| Coping
with Downsizing
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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