How Do You Eat An Elephant?

As I blogged about earlier, when we decided it was time to move forward with our retirement plans, including a downsize and a move, the thought was overwhelming. I almost had to turn my 'no stage fright' title into a mantra for my emotional support.

As I mentioned, I used my dog-eared room planner to organize the condo space.  I then turned to my project management skills as I began to look at this transition like any other project I've managed. The compulsive me made a Gantt chart and got to work. The chart showed all the tasks that needed done in preparation for our move, including things like room-by-room decluttering, packing, condo kitchen remodel, winterizing the hot tub, selecting a realtor, listing the house, contacting an auctioneer, contacting a mover, etc. The chart also showed how long each task would take and where it fit in the scheme of the move.

We decided the condo kitchen remodel would best be done before we actually moved into the space, so we went ahead and designed the new space and set the contractors to work.

We turned our weekly trips to Columbus to monitor the remodel progress into opportunities to take carloads of things down with us, thus easing the burden when moving day would finally come.

In the meantime, we continued to find homes for the things that could be rehomed. Once donations had left the building, the basement was turned into two discreet zones: condo and auction. Those items from the condo zone that would easily fit into the car would be taken during one of those regular trips down to Columbus.

We contacted a realtor, mover and auctioneer in early December. We chose to go with the realtor and movers who we had previous experience with as they both had a proven track record with us. We had already decided we would move out with our pets before listing the house. We had enough furniture being left behind that the house would be staged adequately and not appear empty.

This decision to vacate first was made based on previous experience with trying to show a house while having pets... something I would highly discourage anyone from doing if at all possible due to the logistics involved.

Moving day was set for early January. This would give us one last holiday in the 'old' house, with lots of space for all. It was a bittersweet Christmas for our family but we all agreed that being closer to two of our daughters and their growing families was well worth the sacrifice.

Downsizing...eek!

The biggest challenge to this move is that we are having to downsize from our present 4000+ sf, 2 story w/ finished basement, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 3 car garage on a 1/2 acre lot to a 1200 sf, 2nd floor, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, one car garage condo... 32 years of accumulated 'stuff' is a lot stuff!!  But you know what they say about how to eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  And that is exactly my approach to this task as well.

I started with my trusty 'With House In Hand'  planner/organizer. It's the same one I bought 28 years ago when we were building our first home.  I've used it each and every time we've moved to help figure out where our furniture will go before the actual move.  With every furniture or accessory purchase I cut out new templates for the new stuff and purge any of the old pieces.  This move is no different, so I just drew out all of the spaces in the condo and started to decide what could stay, what needed to go and what needed to be replaced.

Examples of what will stay: we have two twin beds in one of the bedrooms here.  I always wanted a guest room with two beds, and these are a recent purchase that I really like.  The head and foot boards are iron and the mattresses are super comfortable.  I like the versatility of two twins - you can leave them separate or push them together for a nice king.  They will stay and work well in the guest bedroom at the condo.  We also have 7 cherry bookshelves in our current library that will fit perfectly in the third bedroom at the condo (which will be our den).  I have a powder coated baker's rack with tile serving area that I love, and I've decided that this will fit perfectly on the covered deck as a serving piece/plant rack.

What needs to go is a lot of stuff! Years and years of memories and collections.  And family things.   Including a pool table, fooz ball table, Nordic Track, a whole set of leather furniture from the current family room, a dining room set, lots of deck furniture (we're going from a monster deck of about 800 sf to a modest 10 x 10), our 12' Christmas tree, closets full of clothes, tools, pictures, books, and on and on...  We've already started this process by selling our third car (bye bye Mini Cooper) and our riding lawn mower.  We replaced the large zero-turning mower with a push mower now that we're retired and have the time to push mow.  We figure we can sell the push mower easily when it's time to move.  Also in the same category is a ton of lawn/garden stuff, including a snow blower, leaf blower, edger, etc.

And things that need to be replaced include our current master bedroom suite which is WAY too big for the condo master.  While this makes me sad (I LOVE our current set), I know that I would hate the crowded feeling of jamming all the pieces into a too-small space, so the set will have to be replaced.  I'm sure we'll find someone who will love it the way we do.  Also on the list of replacements is a new dining room set - the one we have in the condo is an antique that has outlived its usefulness for us and is ready to make someone else happy - and the one we have here is country white, which will be a tough match for the ebony arts and crafts style cabinetry in the new kitchen.  I'm hoping to get a simple craftsman style table and chairs and hutch that will fit the bill for us.

So little by little, room by room, we are looking at everything with a more critical eye.  The whole process is good for us, and also good for others...lol...I have a list of a dozen or so charities that have gotten donated clothes, books, knickknacks and furniture from us already, and we've still got lots to go.  I've also gotten good at selling on eBay - a nice way to get rid of things you know you have value, particularly if they are small and easily shipped.

My plan is to declutter and downsize first, all the while separating what will go with us to Columbus and what can stay here to be sold.  At some point, we'll get an auctioneer in to get rid of the furniture and appliances that are not practical to sell on eBay or Craigslist.

Like you eat an elephant...one bite at a time...

Now you:
Are you a 'saver'?  How do you go about downsizing and/or decluttering?  What's your best advice for making this job easier?

I'm Baaccckkkk...lol...

.
Well, we've been retired for over 7 months now (actually only about 4 since I did some contracting for my previous employer for a few months after I left from full time employment).  Here's an update of what's been going on...

Our pet sitting business is growing rather nicely.  We've actually turned down some work when it has overlapped activities that we had previously planned for ourselves.  The way I look at it, if you have the foresight to schedule in advance, we'll have the courtesy to hold the date.  But last minute requests, which I consider to be a week or less notice, may be risky for you.  After all, we are retired. :)

Tudor and Tasha, two of our clients' furbabies

We've also been putting quite a bit of effort into downsizing by picking one room/area of the house at a time and attacking it with gusto.  This week's project has been our study.  There are 7 sets of bookshelves in the study, along with a grand piano and a low, long filing cabinet.  I've purged 5 of the 7 units (hubby is in charge of his own and I still have one to go).  I've gotten rid of about 300 books - most of them how-to, but also a fair number of novels and cookbooks.  The way I see it, unless it's a very special book, I can either borrow it from the library (if it's a novel) or google what I need to know (if it's a how-to/self-help).  Not even my cookbooks were spared.  I saved the ones that I know I use and that were special gifts, but all the ones that I've collected over the years have gone on to better homes. We have a local branch of the American Association of University Women that got a boatload of them, and the rest will go to the Friends of the Library.  Here's a picture of the ones that are headed to the Friends of the Library.

More books for Friends of the Library

I plan on taking the bookshelves with us when we move, but I also know that our storage space at the condo will be very limited, and I've got other plans for shelf space, namely my photo albums and scrapbooking supplies.

And here's another picture of my neatened up cookbook bookshelves and the other side of the room (hubby's shelves are on the far left...).

After the purge (hubby's books on left)

Cookbooks that made the cut

I still need to attack the file cabinet, but it's only Wednesday...

I should add that we are on baby watch - our youngest daughter, Laurin, and her husband, Eric are expecting their first baby (our first grandbaby) any day now and our plan is to head to southwestern OH to be there for Jack's birth, God willing.  So some of the cleaning might have to be postponed for a few days while we welcome the new little one.  More about that later!

Updates

OK, so I guess you could say I've fallen off the blog-wagon.  But I'm back, and  with lots of updates.  Gonna go in the easiest direction, which is forward, starting from my last post in September.  

In October, Larry experienced a spontaneous hip fracture, which was repaired with three stainless screws and about 10 weeks of non (well, toe-touch) weight bearing using a walker.  He's now going to PT 2x a week and faithfully doing his at-home exercises, so we are back on track to full mobility, and hopefully to our bike riding plans for when the weather breaks.

In December, we both gave notice to our employers of our intent to retire effective January 4.  We enjoyed wonderful holidays with our families near and  we began to really feel the retirement train headed down our track! In the meantime, we continued setting up the groundwork for our pet sitting business - we joined PSI (Pet Sitters International) and signed up for their certification course; and we've been easing into advertising and the nitty-gritty of opening up bank accounts, getting a tax id, registering the business name, creating a website (www.sitstayfetchllc.com), etc.

I spent 2 weeks in Arizona in January for my mom's 75th birthday - my sister and I had a surprise party for her and she was truly surprised.  They were good times!   It was rather cold the first week - a low of 18°, but then we had record highs the second week - 81° two days in a row.  Got some shopping and golfing in and had a nice, relaxing time out there. 

Yesterday we had our first pet sitting appointment and I am happy to say we have our first (and second) jobs lined up.  That's exciting!!  Meanwhile, I am working a few hours a week as a marketing consultant with my former employer and loving the fact that there are days that we don't even have to get out of our jammies if we don't want.  

Our next big event is our oldest daughter's wedding in Cape Cod in June, and along the way, we're continuing to work at downsizing the old homestead in preparation for a move to a smaller place.  

I do have a recipe to share - it's one for some yummy granola that was featured in the December 2012 Better Homes and Gardens.

Quinoa Pumpkin Seed Granola (registration required)