Does this work, is this a livable situation, especially if you're in the retirement years of your life? Of course, only each individual can answer that question. I, personally, am saying that simplifying your life and downsizing is very do-able. I wouldn't say that it has been easy to accomplish this. We come from a time when a wife, a mother, a grand-mother just was expected to do certain things. We needed "things" to be the proper caretaker of our family and hostess to our friends. I mean what self respecting lady didn't have a nice deviled egg plate...what if it was the big dinner? what if something had to be taken to church? what if someone died? Since we were fortunate and able to, it didn't hurt to have more than one.
The thing is, over the years, those "things" grew. We had our own egg plates, special dishes, etc. and then we began to have things passed down from our grandmother, our mother. Then we added all the modern necessities and multiplied them...automobiles, televisions, telephones, kitchen appliances and now computers, gadgets and cell phones. One day, you find yourself rattling around in a large house with lots of stuff...lots of stuff. You go to the cabinet to look for the egg plate and you find six or eight egg dishes. Why? Your life has become massive, expensive and excessive.
I read a good article about the myths and mistakes that we're making about our retirement years. Two things rang very true to me. One was the mistaken belief (or just the plain acceptance) that you'll work until you die. Really? you're going to just accept that. What about health issues? What about that job disappearing, you're going to go job hunting at age 67? Even if you haven't done a lot of planning and preparing for your "golden years", to continue to go to a job everyday in order to support an overblown life, seems very sad and unrealistic to me.
The second thing was that people have a very hard time downsizing. That's no surprise, it's not easy to go what we consider backwards, to pare down a lifestyle. Many people could retire, could quit work, could even enjoy some travel or hobbies, if they just simplified their basic everyday life a bit. The truth is, you don't need six egg plates, you don't need a four bedroom house. The family gathering doesn't have to be at your house, there are parks, restaurants, hotels. You don't have to give up your family or the everyday little luxuries that you enjoy in order to downsize. You just have to trim away the excess and unnecessary. Not only can it be a removal of large burdens from your back, you might be surprised at how exciting the change can be.
Get out of your big old box and think about the possibilities of a small, simpler one. One of the nicest things that happened to me over the last few months was at the huge downsizing sale we held. One of my daughters came to me with tears in her eyes, a large old beat up speckled roaster pan in her hands, "You're selling this, Moma?! We cooked everything in this pan."
With a big smile and a hug, I said, "No, honey....not selling it, it's all yours." She added it to her huge box with the egg plate and the Christmas dishes and the prom dress that had been carefully stored through years and moves. When my tiny grand-daughter saw it, she put her hands to her pretty face and said, "Oh-h-h, I love it!" Simple isn't bad, less for me and more for them.
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