Sherry Urner

Re: down-sizing.  It seems that paying attention to accumulating possessions,  getting kids to take their “stuff”, pondering what to do with the shelves of silver and fancy china , and considering a smaller home are universal themes – on our chatline and among my friends here at home (NJ shore community.)  Home is where superstorm Sandy wrecked utter devastation…I think I can safely say all of us here are almost obsessed with sorting thru possessions and eliminating non-essentials and dealing with clutter, whether our home was swept away, or structurally damaged, or subjected to ocean water in basements and /or first floors. I can’t explain the behavior, but it seems everyone here in Sandy-ravaged shore line communities is anxious to comb thru the storage spaces, closets and garages and eliminate all that is unnecessary or outdated or no longer important. I think this is a different aspect of down-sizing – not changing our living space and place, but down-sizing the possessions inside our space.  One of the ok ways I’ve found to “lighten the load” is to donate to 501c-3 organizations having silent auctions or grand “garage” sales….
And finally, I envision Jim’s and my need in the future might be to move to another home or home-style (eg condo, sr living residences, CCRC) because of a need to eliminate stairs and to have one-floor living for us – (and hopefully upstairs bedrooms so that we can continue to have our kids and grandkids stay with us)