downsizing

“What are you gonna do with all your stuff?”

That’s the question most people ask right off the bat. When we tell them we are moving. When we tell them we are moving to a condo. A condo that has roughly 1600 square feet.

They swipe their arm across their forehead as if there’s sweat accumulating on the brow. They utter “whew” or “oh, man” or just shake their head. They look worried. They look worried as they look around our house. Our house that is 5500 square feet.

Eddie and I decided a couple years ago to downsize (or as some people our age like to say: rightsize). The search for a smaller place ended last month when we found what we’d been looking for: a sweet and airy two bedroom condo just north of where we live now.



We have spent the past few weeks weighing the pros and cons of holding onto certain things. Some of those things have found their way to our curb with “free to whoever wants me” status. Some have been donated to good causes, some have been tagged for storage. Over the course of the next few months, some things will be sold, more given away. A lot of our things have sentimental value, of course, and they are the things that will move with us to our new home.

One of the lessons I have learned from my trips to Uganda has been this: they are just things, and we will be perfectly happy to have fewer of them.

(Yes, I will have to keep repeating my new mantra as I sort through our stuff. Repeat. Wipe the sweat that has accumulated on my own brow. Sort. Repeat.)

It’s exciting and kind of liberating, though, to step into this next chapter of our lives.

Stuff: beware!