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[raywilb]

swimbo & I are shortly moving from a 3 bedroom house  into a 1 bed bungalow. ( don't know exact when ) in my garden I have 3 sheds all full of mechanics tools (-upteen boxes ) builders tools & a shed full of gardening stuff. already done. loads of trips to the council tip with bags of stuff , done the charity shops off loading clothes. games books etc. i even have bought a 7" x 3.5ft"  trailer to help move.  stuff, as my wife has told me all the white goods & small electric appliances are going to be new. carpets new . it looks like all we are moving with is some living room furniture & tellies a bed + a few boxes of stuff. looking forward to it 

[Entwood]

Understand your pain !!!  A conversation took place  a month or so back where Chris muted the fact that we would have to consider downsizing to a bungalow if stairs became a problem - conversation triggered by a friend who suddenly cannot do stairs at all for medical reasons.

I took her for a gentle walk around the house, stuck her head up in the loft, and casually mentioned the fact that no car has been inside the garage for 20 years due to the amount of crap that is stored therein .....and then simply asked ... "What the  **** do we do with that lot" ...... after a few moments thought the answer was .. "best we don't damage our backs" ......



A touch of realism methinks !!  God forbid it ever actually has to happen !!!

[ronnyd]

I think it,s a discussion that most of us have to have at some point. Am now just starting the process of clearing all the crap from the loft, garage and two of the bedrooms, (there is only me and SWMBO) in a four bedroom house. The problem has been compounded by the influx of stuff from clearing out my late Dads and SILs stuff too. I feel it,s something that i should do as it would fall on my kids if i got too old to do it. The two boys live 100 and 270 miles away and daughter is contemplating a move to the Canaries in the next year or two. So i reckon it,s down to me. Oh joy, i,d better buy an estate i suppose. 

[Rods2]

We all tend to accumulate junk when we have a big house to grow into. Periodic decluttering helps, but when it comes to serious downsizing, I reckon it is skip(s) and being ruthless. After 20 years of sitting on the it will be useful someday, we all know its never going to be the case, until a week after we've thrown it out.

[Bigron]

The trouble is, when considering throwing things away - you never know when you eill need it again?

Ron.

[BazaJT]

We "downsized"about 4yrs ago as Maureen could no longer get upstairs[luckily the house we lived in had a downstairs loo]we moved from a 2 up 2 down to a 2 bedroom bungalow.What we lost was  one room and the off road parking we had.What we gained was a garden[landlord won't let me hammer the wall and park on the garden ] and a shed.Even so the amount of crap I had to take to the skip-mostly mine and of the "it may come in handy one day" variety-was unbelievable

[raywilb]

swimbo & I are shortly moving from a 3 bedroom house  into a 1 bed bungalow. ( don't know exact when ) in my garden I have 3 sheds all full of mechanics tools (-upteen boxes ) builders tools & a shed full of gardening stuff. already done. loads of trips to the council tip with bags of stuff , done the charity shops off loading clothes. games books etc. i even have bought a 7" x 3.5ft"  trailer to help move.  stuff, as my wife has told me all the white goods & small electric appliances are going to be new. carpets new . it looks like all we are moving with is some living room furniture & tellies a bed + a few boxes of stuff. looking forward to it 

  I did buy a dustbin type garden incinerator that's managed to burn papers going back to 1978. + wooden picture frames etc

[Shackeng]

swimbo & I are shortly moving from a 3 bedroom house  into a 1 bed bungalow. ( don't know exact when ) in my garden I have 3 sheds all full of mechanics tools (-upteen boxes ) builders tools & a shed full of gardening stuff. already done. loads of trips to the council tip with bags of stuff , done the charity shops off loading clothes. games books etc. i even have bought a 7" x 3.5ft"  trailer to help move.  stuff, as my wife has told me all the white goods & small electric appliances are going to be new. carpets new . it looks like all we are moving with is some living room furniture & tellies a bed + a few boxes of stuff. looking forward to it 

7 inches might be a little small. Remember, size matters.

[Shackeng]

Can't afford to down size, as mentioned above, far too much "stuff" to get rid off. So just have do the 5th extension to improve storage, and let the kids clear it out.

[Varche]

Interesting thread. I am one of those hoarders- it may come in type.

In 2003 we sold our UK house and put our useful stuff into storage pending moving abroad. We had a huge clearout with

- selling on Ebay ( that was fun in those days). You would be amazed at the old stuff people will buy.
- car boot ( which most certainly wasn't fun. In fact it was a ghastly experience )
- garage sale ( which was actually a yard sale of things like garden ornaments, chimney pots, even plants). That was quite fun.
- numerous tip trips ( running the gauntlet as the guy was convinced we were traders)

Then we lived in a caravan for eight months while we drove around looking for a house in France or Spain. That was actually very liberating as we only had the stuff you actually really really need for living.

Then we had our stuff in UK storage moved to our new house ruin and started collecting again. Two things brought home how much we had. First is after 14 years we still have a number of boxes unopened! The second was initially never having stuff like off cuts of wood to hold something in place. Got plenty again now.....

Mrs V keeps raising the subject of downsizing , I really like where we live but accept in a few years we might not be able to negotiate stairs. In the meantime we will keep accumulating.

Good luck with your move

 

[Bigron]

Squirrels of the world, unite! 

Ron.

[Lazydocker]

We already live in a bungalow so ticked that box off already!

Although we are considering a loft extension 

[TheBoy]

My view is, apart from xmas decs and suitcases, if anything goes in the loft, it may as well be skipped.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I agree with that, but unfortunately our loft is jam packed full of swmbos stuff - in case its needed some time. 
We downsized (not through choice) about 15 years ago. The house we moved to is the size of one room in the previous house.
Swmbo was in hospital very ill, when I did the move, and I had the impossible task of fitting the contents of the big house into the little one. I still break out in a cold sweat at the memory !
I hate clutter whether in the house, shed, car, or anywhere else. Swmbo is a natural hoarder, so a degree of compromise is required - mostly from me, of course. 

[TheBoy]

our loft is jam packed full of swmbos stuff

Bin it, she'll be none the wiser