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The Kitchen Table

downsizing and decluttering with glee

Toronto Veterinarian

last month

This is often a painful process for a lot of people, so - for another point of view - here's a great essay about a couple who are happy to downsize and are happy that their children don't want any of their things. ("First Person" stories are submitted by readers.)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/502350e443e61dbf4d3ff87c4e018dbb5fd31e46b194898cedb955d6c9e37197/T7T63CPUOJDVTDE74FUGMNAR5E/

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Comments (6)

bothell
last month
last modified: last month
Good article especially since we'll be facing this process next year
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
last month
Darn . Can't open-window expired.
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Comments (24)
Update ... First we were in short sell limbo. Now the house has gone from short sale limbo to foreclosure limbo. For the past month we have been told that the bank likes our offer but was just waiting on some paperwork so they could sign the contract. Yesterday we find out that the mortgage department at the bank didn't know that another department in the bank was foreclosing on the home. Today. grrrrrr. My husband went to the foreclosure auction. If we had a couple of days to prepare and scrape up the money, we could have bought the house on the courthouse steps for 75k less than our offer. It would have been an amazing deal. Now we have to start dealing with the foreclosure department, which we are not even sure want to sell the house at this point. What a crazy mess. No wonder the housing market went to hell in a handbasket. Short sales/foreclosures are not for the faint of heart!
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I downsized and now I'm lost. Could use some help. PICS
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Comments (17)
Assuming they hired a professional designer to do the model living room, what I see is that under the best of circumstances, that living room is awkwardly set up. In the model room, there is space for three, maybe 4 people to sit. Only one seat directly faces the TV set. Look at the furniture in that room. One small sofa or loveseat. One armchair. One TV stand. One end table. One large coffee table that was chosen to fill up the empty space in the center of the room to make it look more furnished. Imagine that room without the coffee table and it starts to look a lot like the OPÃ¯Â¿Â½s room. There are three lamps, one of which appears to block part of the TV. And then at least 4 plants, to make the room appear more furnished and welcoming. I think they did a wonderful job making that room look open and inviting, and hiding the more obvious flaws in the design of the room. The roomÃ¯Â¿Â½s layout simply doesnÃ¯Â¿Â½t function well. Either you have the sofa on the wall in the model room, and then you have a hard time watching TV, or you put the sofa on the window wall so you can see the TV set, and then you lose the view out the windows and have an awkward layout. OP, itÃ¯Â¿Â½s not you. ItÃ¯Â¿Â½s the room. Working with the furniture you have, the first thing IÃ¯Â¿Â½d do is take out the two small chairs. They donÃ¯Â¿Â½t work with the rest of the furniture. Then IÃ¯Â¿Â½d try to put the sofa on the wall where it is in the model room, and buy a table top TV swivel stand so that you could easily watch TV from there. Move the blue chair to the same position as the woven chair in the model picture and place an end table between the sofa and the chair. Down the line, look for a coffee table similar to the one in the model pictureÃ¯Â¿Â½glass or Lucite to keep the space looking open, and slightly oversized to fill the space better. And maybe a smaller unit to hold the TV.
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Comments (75)
With no kids or pets, the heirloom crystal vases are easier to place, if you still want one or two out. I like them on a bathroom counter if there is space with something in it, for example. My grandmother collected "American Brilliant" cut glass and I have quite a bit. It's more versatile than one would think and changes personality based on the contents. If you display them empty, you need proper lighting to make them look good.
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Comments (57)
My paternal grandmothers china was foisted on me. Its sitting in a closet in a spare bedroom,where it will remain, I hate to say it, until my father passes and I can toss it without guilt. I dont hate it,its boring. But I will never use it. I have relinquished any claim to the china,crystal or silver that my parents have and never use anymore. Our family has grown too large to have a sit down dinner with everyone anyway. My sisters want the china and silver and all that, for sentimental purposes. I only want the tacky ceramic bowl with giant blue daisies on it. But to each their own. I will say that in the past 5 years or so I have had maybe a dozen acquaintances who have gotten married. I think only one registry had china. Only one had silver. The rest just had everyday flatware and plates and drinkware and stuff. And in those cases,I dont think it was a money thing,because also on those registries were other very expensive items. More expensive than the China or silver on the other ones. I never wanted china or silver of my own. It never even occurred to me. I only want Christmas dishes and flatware. I have the dishes, (not china) and I am searching for the flatware. Maybe less people are buying such things because they are being handed them down from parents or grandparents. I have some tablecloths and cloth napkins from my maternal grandmother. I will also never use those. My mom brought them to me because they are pink. She knows I will not use them,but thought i would appreciate them, if only for the color. And I do! And not only because my grandma HATED pink and it makes me giggle to think that she bought them because pink was the "feminine" thing to have. She had good taste though, something I will never claim to have. :)
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Indigo Rose
last month
Me neither - it sounded interesting, and I forgot the link that allows one to read many blocked articles.
Fun2BHere
last month
Couldn't open. :(
salonva
last month
Usually I can open with

removepaywall.com but it wouldn't work for me either..............
Toronto Veterinarian
Original Author
last month
Well, that's disappointing.......here's some of it (without doing too much to risk copyright laws):

" The walls in this house have heard and seen our four children come and go. And come back. And go again......The kitchen walls absorbed the noise of chaotic breakfasts, all day lunches, logistically impossible dinners due to the kids’ hockey, dance, soccer and fencing obligations. Not to mention late-night pizza parties and the sleepover pancakes. The walls observed cheers and tears through achievements and disappointments, celebrations and mournful moments....Our hallways went from empty to resplendent with paintings by my artist sister, photos of family, and a dresser mirror that my husband inexplicably insisted on hanging upside down for decades...And now as we take apart, throw out, donate and attempt to sell the contents within the walls, we know what has always been true. The memories of what happens in these walls is far more valuable than the contents within them. We don’t want most of the contents they hold anymore, and we know our kids don’t either........ There are very few things in this house that will end up in my children’s homes. I am more than happy with that, as I know they will be collecting their own future disposable contents with their own memories attached.....My children are now 23, 26, 32 and 34. They fill their own walls with what is meaningful and joyous to them. I love seeing what those things are, as they mark a path that is owned by them......For us, that path is changing and change can be hard. I’m not a sentimental person, particularly when it comes to stuff, but the physical labour of changing out the stuff is is testing me..... As we paint every wall in the house a grey shade of white to make it less horrible and more attractive for sale, I like the idea of a new family moving in with a clean slate, the house and its walls ready to absorb their memories, as our new house waits for ours.

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