Dear Kathi,

We are getting ready to downsize from a 3,500 square foot home to a 1500 square foot home. We obviously have too much furniture. We would welcome your professional guidelines about how to downsize.

Errol, Oceanside

Errol,

Decide what activities will take place in each room within your new home in advance. For instance, will the spare guest room double as a study or crafts room? Once you have decided what purpose each room will serve, you can begin to decide which furniture should be kept, sold or donated.
Consider making a graph to scale of each room showing all doorways and windows. Another option is to simply take a walk through of your new home and make notes about what furniture you will need for each space.
Once you have a more visual understanding of your new home, you can begin to weed through your belongings. As you pack for the move, assign a room for each item and box it accordingly. This way each possession will end up in the right area after the move. Keep a master list of each room and it’s contents. With this method, important items won’t get lost. It will be easier to gauge if you have too many items for your new space.
I strongly recommend that you enlist the help of a friend or professional to provide insight and help you make decisions. An outside helper won’t have any vested interest in what you keep, sell or donate. They will be able to look objectively at your space and needs.
Furniture is your first and largest consideration. Once you have decided what furniture you will keep, you are ready to begin going through your knickknacks, china and other belongings. Your furniture and the storage therein will provide preset parameters about what to keep. For instance, if you have decided the buffet will not fit into your new home, this is a major indicator that you will need to part with some or all of your good china.
Consider what your new lifestyle will entail. Will you entertain on the scale that you have in the past? Will you still host sit-down dinners with good china or relax into the informality of barbeques and paper plates? Many retired folks are happy to pass the role of formal hosting to their children or a local restaurant. If you can’t part with all of your china, consider keeping a place setting for four and sell or bequest the other 8-12 settings.
Your new home gives you permission to release the old responsibilities of a garage full of tools, a bevy of pool toys and your full scale gardening collection. Eliminate the lesser-used and redundant items. Take this opportunity to redefine what you really want to do in your spare time and purge accordingly.

Books are a heavy topic, literally and figuratively. Book collectors and avid readers have a tough time releasing books while downsizing. Realize that you won’t have the same amount of bookshelves in your new space. Pre-measure your bookshelves. Preset the number of books you will move before you begin to purge your collection. Be diligent through this tough decision making process. It might take 2-3 purges to get your library to a manageable size. Remember that you can usually find most titles at the local library. Donate your discards to the public library system. Your old books will raise money for new titles and you can personally benefit from the tax deduction.
Remember that it is very difficult to purge too much. Almost every item that you own is replaceable. Space is not. Leave yourself room to grow and flourish within your new home.

Please submit your questions to: advice@addspacetoyourlife.com
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San Diego Professional Organizer

Dear Kathi,

We have acquired a lot of furniture over the years and need to get rid of a few pieces. In two years we will downsize into a retirement condominium. I would like to start getting rid of things now so that it won’t be such a large task when we actually do move. It’s so hard to decide what to keep and what to let go. I think my real question is, where to start?

Frieda, Oceanside

Frieda,

It is a great idea to begin your downsizing now. Two years will speed by, and before you know it, you will have to perform this task anyway. Take the time now, set a reasonable pace, and you will make better decisions. To decide which furniture pieces you need to keep, consider what rooms you will have in your new condo. Will you still have a formal dining room? Will your kitchen hold your current table and chairs?

How many bathrooms? Schedule the approximate move date on your calendar. Plan backward from the move date to today and note what needs to be organized. Set a completion date for each major task.
List each room and mark the sub-goals also on your calendar. For instance, Guest Bedroom: Aug 1-8 closet Aug 9-16 curios, Aug 17-24 cabinets and drawers. Take a mental inventory of what is in each room. Make a list of the items that you absolutely wish to keep. Start letting go of items that you know you won’t need in your new condo.

Place these items into boxes for donate or sell. If you are ‘on the fence’ about whether to keep or give away an item, consider boxing it for the time being. Store this box out of site with a note to yourself on the outside.

List the contents within this box and the date it was taken out of the limelight. A month before your move, revisit these boxes. Read the label and the content description. See if you can visualize the items in the box by reading your label. If you have forgotten what these items are, even after reading about them, this is a good indication that you should let them go. Do yourself a favor and do not open this box. Instead, load this box into your car and take it to your favorite charity.

You can read another moving article published last August by visiting
http://www.addspacetoyourlife.com/advice08_05_04.html

Dressing for menopause with style

Dear Kathi,

I’m going through menopause and I can’t seem to find anything that feels or looks good when I wear it. Everything seems frumpy and when I flash I am unbearably hot even when the air conditioning is at full blast. Help! I can’t run around naked at the office and I can’t stand my wardrobe for much longer!.

Betty, Carmel Valley

Betty,

It sounds as if you are ready for a fashion makeover. Layering your shirts can be the key to your success and comfort during hot flashes. Many women layer during this time but often choose the wrong types of fabric for this task. Find the lightest weight fabrics you can buy. Cottons and blends will help keep your temperature regulated and absorb moisture when necessary. Lightweight fabrics can be layered as many as three pieces at a time without feeling restrictive. Most importantly avoid wearing baggy shapes and choose clothes that skim your body.

This will help you feel more fashionable and less frumpy. Skirts are a great wardrobe choice if you run hot and cold. They are very forgiving during hot flashes. Make sure the waistband is not too tight. Avoid elastic waistbands because they tend to restrict your body. Opt for waistlines that lie flat against your body. Side zipper designs are more comfortable and cooler than front zips. When you feel a hotflash approaching, remove a top layer and then another if necessary. If you work in an office,

consider keeping a pair of sandals under your desk or slipping off your shoes discreetly while you are at your desk. Cooling your feet will drop your heat level a few degrees quickly.

Please submit your questions to: advice@addspacetoyourlife.com
.
San Diego Professional Organizer

Dear Kathi,

I am full figured with no waistline. What clothes should I buy?

Jessie, Waitress

Jessie,

Avoid wear baggy shirts that fall straight from your bustline to your hips. This practice makes your entire body look as wide as your chest. Buying shirts with a snug fit and princess seam under the chest is a good practice. Shirts that fit snug at your waist with tailored lines will accentuate your waist and draw attention to your lower areas. Keep suit coats long and make sure they hit below your hips, ending at the widest part of your bottom, not above it. This will give the appearance of a longer torso and minimize your hips. Suit coats with three - four buttons will minimize the bustline. Another important item to consider is your slacks. Wear slacks with wide legs that fall away from your hips. This will help you avoid the upside-down “V” look and you will elongate your torso at the same time.

Dear Kathi,

Help! Is there a way to organize my car without having everything spread across the seats all the time?

Vicki, Legal Assistant

Vicki,

There are many ways to organize your car. It sounds as if you work in your car. If this is the case, consider getting a small plastic vertical file box for your paper work, storing it on the floor behind the passenger seat for easy access. Also, a trash bag that hangs behind your seat is indispensable. You can purchase organizing pockets that hang behind your seat and magnets that hold your cell phone onto your dashboard. Expandable storage bags for your trunk are indispensable. These trunk bags are nylon and collapse down to one pocket or expand to up 8 pockets to hold your grocery shopping and other purchases upright in your trunk. An often-underused area in your car is your glovebox.

Typically this space is stuffed with repair receipts that can easily be stored in a file at home. Handy items to keep in your glovebox are a flashlight, comb or hairbrush, registration/insurance information and the maps that pertain to the area you live in (not ones from your trip to Montana three years ago. Store your important papers in a single envelope for easy access. Once every week, go through your car and purge the items that don’t belong there and you will be on your way to clean seats and room for passengers.

Dear Kathi,

My husband and I have recently downsized to a smaller house. We are finding it very difficult to let go of things we have always thought to be important. What are your suggestions? Kerry T of Del Mar

Kerry,

Congratulations on realizing that you need to release a few possessions from your life. As people move into new homes they discover that items that were once an integral part of their life no longer serve them. Even though they no longer need or use these items, they still feel sentimentally attached and find it difficult to let go. My suggestion is to think about how each item in question is now serving you. For starters, is it serving you at all or is it simply collecting dust in the corner? If it is only collecting dust, donate it and send it to new owners who will use it regularly. You will find this liberating and energizing. If you decide to keep it, move it into an area where it can be viewed or used regularly. If you can’t do this, it needs to leave your possession for good. Release and let go.

Kathi is a professional organizer, image consultant and event planner based in San Diego California.

Please submit your questions to: advice@addspacetoyourlife.com
.
San Diego Professional Organizer