If you want to downsize but just can't seem to move beyond wanting to into action, maybe you are blocked by one of these:
Memories - our homes are where so many wonderful things happen and leaving can feel like losing those precious moments. The kids height marks on the wall/door as they grew up, family dinners, BBQs with friends, last moments with life partners. Those memories may be triggered by what is around us, but we experience them inside and they travel with us. A way Belinda Woolrich (Downsizing consultant) helps her clients to keep their memories but be free of the workload of the family home is to make beautiful photo books capturing those memories. It could include a fold out of the kids heights as they grow up, it could be carefully collated family photos around significant events. The point is, you can take the visual reminders with you and keep your memories alive.
Work involved - where do you start? How do you sort through a lifetime of things? Some of them may be from your loved one who has passed on. The emotions attached may just be too overwhelming. But staying is not working for you either. So what to do?
Do one room at a time - take a week to work your way through one room. Sort your items into keep and go. The go pile you could have your younger ones check through and see what they want and what could be sold. If your children are too busy to help sell the items, there are people who will do it for you for a cut of the sale. Give away what you are comfortable with.
Get professional help - there are people that help others to de-clutter. They support you through the process and help you make the decisions you need to clear things out.
Have a working bee - get the kids over to help.
It is important to just take your time and not become overwhelmed. If you push too hard you may just hit a wall and not be able to move forward.
Expectations of others - you may be keen to move but others are putting pressure on you to stay. Some situations that come to mind are:
Children who want to keep their childhood memories. They may be afraid that the house being sold could wipe their memories. This one can be solved with putting together some memory books and letting them go on the trip down memory lane whenever they want, not just when they come over.
The other half may not want to move. This one will involve the two of you working out what is most important and may require some professional mediation via a counsellor. By seeking to first understand, and then to be understood, you may be able to get to the real issues and work on resolving them so that you are both happy.
Friends may be scared of you leaving. This is like the above two and may require a heart to heart to find out the issue and how to resolve it.
The overall strategy on how to release the blockages to downsizing is to break it into little bits and to work through each one at at time. If we take on too much at once, we all can become overwhelmed and stop.
One step at a time...