Downsizing from house to apartment?
 

Has anyone downsized from a house to a regular or senior living apartment? Did you regret it? Do you have space in new place to quilt/sew? We are considering it but would like to know what others have experienced.

I can only speak for my sister, who lives alone. She sold her home and bought a condo. She loves it. No shoveling, yard work or other outside maintenance etc. Her condo association does all that. She also doesn't have hobbies so she has plenty of room.
Downside is she loves to plant flowers and the rules are very strict.
I guess it really depends on your lifestyle and what is/is not important to you.
Wouldn't work for my husband and me but it's pretty much perfect for her.

My mother is in an assisted living one bedroom apartment. There is no extra room. There are two bedroom apartments available. Mom's is over $5,000 per month. I don't know what the cost would be for a two bedroom. She buys a meal package so doesn't have to cook unless she wants to. They have all sorts of activities going on each and every day. She especially loves the Bingo and the wonderful people who come in and do karaoke for everyone. She has made new friends.

Right now we love living where we are. Never know what the future may hold.

I just moved my mom into an assisted living apartment from a house. We downsized a lot to get things to fit in the apartment. She loves her little apartment and is happy there. If she wants to talk to people she can go into the common area or join in activities and if she wants to take a nap she can go into her apartment and shut the door. It is a huge relief to me knowing she is being taken care of and she is happy.

To down size...we made several trips to Goodwill with donations and a trip to the dump too. Mostly, my kids and I absorbed things into our homes. My youngest son is setting up an apartment of his own and took dishes and pans and some furniture. Mom's apartment is unfurnished and she was able take some furniture with her as well as some personal items with her. She also told me who she wanted to have what. That eliminated the fighting over who got what. It made everything as easy as it could be. Things are what you make of them and she made it easy by deciding herself where she wanted to live. It can be done.

We sold our home of 21 years & downsized to a motorhome! I learned to quilt in that & then we bought a 5th Wheel camper with 3 pull outs which is more like an apartment. I have plenty of room to quilt in here! I've made quilts up to King size here. I'm working on a queen sized quilt right now. It's not easy to do, but it's not that bad. I have a Gidget sewing table & a Brother NX-2000 sewing machine. When I'm quilting it faces the wall & I put a TV tray beside it to take any excess of the quilt & sitting in a dining room chair is the right height. If I need a bigger table, we bought a folding plastic table 6' long that we put up outside.

We downsized from a 3600 sq ft 1870s Victorian bed and breakfast to an 1800 sq ft condo - we love it! No yard work, snow shoveling, etc. Lots more time to sew! And we have an extra room for each of us for our hobbies. Those rooms are guest rooms, too, so need to be kept or made tidy occasionally, but not nearly as often as we used to have to keep them at the B&B. Downsizing did take some work, though. We sold a lot of the contents to the new owners, but had to give away things via freecycle, to the Salvation Army, and to our local Re-Store. All well worth it!

Hubby and I are turning our farm site with large farmhouse over to one of our kids. They need the space, we don't. We are moving into a 2 bedroom townhome in a town 3 miles away. Had a big auction 3 years ago to get rid of farm items plus I cleaned out my big attic at that time so that has helped in this downsizing. We are leaving some things for kids, selling or donating the rest of surplus. It's work, sometimes a little bittersweet, but also a good feeling getting rid of all the excess "stuff". We are looking forward to having just a 2 bedroom townhome and a small yard to take care of. Not as much room for quilting, but adequate. Sometimes it's what you make of it. Lots of luck to all of us who are downsizing or just moving on.

I downsized from a three bedroom, family room, full basement with a detached garage to a two bedroom condo with no basement. LOVE the feel of freedom from "stuff". It forced to me make those hard choices of what to keep an what to donate, give to family or simply trash. I started with books I went from 5 book shelving units to three. I eliminated one full bedroom of furniture. I got rid of all outside tools. (I do wish I had my small rake, shovel and show shovel for some small projects.) I shaved down the kitchen small appliances, extra vases, and cookie sheets/baking pans. Really who needs 7 pie plates and I am a pie maker, but 7?

My second bedroom is my sewing room. I rarely have guests so it works well for me. I did sort my stash and donated over time all fabric that I KNEW I would not use or of such poor quality that I was not a good choice for any quilt. I have a double wide closet in my second bedroom and it was FULL when I moved in, but with diligence in the past two years, I have slimmed that down to about 3/4 full. Goal: eliminate one tote of fabric per year. That is doable and will still keep me quilting for a long time to come.

In the end, I absolutely recommend the move and the paring down of possessions. I truly live with much more freedom. My goal for this year is to pare down the holiday decoration bins. I have 7 or 8 all stored on shelves in my garage but I need to sort, repack with more organization and donate what is not usable in my smaller living space.

Happy sorting, donating and .... moving!

We are in the process of doing this. It is HARD but so worth it. We had lived in our large home over 45 years and are moving into a very small 2 bedroom apt but we both love it. We are still getting rid of stuff. The apt is brand new so all new appliances and has no steps, a back door with a small patio and same at the front door. has my swing on the front patio (love my swing) still in middle of moving all my fabric and getting rid of some. the second bedroom will be my sewing room and we don't have much overnight guests so we are going to put in a futon. there is a large closet in there and will use it for fabric storage. We are so happy here with no responsibility of yard work, and if something goes wrong we just call the landlord. which by the way they are wonderful. we are in a senior living community and it is wonderful. Our kids were so happy we decided to do this and save them the problems later. For us it is wonderful and I would recommend it for anyone

I downsized from a 2100 sq foot home to a 1300 sq foot townhouse a year and a half ago and have no regrets. I piece in the extra bedroom and use the finished basement for my Handiquilter, stash and second DSM.

It snowed last today and I didn’t have to lift a finger to clear the driveway and sidewalk. This is the life. ��

+I am in the process of going from 3 bedroom house to a senior living facility being built. Won't be move in ready until mid march, will have 1 bedroom apartment. Have been getting rid of things I won't need or want. Some goes to family members other things donating to Hospice. My family was surprised when told of my plans, some supportive others not. Some said I should hire someone to live with me, not for me. Can take care of myself very well, someday if need help I can stay here and transition into assisted living program. Did all my research months ago, medical, financial , legally etc. and decided this is what I want. The unsupportive ones have now become supportive once they have learned about the facility and why I like it. I know it's going to be a good fit for me. This thread is a good one that talks about all sorts of things I may have not thought of. Keep the ideas and thoughts coming, I really appreciate them.

We moved a family member to Asst Living and at 94 years of age, she was not ready to give things up, so we rented a small storage unit for her. It’s worth $40/month to her. There’s nothing of value in it, I can assure you.

My friend & husband moved from a large farm house to a small house in town. They have 6 children but she told me if the kids come to visit and need a place to stay, then can bring sleeping bags or she’d pay for a motel room. She said it makes more sense than maintaining a large house when they don’t need it.

3 1/2 years ago we downsized from a 4400 sq ft house to a 2400 square foot house. No, I know that 2400 is not small but it was a large adjustment. My husband rums his business out of our home so that take us about 400 square feet. We have one guest room, my sewing room and our bedroom. Out next downsizing will be into a fifth wheel trailer in about another 4 years. The older most of us get, the less those "things" mean to us. We are still getting rid of things (the local Goodwill store loves us) and our only daughter will be finished with Grad School buy the end of the spring so we hope she will take the stuff she wants soon. When we shop for our fifth wheel trailer my sewing and my husbands hobbies are high on our list of "must haves". I won't be able to take my entire stash with me, but we will have a small home base where I can keep a lot while I travel with enough to keep me busy.

When I 'retired', I went from a big house and my business which had a 900 square feet back room that I also used as a workroom to a mobile home park. My folks passed within months of each other so I moved into their place ON THE BEACH. That was an easy decision. Packing, going thru stuff and moving was not easy. But, I have never been happier. I organized one area as a work room and have an entire wall of shelving. As I moved stuff in, I put it exactly where I wanted it to be! And, I found lots of treasures that I forgot I had. What I discovered was that I didn't need a dozen sets of sheets or towels, all those extra dishes and pots and pans and all that 'extra' stuff we accumulate as we are raising our families. A side benefit is that I made a rule that before I start a project (either fabric or craft), I 'shop the wall' before I go to the store. I am amazed how often I already have something that will work. BTW - I have found that being 'retired', I am usually busier than when I was working!! Haven't figured out how this retirement thing really works!

A suggestion for the holiday decorations (when you decide what to donate). We have recently gone thru several major disasters with folks loosing everything before the holidays. We donated thru a shelter to families moving to temporary housing. The last thing on their minds was replacing decorations and yet they wanted to have some form of holiday happiness for their kids. Even those living in the motels while being evacuated were so happy to have little trees, a string of lights and stockings. Check with you church, your fire dept or even the city for those who have recently lost everything.

I downsized to a 2 bedroom apt. 2 years ago. I use the master bedroom as my sewing room so I didn't have to give up a lot of my quilting stuff. I'm now shopping out of my stash for new quilts. I's amazing how much I can use. DD is also a quilter and we share. She will receive whatever I have (there'll still be a lot of it).

I've collected Santas and Christmas decorations for years and gave away/donated most of them. I'm sad at Christmas, missing them. So be careful of giving away items like that which you may miss. I was surprised how much I missed some of them.

We downsized from a 3 bedroom house to a 38 ft motorhome. It was hard giving up a lot of our possessions, but I have to admit that I did not miss them once they were gone. I love the fact that I spend less time cleaning and more time quilting and reading. Another plus to downsizing: you spend less money because you find you really don't want it since you don't have the room. Which gives you more cash flow to enjoy more trips to those places you always wanted to visit or spend more time visiting distant relatives. It is amazing how much more fun life has become by downsizing and simplifying our lifestyle. I never want to go back to living in a large house.

I've been downsizing with every move since 2006 - there have been 5, now - and am finally in a senior patio home complex with one bedroom @ 540 sq. ft. I use my living room as my sewing space. My mother who used to live in this same complex used her bedroom and that was really tight. I like to read in bed and take an afternoon nap many days, so I wanted my bedroom to be my neat place of retreat.

I don't care if my living room has the things I love to do in it because my friends have already been told they will have to sit on a rolling chair "in the midst' if they drop by. :D My house, my use, right?!

Jan in VA

My DH died last September and I have always maintained that I did not need to be in a 4 bedroom house by myself. I started sorting and purging and making plans to move the following week. Me and my bad knees can't handle the stairs anymore and after two years of restrictions due to my own health issues, I can't wait to get everything on one level. There have been MANY trips to the local thrift store and many things set aside for the kids, Kijiji, Freecycle or an online auction. And of course, lots has been trashed or burned. You sure accumulate over 42 years and DH had an interesting accumulation of things and tools. This first purge has been relatively easy and when I find a place to live, I trust it will be more difficult. I'm keeping my eyes on the goal - fewer things to look after and more time to sew, read and spend with my family.
As an aside, it sure is easy to keep the house clean with so much gone already!

3.5 years ago we downsized from a 4 bedroom 3600 sq. ft., 3 story house (with a 300 ft. walk up hill to take the garbage to the road or get the mail) to 3 bedroom 1500 sq. ft. 1 story. I was almost a cripple with my knees and we could not handle the stairs. We looked at condos and the biggest drawbacks we found was having to haul the garbage to the basement parking area of the large building and walking quite a distance to our assigned parking space (even though we had a handicapped card, we still could not get close to the elevator). We bought the smaller house, downsized as much as I had the energy for and put the rest in the garage where I am going through it as I have energy. We use one bedroom for an office and one for my sewing room -- our kids are nearby and if we have company they can either stay with DD or I will pay their hotel bill. We got rid of one car and it is just outside of the front door, the garbage gets moved about 10 feet to the curb and the mail is about 25 steps from the drive way and we have sidewalks if we want to take a walk. For us it was a great move.

So, did kitty get to move with you?

I have two friends whom downsized in the past 6 months. They moved from big Victorian homes to a senior apartment and love it! Nothing to take care of. They pay for one meal a day, don't have to cook, they get served, and made so many new friends (and don't even have to go out to see people). They say they don't miss their house of 50 years and love where they are living. Most senior places have libraries, a store, game rooms, and pubs.