Typing that word sort of takes my breath away. Downsizing. I never really thought I’d do such a thing, but here I am, less than six months after my last child left home, and we’re downsizing.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is not a huge feat of downsizing. Our current home is about 2600 sq ft, and we’re moving in to about 2100 sq ft, so it’s still a generously sized home. But it’s surprising how much a loss of 500 sq ft can affect the things you keep. Also, our current place is a two story home, and we’re moving to a one story home. I cannot emphasize how happy I am about THAT change, let me tell you, because I am way past tired of having to go up the stairs to go to bed every night.

Still, there are changes to be made. For example, we are keeping our larger dining table, but scuttling the breakfast table. There will be a loss of at least one occasional table, a file cabinet, a couple of vintage sewing machines, an almost new, expensive vacuum cleaner (we just purchased this year!!!), lots of paper, magazines, kitchenware, crystal glass, and yes, maybe even some sewing/crafting items.

Our new place is tentatively scheduled to close in November. We decided to go with a new home. In fact, when we signed the contract for it in July, there was a frame for the slab to be poured. This isn’t the first house I’ve had built, but last time it was different. I chose the floor plan and the lot, then I was able to choose the finishes. This time, I chose the floor plan, but the lot had already been selected and the finishes were already chosen. Apparently, due to material shortages, buying a standard home in a neighborhood isn’t as flexible as it once was. This doesn’t bother me overmuch, because our original plan was to buy an existing home. As you know, you never get to choose finishes on an existing home.

We decided to go with new construction because the housing market here is insane, and people have so much cash, there are crazy bidding wars on existing homes, with people paying a LOT more for houses than they are worth. If we’re being honest, a seller is going to be more interested in doing business with someone who can buy a house with cash as opposed to someone who is taking out a loan. We really cannot compete in the existing home market these days.

The minute we saw the model home of the floor plan we chose, we fell in love. It is perfect for us, and we made the decision right there. We lost out on the lot we wanted – there were two we could choose from – because right behind us was a cash purchase, and she wanted that lot. Still, we are very happy with the location and the house, and we are very excited about it.

We are less excited about packing, purging and cleaning, though. We’ve been in this house for the last 10 years, and I have to say, it LOOKS like we’ve been here for the last 10 years. When we signed the contract, I kept thinking that we have six months to move. My daughter graciously pointed out that we have more like four months to move, three if the house closes early in November. That sort of freaked me out a little bit, then I started looking on Pinterest for moving tips. Now, I have done a LOT of moves. I have NOT done a lot of moves that involve downsizing and/or purging a lot of items, hence the Pinterest search. Most of the things I’ve found on the internet about moving, start about six to eight weeks before the move, but I found a few that started at 10 weeks out. I started counting back from our estimated close date, and realized that we only have about 16 weeks total until we may be closing. Yes, I know that date is fluid and can change, but …

I know that for a lot of people, 16 weeks sounds like a long time. And in July, talking about a November move seems like a long way away, but really, when you stop and think about it, that really is not a lot of time. It’s REALLY not a lot of time when you have a 2500 sq ft house full of things you probably need to get rid of, but you have no idea where to start.

Long story short (too late, huh), we have spent most of the last couple of months purging and packing. Chris was much faster at amassing a nice stack of boxes. We have thrown away several garbage bags full of stuff that should have been tossed long along (old shoes, torn clothing, unimportant papers, etc). I keep thinking about things we have that we will no longer need, such as the crystal glasses from my first marriage that never get used. Honestly, we have a LOT of stuff we just don’t need to keep.

Thankfully, we aren’t moving too far – just a little piece down the road. Still, any move is stressful. Fortunately, in between packing boxes and tossing things out, I have Pinterest to keep me company, and to help plan for new decorating ideas. 😉