When people think about downsizing, they are generally entertaining the idea based on life changes or circumstances. I know when my kids moved out, I started thinking about things like, “is my house too big?”
I also thought about smaller things like, “do I need all the cookware I have accumulated over the years?”
What I didn’t do was think about it in the way that makes the most sense: it’s not downsizing – it’s right-sizing. Simply changing my attitude and how I looked at things led to making positive changes.
Once you get the label right, it changes your whole perspective. It’s not downsizing at all if the things you change are things you really don’t need – and possibly never did. Start right sizing by redefining what’s important to you. Chances are, the things that are most important to you are not physical items at all.
Things like making connections, friends, family, your health or new experiences are what really matters.
After you define what is truly important, you can look at your physical things and see where they fit into that mix. For me, I really enjoy cooking. I decided to keep most of my cookware, but got rid of the items I really didn’t use very much.
I also found it was more important to spend time with my now-adult-kids rather than making sure they had their own rooms to sleep in for a quick visit or just-in-case. Having a right-size home led to advantages that I never imagined when I first started the process.
Leading a right-size lifestyle has many advantages. Some of the surprising benefits for me was that my right-size home was so much less to take care of – giving me more time to focus on the things that were most important.
I cleaned less, spent less money and enjoyed it more. The financial reward alone allows me to have less stress, experience more and spend more time doing the things I love the most.
