Ah, I know what you are thinking. Leaving the nest is all about the kids leaving home. You have been there and done that, but what does that have to do with you now?
Experiencing the classic empty nest syndrome, and physically leaving your own nest, is an entirely different story. However, the emotional overtones are the same, no matter what your age.
Whether you are 18 or 80, the thought of leaving the place where you have lived for many years is heart wrenching. As a parent you were teary-eyed when the last child left your nest, but it was your nest, and empty of family or not, it held the story of you.
A lot will depend on the lifestyle that you adopted, but in today’s mobile society, even having a nest is a minor miracle. It ceases to be a big deal when you move often, but you aren’t the only one who has lived in a family home for decades.
People who have moved frequently know the drill. Whether a military family or a wife following a spouse from one end of the country to the other, you learned early on that too much stuff drags you down, not to mention how costly it is.
Everyone else, the ones who stayed on the farm or in the same town for a lifetime, will find downsizing a little harder. It is not surprising that “nesters” become deeply attached to “things,” and that they find downsizing quite disturbing.
True downsizing means reducing the size of your home. You are doing this for a reason and it is going to require a lot of thought, research, and planning.
The biggest decision will be about what you can keep, what can be given away, and what ends up in the trash. If you seriously can’t do this, it might be prudent to hire a professional organizer (an outside party who can be firm but kind).
Your job is to keep in mind that you want to be remembered for being a kind, thoughtful, wonderful person, rather than for all of the stuff you accumulated.
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