Driven by a Second Chance

We lived in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage home for over 10 years. When Bill was admitted into the hospital this last time it was in May (he received his gift of a heart in August). He was told that he was going to be there until he received his new heart as his LVAD was beginning to show signs of wear and failure. Luckily, he was able to continue to work remotely from his hospital bed during the day, and then I would go up to visit at night as I worked full time too. Around June, we began to think about what could make our lives easier through this transition. We sold his truck, that was just sitting in the driveway collecting dust, and decided that with no more kids at home, a 4 bedroom home was just more than I was able to keep up with during this time, and when he came home for his recovery.

So, my Mom and Dad came to the rescue and helped me get the house ready to sell. We decluttered and took several trips to Goodwill and other donation sites. We sold some furniture we knew wouldn’t fit in the new apartment, and gave some to family. The house sold relatively quickly and we moved into a 3 bedroom apartment. Downsizing from about 2000 square feet to about 1500 square feet. That wasn’t as bad as I thought. My parents helped me unpack and set up the apartment, in time for Bill to come home from the hospital.

Even though we downsized, it wasn’t a huge undertaking. We got rid of items that we never used, or were duplicates, and some old furniture that we should have gotten rid of years ago. It’s amazing the amount of stuff one can accumulate in 10 years. I found items that either I had been looking for and assumed were gone, or items I didn’t even know we had! From clothing, to small kitchen appliances, to just random junk things!

We still have a lot of stuff. We have a storage unit (albeit small) and our closets are still packed full of storage. So now, the new tasks of paring down our stuff! We need to get to a comfortable living area of 400-500 square feet.

Downsizing the “extra” stuff is pretty easy. If it’s not used, it goes…simple right? We continue to find ourselves in the WHAT IF? conundrum. This item hasn’t been used in years, but what if we need it some day?

We have watched several YouTube channels about decluttering and downsizing your stuff. They make it look so easy! So we’re on our decluttering journey. We have 7 months to pare down our stuff. We think we can do it! If you have any tips to share, please put them in the comments!

I hope you continue to join us on our journey…Driven by a second chance….. at life!