How Much Room Do We Need?

Recently, my wife has brought up the “D” word—not the one you might be thinking of but another—Downsizing.  Over our nearly 45 years of marriage, my wife and I have lived in three different homes.  As our family grew and as our kids got older, we periodically needed to get more space.  Our first home, a 3-bedroom house had about 1,400 square feet but seemed huge at the time after having lived in 1-bedroom apartments since our marriage.  At least that is until our first two children came along.

Our second home was a 4-bedroom house with about 2,000 square feet of space where we added our third child to fill that 4^th bedroom.

Our current home is another 4-bedroom house with about 3,600 square feet that we have lived in for nearly 25 years.

My wife and I now have had several years’ experience under our belts as senior citizens, a time in many people’s lives when they move to a smaller residence.  We have been empty nesters for a number of years and while we are blessed with a number of growing grandchildren, four of them live on the west coast with only infrequent visits.  While we consistently use every room in our house week to week, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know, we really don’t need all of this space any longer for just two adults.  But obviously all this space is filled with stuff.  And much of this stuff is furniture.

In our first two homes, we had a den and a formal living room.  But when we moved to our current home, a more modern construction, we gave up the living room for a great room and gained a second-floor playroom.  In 2007, my wife’s life-long friend who is an interior designer helped us refurnish our great room.

Our existing great room furniture then moved upstairs which means we will have to get rid of one or the other.

Over the years, we also have added furniture in our sunroom, a room which we will likely not have in a downsized residence.

In 2022, my wife decided to turn our dining room into another sitting room with a Moroccan theme adding more furniture that we will have to decide on.

Of our four bedrooms, since we created a studio for my wife in one of them, we only have three rooms with bedroom furniture.  I suspect our downsized home will have at least three bedrooms so we may not have to get rid of any.  But if we did, the bed in the smallest bedroom is the one our son had when he was in college over twenty years ago so we could certainly get rid of it.

Another item that we will have to go through is our clothing.  My wife has quite a lot as her walk-in closet is more than twice the size of mine.  And we have less frequently worn clothes in other closets in the house as well.  How much of this we will need to part with will likely depend on how much closet space we have in the new home.

Another big item to go through will be our massive collection of books.  We have bookcases in five different rooms with three bookcases in the playroom alone and the one in our bedroom being the largest.  My wife and I have almost exclusively switched to digital books, but we still have a lot of physical books.

My wife and I both have a number of hobbies that take up room in our house.

Mine are all mainly miniature models which I have built quite a few over the years (to which my previous posts have attested).  My wife enjoys knitting, painting, drawing, and she previously quilted.  Thus, her hobbies also include a number of materials which will have to be gone through.

I know the task ahead of us will be daunting and we will have to make many hard choices.  But before we get to that point, we will have to identify a smaller property to purchase and then successfully close the sale.  And to do that, I know my wife and I will need to sit down and make a list of “must haves” and “nice to haves.”

With three grandchildren in town, I also know this new residence will be either in Memphis or in one of the close by small municipalities.

In August of 2011, while on vacation following the weddings of our two oldest children, my wife and I made a list of things we wanted in a retirement home.  At the time, we had no horizon on when I would actually retire or where.  I made that list on my iPad (which I still have) and that list is below.

Thirteen years later, I know some of those desires have changed.  What will be interesting to see will be what will stay the same and what will be new additions.  So, stay tuned for future updates as my wife and I take on this next phase of our life.