| Coping
with Downsizing
by
Murray Lewis, Editor-in-Chief
Mum didn’t want
to move, and I don’t
blame her one bit.
I’ve moved a
number of times. I’ve
also had root canal.
I prefer root canal.
But the time had come.
After 48 years in our
family home, it was
time to move on.
Of
course, her new place
is considerably
smaller than the
home in which she and
Dad
raised four children,
and there wouldn’t
be room for everything.
And that meant making
a lot of sometimes
difficult decisions
about what to take
and what to get rid
of. In short, it was
time to downsize. There’s
nothing like moving
to make you realize
how much stuff you’ve
accumulated over
the years. And when
you’re moving
into a smaller place,
as most of us will
at some point, a
lot of that stuff,
if not most of it,
has to be shed. The
process can be painful.
As an expert points
out in this month’s
article “When
It’s Time to
Downsize” (page
54), you have to
be ruthless. For
the past few months,
Mum’s been
sorting through piles
of stuff, and dishes,
furniture, floor
polishers, and coffee
pots have been flowing
out to the homes
of her children.
Clothes and books
were donated. Long-forgotten
treasures were uncovered.
And stuff was chucked
out.
By the time moving
day had come round,
the four-bedroom
upper duplex where
I grew up was looking
rather empty, and
what furniture and
boxes remained sat
waiting to be fit
into Mum’s
new one-bedroom apartment.
It still seemed a
pretty good-sized
pile of stuff, though,
and we all wondered
whether it would
fit, despite constantly
reassuring Mum and
one another that
it would.
It did. Helped by
my highly organized
and efficient brother,
Mum planned what
would go where—what
would fit—and
whatever wouldn’t
fit was gone. A few
hours after the movers
left, we had furniture
placed, boxes unpacked,
and the lighting
adjusted just so.
The new place is,
we all agree, cosy.
So if, or when, you’re
faced with down-sizing,
be reassured by Mum’s
example. It may feel
a bit like root canal,
but you can do it.
Murray
Lewis
Editor-in-Chief
editor@goodtimes.ca
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