Monday, April 8, 2013

REMEMBER WHEN I DOWNSIZED?

I wrote a blog post some time ago about downsizing or rightsizing and I'm here to tell you we did the right thing and right-sized. Now my husband and I can communicate without yelling across the multiple rooms although we still do yell at times. Everybody does. LOL And we have close neighbors so we have to keep it to a minimum which we have not had a problem with since neither of us are confrontational.

We have a fantastic view of the lake with a water fountain in the middle and all of the rooms face the lake so we have great views from all our rooms. The biggest decision we had to make was where to put everything from the large house. After a large moving sale and a hefty donation to the Red Cross we brought what was left and fit it in. Had another Goodwill donation and we are all set.

It's a close and intimate feeling when the verticals are closed for the evening but we've adjusted to it--it wasn't very hard. When I'm in the kitchen and the phone rings its four steps to pick it up. Doing laundry is the easiest. The laundry room is outside the bedroom door so I usually sort everything into piles in the bedroom and then carry the individual loads to the washer. In a matter of hours, all-small-loads laundry is completed.

Two bedrooms and two baths accommodates all our needs and then some. In the 2nd bedroom which we dubbed the 'den' we have a corner for travel. It's helped us decide on what we really wanted to keep. Two bookcases full of books and photo albums, a credenza loaded down with electronics and a large desk. We take turns using the desk and it's worked out great.

Because we're in closer proximity to each other we've become closer to each other. It's been kind of like a second honeymoon when we shared all our dreams and wishes. So many of them have been filled or come true, i.e. two children, moving into a bigger house, etc. that we've had to make new ones and the dreaming and wishing for the rest of our lives has taken on a whole new meaning. We've decided we want to travel and our goals have changed.

We no longer want to update the kitchen at the older house, we already have it in the smaller place. We want to save any and all extra money for a trip of our lifetime. Another goal, wish or dream that will come true.