Decluttering to Downsize: #1 Tip for Downsizing for Seniors 

After my precious husband lost his life last year to three concurrent kinds of cancer, my children insisted that I must move out of our big, comfortable house, saying it wouldn’t be safe to stay in a two-story house at my age, because if I should fall on the stairs, there’d be no one here to help me. Getting our combined lifelong possessions sorted out for the move to a house half the size of ours was a nightmare: so many beautiful things and memorabilia we had accumulated, plus his old Navy uniforms and military awards, for example, all had to be dealt with. Each of us had overflowing closets of clothing in several different sizes, some of which we hadn’t worn in years. It took me many months to get it figured out and then either boxed up to take with me, donated to a worthy organization, or simply tossed. Afterward I had a feeling of great relief and peace, and now I’m looking forward to what will probably be the last phase of my life, knowing that earthly possessions don’t matter nearly as much as feeling freer and unburdened of so much STUFF, and enjoying my simpler life closer to my children and grandchildren. It’s SO HARD, but it’s totally worth it.

I retired as a physician after nearly 30 years on active duty in the Navy. Both my wife and I learned to declutter before the move and then again after the move. Unfortunately she died on active duty in 2014. We are almost at the tenth anniversary in Apr/2024. In my new home Florida (where I grew up) it has been a long process of organizing/dealing with memories but I will achieve my goal. I really do not buy anything except groceries including for my 2 cats, clothing when needed, and gas for my 4 door 2022 Minicooper hardtop (good on gas mileage and fun to drive).about 400+ miles on a topped tank. Thank you for your advice. God bless.

Any large trash bags should go inside a box before filling. Full trash bags are very heavy, and when they're placed in a box, it is far easier to move it.

Do Not Donate To Goodwill.

Take photos of sentimental items you have to leave behind. You still have the memory without taking up storage space.

I think you first should be honest about the size of your new space first. Find a space in your current house that is around this size. Have someone help to empty that room. This is now your keep space. Put furniture you are keeping in this room first. Then use this space to store your keep items. It helps to put reality in the amount you can really keep. Because wealways want to keep too much.

The worst part of downsizing are the family heirlooms. No one wants great grandma's coffee grinder that she brought from Norway 150 years ago.

When I can't decide if I should keep something or not, I ask myself if something should happen to me tomorrow, would I want my adult children to have to deal with this item?

I think RECYCLE Bag should be before trash- there’s plenty of filled landfills.

"Don't hold on to your past, it's never coming back, you gotta LET IT GO!" - Less Than Jake

I have a couple of tips that helped me when I was decluttering. When I'm trying to decide if I should hang on to something, I remind myself that my goal is to declutter. Will I miss the item if I let go of it? Will anyone in my family miss the item? Do I actually need or use it? Three strikes it's out. Also, I pick one space or room to declutter at first so it doesn't seem overwhelming. Last year I had my kitchen updated. I had to empty the cabinets. When the update was done, I decluttered the kitchen and organized it. It took weeks but I hadn't done it in decades.

Well, I wound up having to do this for my mom. She was a child of the depression, and as I found out firsthand, had a hard time throwing anything out. By the time she passed away, she wasn't even throwing junk mail away. After she passed, my husband helped me clean out her house, and thank God I had him. Between junk mail and other similar items, I would guess we wound up taking upwards of 50 bags to the trash. This included some of her clothes, but as my mom always tried to be a snappy dresser, some of her clothes were able to be used by my granddaughters, and some of the nicer ones we donated. I saved several boxes of things that had sentimental value. One thing that struck me was that it became evident that she had a large stockpile of items that had been given to her during the last 20 or 30 years of her life that she just had no use for, and this included a few items I had given her. What I learned: an elderly person has no use for bedding sets, kraft kits, cutesy jam jars, peignoir sets, lotion/soap sets, holiday tchotchkes, or any additional items of the like. The last few years of her life, I caught on and started sending her gift boxes from the Fruit Company (that had the yummy stuff she wanted and the healthy fruit I was trying to push on her), and the fancy walker she needed that had all the special extra features. In retrospect, my mother in law is the next dear soul I suppose I will have to deal with the aftermath of, and my sister-in-laws and myself are already rolling our eyes regarding the directive "make sure you divide my towels". This can become quite an emotional situation.

I never recommend using the large black trash bags for everything. When they are full, they are usually too heavy for seniors to haul out to the curb. They are great for large items like pillows, Styrofoam and wire hangers. For everything else I recommend the tall kitchen bags, much easier to handle.

DO NOT DONATE TO GOODWILL!!! Donate to a local charity or shelter who uses your donations to help others in need. Goodwill helps no one but themselves and sell trash along with the good stuff donated. Everything is donated they sell it. After paying a few employees (most of their workers are volunteers). The profit goes into the owners pocket and he only pays rent/utilities. Some people can’t afford to pay goodwill prices

I have a friend, he is disabled but he is caregiver for his wife, she became bedridden. Both of them are in their early mid 70's. Both are so impractical. She worked from her bed, using her laptop and phone to oversee orders from an elite specialty gift store. She hoarded craft supplies. Now their entire house, closets, storage shed and large garage are just filled to the brim with all this craft supply stuff. She wound up hospitalized long term, she has since had her fingers and one foot amputated. I am trying to help my friend declutter their house. He is reluctant to toss out all of it, he still thinks she may come home and ask him to help her make a wreath or whatever. He has gotten rid of much of it, but it is just so overwhelming, the amount of stuff she ordered and bought. I get so sad when I go over there, all the money she wasted. You could literally stock an Amazon warehouse for several years with what she purchased. The majority of it is still sealed in the package. I just do not understand why he went along with it all, and allowed her to do it. Even if it was her money that she earned working from bed, it is just mind boggling to see the volume of what she robo ordered.

I've found that having a neutral party (a friend) declutter with me is, hands down, the best way to determine what's worth keeping and what should be tossed. They're not burdened with sentimental attachments for starters.

When my husband and I retired we moved to Hawaii. We left a huge home that we had been in for years to a tiny condo. We brought with us only 5 suitcases and had our car shipped (the car has to be completely empty when shipping.) What a load downsizing took off of our shoulders!! Now we live a simple life without all that stuff……….and we don’t miss a thing.

Everything in my house is deliberately bought. All usefull in my love of life. Some of the camping gear can go because I'm too old to luxuriate in that any more. Half the paint rags will go and old printer ink cartridges JUST got tossed. That's all I can think up today. No recycle here so its up to me to find 2nd and 3rd uses till remains are fiber compost. I'm never leaving my garden, so I'm never moving. Check of values on ebay are so low I'd rather keep and not fuss with selling and pics and postage. "downsize into dream home" Um... I've been in my dream home for 30 years. Not retiring ever. My keep bucket is my whole house. Grandkids will have one heck of an estate sale. ))

I don't have anything new in the package! I do have things I used once or twice and I'm gonna let them go!

Omg! I was wondering what happened to Betsy DeVos

Thank you.

I have a ton of photographs from over my many years. How can I get rid of them? 😟