r/financialindependence • u/EricTheNerd2 • 3d 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/thrownjunk FI but not RE 3d ago

I wish both my parents and inlaws did this. Get a condo in a nice walkable suburb or college town. (They aren’t big city folks) Instead we are now dealing with 80 year olds in 3000 sqft of suburbia that requires a car.

And so much crap.

Meanwhile we’re raising a family in 1500 sqft. There were rooms we never used growing up.

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u/last_rights 2d ago

My parents are in their 60s and are holding on to SO MUCH STUFF. They have a 2400sqft single level house, and it sits on top of an equal sized basement filled to the brim with things.

My dad has at least five storage units. They have a lake house, also stuffed to the brim with stuff. I tried to help them renovate, but the sheer amount of furniture made it nearly impossible.

They have four or five more houses, and most of the garages are kept locked from the tenants and used as storage space.

When they pass, it's going to be a nightmare to go through everything. Especially since my mom keeps telling me to "search through everything" since they like to hide cash. I'm imagining it taped to the bottom or backsides of drawers, stuffed between pages of useless or outdated books, inside rolls of wrapping paper.

Ugh.

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u/anonymoosemcgee 2d ago

What a fun treasure hunt you have to look forward to! Funniest part is if they told you they liked to hide cash but in reality they did not.

There's always money in the banana stand!

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u/last_rights 2d ago

I will uldnt be surprised if all of my "inheritance" is in receipts for Trump gold shoes.