Downsizing Homes

This New York Times bestselling book is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up your home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts and millions of hits per month on their blog YoungHouseLove.com, Sherry and John Petersik are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Packed with 243 tips and ideas—both classic and unexpected—and more than 400 photographs and illustrations, this is a book that readers will return to again and again for the creative projects and easy-to-follow instructions in the relatable voice the Petersiks are known for. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more.

It’s a rite of passage almost no one will escape: the difficult, emotional journey of downsizing your or your aging parents' home. Here, nationally syndicated home columnist Marni Jameson sensitively guides readers through the process, from opening that first closet, to sorting through a lifetime's worth of possessions, to selling the homestead itself. Using her own personal journey as a basis, she helps you figure out a strategy and create a mindset to accomplish the task quickly, respectfully, rewardingly—and, in the best of situations, even memorably. Throughout, she combines her been-there experience with insights from national experts—antiques appraisers, garage-sale gurus, professional organizers, and psychologists—to offer practical wisdom and heartwarming advice so you know with certainty what to keep, toss or sell.

Are the years catching up with you? Is your home more work than play? Maybe, it's time to downsize. This book helps answer questions about when to downsize and how to sell your larger home and buy a smaller one that is easier to maintain.Knowing what is available, what to look for, and what to watch out for is a big help. Ricki Eichler McCallum shares her forty years of real estate expertise in explaining loans, reverse mortgages, agent representation, inspections, taxes, insurance, safety, how to choose the right agent, and how to dispose of your 'treasures'. A thorough read to Downsizing.

Fresh decorating and decluttering advice for the modern family—a must-have book to help those who are merging their hearts, lives, and homes. When merging households, one plus one needs to equal . . . one. The path toward that fundamental fact, however, is not so easy. With the same warm, narrative tone that made Downsizing the Family Home such a success—and using her own story of marriage and merger in midlife as a backdrop—Marni Jameson guides you through the turf wars and transitions, so you understand what matters and what doesn’t, and can discover a style that suits you both. Along the way she interviews psychologists, designers, and couples who’ve made it through the process, passing along tips, tricks, and marriage-bolstering advice. The wise advice includes: If you want to transform a space from me to we, the fastest, cheapest way is with paint. Look around you for the five or so nonnegotiable items that ground you, items that tether you so you’re not adrift. Give those a place in your remodeled space and build on them. The old marital bed is a charged item, as are family photos of the former spouse or partner. A new bed is ideal, and new bedding is a must. Injecting a contemporary rug or piece of art, or a modern lamp or sculpture is a safe way to start moving toward modern in a room full of traditional furnishings. Buying furniture together is a great way to invest in your look and your future. Start with something big in your combined style.

"The 25 small houses presented in Downsize are owned by people who have made a conscious decision to downsize from a larger home to a smaller home--or who just decided to build small in the first place. Some of the houses are new (site-built or prefab), others are remodels. All are 2,000 sq. ft. or less. The featured houses show how to use space efficiently through such strategies as: - creative storage space - multi-purpose rooms - pocket and barn doors - integrating smaller appliances"--

When you're moving a lifetime's accumulation of belongings from a larger home into a jewel box, the task can seem overwhelming—and so can your emotions. How do you decide what to pack and what to part with? How can you use the things you have so that they function well and look right? Downsizing Your Home with Style answers these questions and more. Learn how to: Create more storage Make your stuff look smaller and your space look bigger Update and modernize your favorite old pieces Multipurpose your rooms and furniture Find a new home for the stuff you no longer need From the initial evaluation of your new home to one year after you have settled in, interior designer Lauri Ward takes you through every step with detailed tips, lists of good buys, tricks of the trade, photographs, and anecdotal examples, so that achieving spectacular results is simple and affordable, whatever your style or budget.

Many of us look around and wonder how we ended up with so much stuff. Sometimes i wonder why i spend the money on things that don’t get used much. There is a lot to be said for a little more simplicity, as many people are discovering in this recession. This book will help you downsize your life. Relationships and experiences are a place to spend time and money. Stop buying stuff, stop cleaning stuff, stop organizing stuff, and live your life! This is a collection of 50+ simple tips that any person who would like to know while learning to downsize their life. Here is a preview of what you'll learn... Learning to know your space Finding creative ways to maximize your space How to use empty space for storage The trick to leaving excess clutter behind Organizational hacks for small homes Making space where there seems to be none Much, much more! Priestley gives an effective, bit by bit technique for cleaning up, dejunking a pantry, a room, or in any event, cutting back the family home. Through his own story, you will get familiar with a methodology that beginnings with little and clear fast wins. You'll figure out how-to for the most part sort first, order, and once again sort; what to keep or dispose of in light of what you do and don't need, need, use, worth, or like, and a tranquil interaction to assist you with choosing carefully

As life unfolds, things tend to accumulate. When older adults undergo health, residential, and marital changes, they will face a reckoning with their lifelong store of possessions—special, ordinary, and forgotten. Such a predicament now confronts tens of millions of Americans as the Baby Boom cohort passes into retirement and beyond. Despite what a thriving industry of clutter manuals tells us, for most older adults, downsizing is no simple task. Drawing on in-depth interviews with recent movers in over a hundred diverse U.S. households, David Ekerdt analyzes the downsizing process and what it says about the meaning and management of possessions. He details how households approach and accomplish downsizing, exploring the decision-making process and the effectiveness of different strategies. From an expert gerontological perspective, he considers the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social tasks that the process entails and the role of factors such as gender and class on the divestment of things. Ekerdt finds that despite the fatigue and emotional challenges people encounter, afterward they report satisfaction in having completed a downsizing and feel empowerment on the other side of the task. Offering an empathetic and practical look at one of life’s major transitions, Downsizing brings forward the voices of elders so that older adults, their families and friends, and practitioners working with older clients can understand and benefit from their experience.