From the Editor’s Desk: Downsize (Premium)

I’ve often written about and voiced my desire to downsize, but it’s not real unless you do it. Granted, my wife and I have also taken steps in that direction, through various decluttering waves and, most notably, by actually moving, in 2017, to Pennsylvania. The house we moved into here is about twice as big as our previous home, which may seem contradictory. But it also cost about half as much, so it was at least a financial downsizing.

And then 2022 happened. Using home equity, we went against type and impulsively purchased an apartment in Mexico City, setting us up for some future where we could split time between there and the U.S. But with a don’t-call-it-a-recession also hitting that year, interest rate increases doubled and then tripled our monthly payment, turning a semi-affordable purchase into a major problem. And so we used this reality as the push we needed to do something we’d been planning for a long time anyway, by putting our house on the market. Once the sale is final, our apartment will be fully paid for, and we can figure out what’s next.

Figuring out what’s next is, of course, the trick.

But getting through this period of uncertainty comes first. We had contacted an acquaintance in the neighborhood who’s a realtor in early 2022 and discussed selling the house then. At that time, conditions were ideal, as interest rates were still low and there was explosive post-pandemic demand from people as far away as New York City who no longer needed to go into an office every day. So prices were through the roof. The only thing that wasn’t ideal, for us, was the timing. With a son fresh out of college but facing bleak work prospects and our daughter about to finish year two of her own four years in college, it just wasn’t the right time.

We told the realtor that we would still sell the house … eventually. But with interest rates exploding in the ensuing months, doing so seemed increasingly important. And so toward the end of 2022, we contacted her again and discussed how to proceed. We even looked at a couple of apartments in the area at that time, though we weren’t sure where we wanted to be.

We also continued and then accelerated the decluttering work, filling our trash and recycle bins each week and selling or giving away things on Facebook Marketplace and elsewhere. I feel like we’re usually in a better place, clutter-wise, than most. But a home full of stuff is still a home full of stuff, and the sheer enormity of it all can be daunting. But we got through the holidays, with both kids home for a time and big family events over Christmas and New Year’s, knowing that these would likely be the last in this house.

In January, we settled on a date and then changed it because it was Super Bowl weekend. The week before the open house, we used a moving truck our realtor’s small company keeps on hand for clients to move as much as possible into a storage unit we had just rented. Driving ...