Downsizing Resources
Decluttering
Marie Kondo: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Ms. Kondo is the cute Japanese decluttering guru who wants you to respect your socks. Marie, who doesn’t take up much shelf space herself, would like you to fold your socks into little squares—there’s an online video showing just how to do that—then tuck the sock squares into boxes—by color. Her books, TV show, and website are a great way to start your downsizing journey. When I showed my soldier-like sock drawer to my husband, he looked pensive, and then said, “There’s a name for that.” Hmm… anyone know how many esses there are in obssessive?
Peter Walsh: Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life - Peter is the professional organizer of The Clean Sweep TV show, and as a bonus, he has an Australian accent which is always fun to listen to. Though I don’t think he’ll come to your house with a dozen helpers to organize the whole decluttering business and then stage the on-camera garage sale which will net you buckets of cash.
The Minimalists: Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, two young men with inspiring book titles: Minimalism and Everything That Remains - They advise the decluttering option favored by my daughter: Be brave, take a deep breath, and then throw away everything that doesn’t actually need feeding. They also advise traveling lightly through this world, which my husband and I used to be good at. We emigrated from the U.K. to the U.S. with nary a teapot, and back in the day found our way from the Rio Grande to Rio de Janeiro with just a prayer, a backpack and the 1974 edition of The South American Handbook. We rarely got lost, just kept going south. Not only is Barrie familiar with the points on the compass, he also knows his lefts from his rights. Unlike those of us who are more directionally challenged and would probably still be in Rio.
Life lesson learned on the trip? Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It’s amazing how far you can get without a solid game plan—like downsizing for instance. Try it. You’ve got nothing to lose but your excess baggage.
You can also wait for Diary of a Reluctant Downsizer, by Janice Maxson, who is currently looking for an agent or a publisher. If you have any tips you could pass along, or if your favorite child, grandchild, or third cousin thrice removed just happens to be in the book publishing business—shoot me an email. janicemaxson@gmail.com
Downsizing classes…
There are a lot of books about clearing out your parent’s pad after they’ve popped their clogs and shuffled off this mortal coil, but not a lot about downsizing yourself, in the material, not the physical—drinking kale smoothies till you’re Kondo-sized—way. So Barrie and I went to an event put on at a ‘crystal chandelier retirement community.’ The class was entertaining, even though the accommodations were definitely out of our price range. However the class was free and we learned a lot. So keep an eye out for those ads in your Sunday newspaper.
www.yoursundaynewspaper.com (just joking)
…and Movies
If you’re looking for armchair downsizing, join Dorothy, a 12-year-old Corgi-Shepherd-Basset mix, as she and her cool people, who just happen to be Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman, make the movie, 5 Flights Up, while trying to downsize their Brooklyn walk-up apartment. The film gets a
rating from Rachel the grand-doggie, who thought that Dorothy’s acting was superb.
Further Motivation
Phil Doran: The Reluctant Tuscan - Like Helen Russell’s book on the expat experience in Denmark, Phil’s book describes in amusing detail, the process of picking up sticks and starting over in a new country. However, Italy is warmer and has sunshine instead of socks. It’s a good incentive to encourage you to go small, release cash, and rescue your retirement. Or you could try watching any PBS travel show by Rick Steves. Where would you like to go before your knees take their kvetching to new heights? How about Rio? Carnival, sunshine, samba, feijohada, and caipirinhas, now wouldn’t that be nice.
What do you think? Am I too old to learn Portuguese?
Need More De-stressing?
Read any of these entertaining stories by the writing buddies who helped make The Diary of a Reluctant Downsizer a better book.
Cindy Brown’s theatre mysteries (clue, they’re funny)
Warren Easley’s Oregon mysteries
Lisa Alber’s County Clare mysteries
Mysteries not your thing? Try LeeAnn McLennan’s Supernormal trilogy or Debby Dodds’ Amish Guy’s Don’t Call. (Maybe they don’t have cell phones.)
Or our grandson’s favorite, The 130-Story Treehouse series by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton.
His big sister’s favorite, Changeling by Molly Harper. She reads as much as her nana, so you have to catch her in the act to get this week’s current favorite.
And at the top of grand doggie Rachel’s list? Daniel Pinkwater’s Uncle Boris in the Yukon, and Other Shaggy Dog Stories.
Other Useful Resources for Older Adults
retireguide.com offers information for older adults - everything from navigating Medicare to taking care of yourself while raising your grandchildren.
Deadly Serious Decluttering
Lisa Woodruff: The Paper Solution: What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Life - Her title says it all. Paperwork, aka My Nemesis, is my most anxiety-provoking decluttering problem. Studies show that 85 percent of the paper in our lives can be tossed—but which 85 percent? And how do you deal with those papers you’ve been saving since 1976 because you might need them someday? Here’s help from the ‘Marie Kondo of paper.’ Some of her ideas on handling paperwork are superb, and would have come in handy the night that our neighborhood was inundated with smoke and I was wondering which paperwork to grab from the stack if we needed to make a hasty exit.
Joshua Becker:The More of Less - Joshua has a religious and philosophical take on downsizing, and advises not only radical decluttering but also not buying into the consumer trap and getting all those goodies in the first place, including alas, that vintage red Porsche you’ve had your eye on. A bit late for us I’m afraid. Sometime after our grand adventure, our adorable child arrived, which necessitated buying a house, which like dominos falling, created an explosion of pre-emptive purchasing. We didn’t buy the Porsche of course, because it didn’t go with our new pink and purple color scheme.
Margareta Magnusson: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - I’m sensing a pattern here, Japan, Australia, Sweden… We’re traveling the globe, which is good if you’re looking for great new ideas. Margareta advises decluttering in this world so that your children won’t have to do the job after you’ve left for the next. It’s a common maxim that you can’t take it with you when you go, though I did once read about a man in Pennsylvania who was buried in his Corvette, and another in Ohio who—believe it or not—was buried astride his beloved Harley Davidson.
I wonder how much the undertakers will let me cram into my coffin, and do they charge for extra baggage like the airlines? Maybe I could stuff in some paperwork, just in case, you know, someone up there can’t find my baptismal certificate, or maybe the tax receipts for our weekly church donations. I forget. How many years do you have to save them?
Oh, wait. I don’t have a baptismal certificate.
Fixing Up Your House to Sell
It’s a little known fact, but the moment you start thinking about putting your house on the market, all manner of things will go wrong with it. And then of course there are all those things your sweetie has been planning to repair for a while now.
We went back to school to learn how to remedy these problems. I found a fix-up-your-house-to-sell class at our local community college. The teacher, aka Mr. Fix It, a retired contractor and house inspector was truly amazing. The class was so good, in fact, that I didn’t bother reading any books on the problem, which given the subject matter—house repairs—is probably par for the course for someone who has zero interest in learning plumbing skills at this point in her life.
A couple of his easier ideas: Dawn dish soap cuts grease on absolutely everything. And take those ugly garbage and recycling bins over to your nice neighbors during open house day.
You can find more of Mr. Fix It’s tips in—you guessed it—Diary of a Reluctant Downsizer. What can I say? I’m incorrigible. Now where did I put those notes? Hopefully not in one of those boxes that Ms. Woodruff advised chucking out.
Living smaller,and smaller,and smaller…
Decorating Small Spaces: Live Large in Any Space A Better Homes and Gardens book for those of us who never went to design school and are unlikely to hire a professional designer for advice on how to rearrange our thirty-something-year-old furniture and sizable knick-knack collection so that we can make our newly downsized spaces work.
Christopher Lowell: You Can Do It! Small Spaces: Decorating to Make Every Inch Count The title speaks for itself, and Christopher, who also has a TV show, tells us that if the bed fills all the available space that’s okay. ‘It’s a bed room.’
Kyle Schuneman: The First Apartment Book Kyle, a young designer who shows us how to make a really small space—think New York City hotplate and mini-fridge—look good. You’re probably not going this small, but if you are, then Kyle’s book is worth checking out. And, as you know, the tiny house movement is getting a lot of traction. However, getting down those ladders from the loft bed for the inevitable middle-of-the-night bathroom break, could cause logistical difficulties for those of us who are a tad clumsy and also afraid of heights.
Getting Cozy…
Meik Wiking: The Little Book of Hygge - Describes how Danes are the happiest people on the planet and how they take the art of coziness to the highest levels. Meik, a happiness researcher, has been called the Indiana Jones of Smiles. Come to think of it, that’s a job I wouldn’t mind having.
Helen Russell: The Year of Living Danishly - Helen apparently took the Viking/Wiking hygge challenge to heart and actually moved from the UK to Denmark. Or perhaps it had something to do with her husband—whom she calls Lego Man—getting a job in Denmark. Helen’s take on the subject is more memoir than advice, and it has a lovely happy ending. Read the book to find out. It’s cute, funny, and both she and Meik are serious about socks—just like Marie Kondo.
…and Staying Happy
Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project - Or how to stay married through the mother of all decluttering projects. This book advocates daily kisses and murmured words of encouragement. Trust me on this one; downsizing has been known to rock the boat of some very long and rather strong marriages.
If you’d like a podcast to listen to while you are decluttering, try The Happiness Lab, by Dr. Laurie Santos, Ten Percent Happier by Dan Harris, or The Science of Happiness by Dacher Keltner. I’m sensing a pattern here too. Perhaps we should also listen to Susan David’s podcast: Checking In, specifically the episode, 'Why Bad Emotions Are Good.'