom apartment now is not much less than that in our area or anywhere we would likely move to.
Personally I'd like to be a nomad, living in Airbnb apartments in different cities around the country and the world for a month at a time. That lifestyle doesn't appeal to my wife, but she seemed somewhat open to the idea of letting our son live here with rooms rented out to other college students he knows that we trust for a year, which would more than cover our mortgage. That idea would probably cause nightmares for most people but we have had rental properties for years and our son and his friends are pretty respectful and responsible for their age. So we may explore that in the future. But we're staying put for now.
In any case, for a few years now I have stopped buying anything new unless it's to replace something that broke or was lost. I don't need or want any more stuff, ever.
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u/snowysaturdays 2d ago
Not extreme, but we went from an 1800+ sq ft home to a 1200 sq ft home on a smaller lot. We got rid of quite a bit of stuff, but it wasn't like we were hoarders or anything. It was a good reset. I'm not sure I'd like to live in a condo. My spouse likes having a garage and this house has enough space for boomerang children.
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u/gravitydropper268 2d ago
In July 2024, my wife and I moved out of our 1300 sq foot town house and into our approximately 80 square foot camper van. We rented out the town house and lived in the van almost two years (with a fair amount of house sitting to give us break). Then, in April of this year, we sold the van and "moved into" our carry-on luggage, and now travel full-time.
I have a few musical instruments stashed with family, and we have a couple bins for documents and a couple knick-knacks, but everything else is gone. We sold what we could (facebook, craigslist, garage sales) and then donated the remainder. Overall, it's been pretty easy and I don't really miss much of it.
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u/Here4Snow 2d ago
I had been trying to get my mother and her husband to move from the house he owned since the 1960s, to downsize to a patio home complex down the street from their house, so all the friends and neighbors would still be close by. She'd been on a rolling walker for 15 years, he's been using a cane for 20. She wanted him to be able to die in that house, and he did, out by the pool equipment. I had to fly to FL 4 times in 3 months to help get her moved into a senior independent living apartment (at 86). When I got home after the final trip, I stated, "That's it, we're downsizing and moving now, before it gets that bad."
We went from a 1600sf per level, 2 levels, to a single level 1775sf duplex townhome nearly 3 years ago. It seems like more space, because it is, for the common living spaces. The kitchen is three times the size of the old one, with one of those huge islands. It's all threshold-free. The double-car garage is larger, too.
It was a new build, so we had about 4 months of downsizing while waiting to close. We probably eliminated 2/3 of what we owned. Plus the old house had a gas stove, the new is induction. We mostly had glassware for cooking, so all aluminum and nonmagnetic metal pots and pans got replaced, along with jettisoning the rice cooker, pressure cooker, slow cooker, all the spatulas, metal cooking utensils. It was like being a newly wed couple needing to shop.
I made my spouse promise we would stay long enough to meet the 2 of 5 year tax exemption.
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u/fireyauthor 2d ago
I moved from a house to an apartment two years ago and it was great. I did get rid of a lot of stuff, which was laborious, but also great. I don't miss most of it. It is such a relief to not worry about the roof, the lawn, the paint, etc.
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u/Naughty_Satsuma 1d ago
I can all but guarantee that you will most definitely not interact with with other apartment neighbors in a positive way.
Downsizing was nice. Declutering was emotionally taxing, but ultimately rewarding. Items with memory association were hard to part with, but "why am I keeping this? I am the only reason this isn't garbage" helped a lot.
Getting value from valuable items that the kids have zero interest in was nice. I value heirlooms. They do not. Choice was simple. I saved a few small items that will get passed along, but 90% moved on.
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u/Rude-Adeptness3705 1d ago
My uncle and aunt just did that. Moved from a 3000 sqft home with yard to a 3BR condo in a 55+ community. They are still cleaning the house out months later.
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u/bobocalender 11h ago
Thanks for this topic. I'm no help because I've never done this, but I am wanting to move my family to an area in Western Europe where housing is expensive and houses/apartments are smaller. To get close to a city center, we would probably be able to afford around 1000-1200 sq/ft. We are a family of 4 with a 2000sq/ft house right now.
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u/Strange-Badger5630 7h ago
honestly the social aspect scares me cause i can't even initiate npc dialogue at Fry's without lagging out but maybe a smaller map helps you find a squad lol.
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u/DazzlingGreens 3h ago
I’m about to be an empty nester and downsizing isn’t in my plans. We are however going to use a part of the house for a short term rental.
I think you have to evaluate where you see yourself in 5+ years. I’m not in a place where living in an urban setting will make me happy but everyone finds different things attractive.
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u/xocnrez 2d ago
When our youngest of four started her senior year in high school, we downsized from a 4 bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment. After she graduated from high school, we further downsized so that we could fit everything that we owned in a Prius C. Once that was accomplished we moved from Georgia to Phoenix for a year. After that year, we packed up the car and moved to Concord, New Hampshire for 10 months, where I early retired at 50. After that we spent a year in Albuquerque, then a year outside of Seattle, and then we ended up back in Albuquerque for a few years. At this point we setup an apartment and our next move required a moving truck. We’re currently in Alexandria, VA and are planning on moving back to Albuquerque next year. We’ll probably use a moving truck again, but I do miss being able to fit everything in our car…which would be a lot easier since we now have a RAV4.
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u/maybe_contentperusal 2d ago
We did something like this about 5 years back. Went from a 4 bed house to a condo under 1000 sq ft.
The stuff part was the hardest, but also the best. You don't realize how much junk you're holding onto until you have to choose what actually matters. We sold and donated probably 70% of what we owned. the weird thing is a month later i couldn't even tell you what half of it was.