Decluttering & Downsizing Blog

This past weekend, I took a three-day trip with a friend who was celebrating her 70th birthday. She had raced cars before, and for her milestone birthday she wanted to get behind the wheel and drive around Watkins Glen, a legendary racetrack in upstate New York. So she did. At ...

If you’ve lived in your home for 20, 30, maybe even 40 years, and you’re beginning to think, “I know I’m going to have to downsize someday… But where on earth do I even start?” This is a question I get almost every day. You’re not alone. You’re not stuck ...

If you had told me when I started downsizing that my plan would include pizza, wine, weekends with family and friends, and eventually an entire summer off, I would have thought you were kidding me. But that’s exactly what happened. And looking back, I think those things were every bit ...

There are moments in life when you see something that changes you. Not just for a day. Not just for a certain trip you may be taking. It changes the way you see your entire life. For me, that moment happened in Senegal, West Africa. My son had joined the ...

You can walk through a dozen smaller homes and still not know whether any of them would fit the way you actually live. A floor plan can show room dimensions, but it cannot tell you how it feels to make coffee, welcome a friend, spread out a project, or move ...

Forget almost everything you’ve been told about downsizing—including some of what I may have told you. Downsizing is not necessarily about getting older. It is not something you have to do only when you retire, when the stairs become difficult, or when the yard becomes too much to manage. And ...

Are you thinking about downsizing but not quite ready to make a decision? You may know that your current home feels too large. Perhaps the children have moved away, guest rooms sit unused, or the formal living room no longer reflects the way you live. At the same time, you ...

I recently walked into a client’s home, and she apologized before I had even made it through the door. Alternatives to downsizing. “I’m so sorry for this room,” she said, gesturing toward the formal living room. “We rarely use it. It’s just there.” I looked around at the beautiful windows, ...

Have you found yourself saying, “I know I need to downsize, but I can’t do it right now”? You look around and know your house no longer fits the way you live. The children are grown. Rooms sit empty. The stairs feel harder to navigate, and the closets are filled ...