Hanging On vs Moving On: Downsizing

This entire month our focus has been on perspective shifting.  We've talked about:

• Getting ready to sell your home – the perspective of ‘my home’ vs ‘ a home (a product)’.
• Setting up a new home – the shift of perspective of ‘old’ vs ‘new’.
• De-cluttering – the shift of perspective of “holding on’ vs ‘moving on’.

This week we're going to talk about

• Downsizing – the shift of perspective of ‘hanging on‘ to ‘new beginnings’.

When it comes to downsizing, it's not always an easy process to go from living with everything you have been used to living with, to living with what will fit in your new home and/or what you need.  Heck, you don't even have to be moving to go through the process of downsizing.  As my family gets ready for a renovation, I've made it very clear what is going to happen in our home:

1. There will be 2 bins on our driveway.
   1. A storage bin for all of our furniture and belongings.
   2. A dumpster for all the construction debris and all the other stuff in our home that can not be donated or recycled.
2. Anything that will not be 'making the grade' to come back into our home after our renovation will either be donated, recycled, or put in the dumpster.

Some of you may be thinking, "Woah - won't that be hard to decide what will 'make the cut'?  My answer, "No."  It's easy for me to say that because I've learned to live with what we need and let go of the things that we don't.  Some people actually call downsizing 'right sizing'.  I love that term because to me it means taking what we have - what is 'right' - and getting rid of the rest (the unnecessary).

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"In Feng Shui, clutter represents postponed decisions and the inability to move forward. What you accumulate, where you put it, and why you keep it say a lot about you," accoridng to Carol Olmstead, FSIIIn an article I read recently, Courtney Carver of BeMoreWithLess says that, "Letting go of stuff becomes so much easier once you let go of the fear of living without it."  She goes on to list fears of letting go:

• I'm afraid I'll have to buy it again.
• I’m afraid that if I let go of something sentimental that I will forget the memory.
• I’m afraid my stuff won’t go to the right place.
• I’m afraid I won’t have anything left to give my children.
• I’m afraid getting rid of my stuff will take alot of work.
• I’m afraid people will think I am weird or ungrateful because I keep giving things way.
• I’m afraid that I wasted money on things and giving stuff away is like money down the drain.

You can read Courtney's article here to find out what she thinks about all of fears listed above.

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As Lori Deschene of Tiny Buddha puts it, "In trying to hold on to what’s familiar, we limit our ability to experience joy in the present."

So here's to living in the present and to new beginnings!

 Wishing to fall in love with your home!  Work with Get It Together today! 

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