Empty Nest, Right-Sized Life: A Downsizing Guide For Baby Boomers

For many empty nesters, the echoes bouncing off once-bustling hallways can be a bittersweet reminder of a different era. With children venturing out on their own paths, the sprawling family home that once held so much joy can begin to feel like a burden. Downsizing, often referred to as "right-sizing" for retirement, presents an exciting opportunity to tailor your living space to your current needs and aspirations.

Why Downsize?

The decision to downsize is driven by a multitude of factors. The freedom from the demands of raising a family allows empty nesters to reimagine their living situation. Financial considerations, such as reduced income and the desire to free up capital, also play a significant role. Many retirees crave a simpler lifestyle, one that prioritizes low-maintenance living and fosters a stronger sense of community.

Planning for a Smooth Transition

Downsizing doesn't have to be an overwhelming process. Starting early allows for a gradual decluttering process, a crucial step in determining the ideal size and layout for your new home. Carefully consider your future lifestyle. Understanding your preferences will guide you in your search for the perfect downsizing location.

The Downsizing Landscape

For empty nesters, navigating the local real estate market requires a keen understanding of the downsizing landscape. Consulting with experienced real estate agents familiar with the downsizing trends can be invaluable. Their expertise can streamline the search process and ensure you find a home that aligns with your budget and vision. It’s also a great time to explore movers in your area. For instance, moving services in Boston, Dallas, or wherever you’re interested in moving to. 

Downsizing isn't just about square footage; it's about creating a lifestyle that fosters your golden years. The accompanying infographic delves deeper into key strategies for a smooth and successful downsizing journey. Remember, downsizing presents an opportunity to embrace new hobbies, explore new communities, and craft a future filled with purpose and joy. 

4 Tips For a Successful Move

Whether you’re moving for the fourteenth time in your life, or it’s your first time ever, it never really gets easier.  There are always a million more items to pack than you imagined, and seemingly never enough time to get it all done by moving day. Not only is it exhausting, but it can be downright stressful.  

As if that wasn’t enough, hauling and unloading your stuff can lead to all sorts of disasters if you don’t have a careful team of hands alongside you.

The great news is that with a little organization and a few tips up your sleeve, you can pull off a successful move.  Take a look at some of the best pointers to get you through. 

Start As Early As Possible

The minute that you have an idea of when you’ll be moving, you should start preparing for it.  Start going into your house room by room and deciding what you want to keep and what you want to purge.

Initially, it can feel downright overwhelming imagining how you’ll possibly fit it all into boxes.  But by breaking it down into small individual projects that you start well ahead of time, it won’t feel like such a monumental task.

Get Plenty of Supplies

You can forget about using soggy old boxes that have been in your garage for a decade.  In order to make sure that you have a successful move, you’ll need to equip yourself with plenty of high-quality equipment like thick boxes and packing tape.

Although some people buy their own boxes, you can find plenty of high-quality boxes at places like the grocery store or even in your neighborhood recycling bin.  

Pack Lightly

Even though you might be tempted to fit your belongings into as few boxes as possible, this isn’t always the best plan when moving day comes.  Do yourself (and your back) a favor, and keep the boxes under 50 pounds each.

Not only will it make carrying the boxes much easier for you and your moving mates, but it will also make unpacking easier.  Believe it or not, boxes with more items in them make it harder to find things when they’re packed.  However, fewer items in smaller boxes make it easy to dig in a box and find when you need it.

Color Code

A lot of people are familiar with writing the contents of the box on the outside.  For example, labeling everything from your kitchen with “kitchen” on it.  Although this can be helpful, color coding can be even more foolproof.  It’s easier to spot color for each section of your house than reading an entire word. 

4 Tips for Organizing Your Space When You Move Into a New Apartment

No matter what size your apartment is, it's important to keep it organized so that you don't become overwhelmed by clutter. Fortunately, many apartment units offer multiple basic storage areas to help you get started. How you use those storage areas, though, will make a big difference in the overall organization of your apartment. Fortunately, with these areas properly utilized and a few other storage solutions in place, your apartment will feel roomy and look spectacular.

Try Different Arrangements

The arrangement of your furniture is absolutely critical to the success of your apartment's overall organization. Therefore, when you first move in, it's a good idea to try your furniture in different arrangements to see which arrangement makes the best use of the space. Although some rooms will make it quite obvious where certain pieces of furniture should go, there will be other rooms where you can get creative and do some experimenting.

Start With the Unseen Parts

One critical mistake when trying to organize your apartment is trying to organize the common areas without organizing areas like closets and under-bed spaces first. To be able to contain your belongings effectively, these storage areas need to be carefully organized from the beginning to ensure that everything else falls into place. If you don't have exactly what you need to get these areas organized, it's okay to drop what you're doing and run to the store to ensure you can start your organization on the right foot.

Double-Check Every Box

As you begin to unpack, it's a good idea to go through every box to ensure it ended up where it was supposed to be. While your moving company will work hard to place boxes where they're needed, there's always a chance that you mislabeled a box, causing it to end up in the wrong room. By searching through all of your belongings at the start, you will make sure that you don't get a space organized only to later discover a large number of items that also belong in that space and have to be integrated into the available storage.

Create a "Maybe" Pile

During the unpacking process, you're likely to come across some items that you packed "just in case" you would need them in your new apartment. In many cases, though, you'll find that these items are totally unnecessary. Therefore, to prevent these excess items from cluttering your apartment, create a "maybe" pile of items that aren't likely to stick around. Then, when your apartment is completely organized, take one last look through the "maybe" pile and then get rid of everything that doesn't have a home.

A key to properly organizing your new apartment is to stay focused. In other words, do your best to complete one room before you begin working in another room. Assuming that your belongings are in the rooms where they belong, you won't have a lot of back and forth that will slow you down. Therefore, by staying focused, you allow everything to find its perfect place without being distracted by all the work that's left to be done.

Guest Post - Top Money-Suckers to Repair or Replace When Moving Into a New Home

It's hard to match the euphoria that accompanies the purchase of a new home. That euphoria can quickly be replaced with disappointment, though, if certain items around your home begin to suck up all of your available cash. That's why it's important to take action right after you move in so that you can take care of these money suckers once and for all.

Poor Insulation

A lack of insulation in your home's attic is easy to overlook during the homebuying process. After all, many attics can be difficult to access, and a lack of insulation isn't something that would cause immediate concern for a home inspector. If you don't have enough insulation in your attic, though, you could experience mounting utility bills as your home loses valuable conditioned air. Therefore, after you move in, have your home inspected by a qualified insulation installer to see if any changes need to be made.

Old HVAC System

You can tell a lot about someone by the way they maintain their HVAC system. Unfortunately, you may move into your new home to find that the previous owners didn't put much stock in proper HVAC maintenance. Typically, this means that your HVAC system will operate inefficiently, causing high utility bills and potentially expensive repairs. That's why AC repair and maintenance is one of the first things you'll want to address after you move in so that any lingering problems don't have a chance to cause major disruptions.

Toilet

If the previous homeowner wasn't living in the home when you took a tour, it's likely that the water to the toilet was turned off. Unfortunately, with the water off, it's easy to hide problems, such as toilet leaks, that can lead to major water bills down the road. Not long after moving in, it's a good idea to run a dye test on your toilet. By putting ten drops of food dye into the supply tank and leaving it overnight, you'll be able to spot any leaks that need to be repaired.

Light Bulbs

Although LED light bulbs are more affordable than ever, there is a good chance that you'll come across at least some incandescent light bulbs when you move into your new home. To help lower your electric bill, it's important to replace these light bulbs as soon as possible. Make sure that you check each fixture for wattage limits so that you don't accidentally cause the fixture to overheat.

With so many different items to look into after you move in, it's wise to create some type of checklist. This ensures that you can take care of essential items as you find time instead of trying to do everything at once. Then, when your checklist is complete, you can be sure that your home is operating as efficiently as possible.

Author Bio:

Meghan Belnap / Blogger, Researcher and Freelance Writer
Meghan Belnap is a freelance writer who enjoys spending time with her family. She loves being in the outdoors and exploring new opportunities whenever they arise. Meghan finds happiness in researching new topics that help to expand her horizons. You can often find her buried in a good book or out looking for an adventure. You can connect with her on Facebook right here and Twitter right here.