Moving to Tighter Quarters? Creative Thinking Helps Big Time

Have you reached an age where you’re thinking about thinking smaller?

Then take a flinty-eyed look at that big old dining-room table, with its eight chairs, matching sideboard and china cabinet. And the baby grand piano. And the 9-foot sofa, the oversize recliner, the power lawn mower, the hundreds of books, multiple sets of dishes and countless tchotchkes you’ve collected over the years.

Then bid adieu to excess baggage as you swap a house and yard too big for your needs for more manageable digs.

And don’t despair. You’ll not be alone in making a post-midlife move. Although Americans change addresses less frequently as they age, nearly 40% will move at least once after turning 60, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Moreover, demographers say the number of down-sizers is likely to grow as baby boomers retire and life expectancy continues to rise.

But moving into more compact quarters, be it in the heart of the city or a suburban retirement village, shouldn’t mean giving up a sense of home.

“Take your treasures; leave behind what does not matter. Create a space with the colors you love, the furniture, the books, the music. Just nest in with it,” urges Phyllis Ross, 60, a lecturer on “mastering an active retirement” who moved to Leisure World in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband, Earl, 68, two years ago.

In fact, lightening the load can prove downright liberating, say those who have been through it. And although it can be difficult to jettison possessions gathered over a lifetime, the sense of loss can be minimized by deciding what things really matter to you and planning to make room for them.

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Active retirees--in their early 50s to late 70s or well beyond--can make their own decisions about what to keep, what to give away. Those who are older and frailer often depend on relatives to help ease them into their smaller, new world.

“The family, more than anyone, must pay attention and not argue with them over what they want to bring,” says Carole Talbott, a designer and author in Stuart, Fla., who holds seminars in “use what you own” decorating techniques and frequently works with seniors. “You must always, always take family photographs into consideration. And you can’t say to your mother or father: ‘You don’t want that old table.’ Listen to them. We are supposed to have around us meaningful things. And the worst time to interfere with it is in their final years.”

Talbott has learned to make room for a treasured china cabinet, often quite large and hard to accommodate, as it is one of the two or three pieces of furniture most seniors want to keep. Another must-have, she says, is a desk or table where people can write, do paperwork, organize bills and generally “feel productive.”

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So where to begin?

Once you know where you’re moving, count the rooms you have and the rooms you will have, and calculate the square footage of both. Armed with a floor plan of the prospective nest, decide what furnishings you can’t live without and determine if they will actually fit. Compare closet space. In a retirement community or apartment complex, inquire about additional storage areas.

Then prioritize: Decide what you want to do in your new home, which old hobbies and activities are being swapped for new ones.

Retirement brings “not just a change of location, but a change of lifestyle,” says Genevieve Auguste, president of the Bethesda, Md.-based Art of Moving, who for 13 years has overseen all aspects of relocation for clients. Because those lifestyle changes often mean trading lawn mowers and ski equipment for golf clubs and dancing shoes, Auguste champions creative thinking.

“Just because the floor plan says bedroom, dining room or kitchen, they don’t have to use it that way. They may want to use an eat-in kitchen for crafts because it has great light, and take their meals in the dining area. Someone with a wonderful library may want to put their books in the dining room,” Auguste says.

“One woman we moved came from a huge, 13-room house full of antiques to a one-bedroom. She writes a lot but didn’t want her computer in the bedroom. We managed to fit many of her antiques in the apartment and put the computer on the enclosed balcony,” says Auguste, who believes it’s better to bring too much to the new place and get rid of it later than to regret having parted with something irretrievable.

Cherished pieces that don’t make the cut can be offered to family and friends, an auction house, or consignment shop. If you have grown children, tell them to remove or throw out what they’ve been storing at your place. Whatever isn’t spoken for can be sold at an estate sale (most agents require a minimum $8,000 worth of salable goods; their take is about 25%). To save the commission, you can conduct the sale if you think you know the value of what you’re selling. Or donate the lot to charity and claim a tax deduction.

There are plenty of experts to do everything from helping you with packing, unpacking and organizing your new space.

Some retirement communities maintain fully decorated model apartments to guide and inspire potential residents. They may also provide a list of professional organizers, movers, packers, estate sale agents and decorators. (If not, look in the Yellow Pages under Estates, Consignments and Organizing Services.)

Tenants may be able to visit residents eager to share ideas: how a grouping of two or three comfy chairs can replace a couch; how an electronic keyboard works in spaces too small for a baby grand.

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Sometimes, getting the most out of a little space requires professional help. In her 30-year career, Pam Newton, an interior designer in Potomac, Va., shifted exclusively to retirees and seniors in the mid-1990s. She interviews clients at length before helping them decide what stays and what goes, taking special physical or emotional needs into consideration.

“I know their habits, the side of the bed [they] sleep on, whether they will be preparing their own food or taking meals where they live. There are things like the frequency and kind of overnight guests they will have. Is it an out-of-town child who comes here for business every quarter, a grandson who comes for holidays? Do they entertain a lot, do they host a rotating bridge club?”

For couples, there’s also that Virginia Woolf-ish requirement for “a room of one’s own.”

When the Rosses left their four-bedroom house for a two-bedroom apartment with a den, Earl staked out the enclosed sun porch, where he rehearses lines for Leisure World shows. Writer-lecturer Phyllis set up an office in the den. But they also spend much time together in the living room, watching television, listening to music or reading. “We have to have time apart. But we also love to be together,” she says.

For those living alone, it’s an opportunity to have things their own way. John Hoover, 82, a retired newspaper editor who was widowed four years ago, had always been content to let his wife decorate their large home. One of her favorite colors was orange.

But his one-bedroom-with-den apartment in Bethesda, Md., is virtually devoid of that flame hue. Instead, at his behest, Newton had Hoover’s living room furniture reupholstered in sage and celadon green, to complement the Oriental rug that had graced the dining room of the 13-room house he shared with his wife for 50 years.

When deciding what to keep or what to buy new, consider the design and scale of furnishings, says Carol Bugg, design director of Decorating Den Interiors, the Rockville, Md.-based chain with 570 U.S. and Canadian franchises.

“Someone who for years has been sinking into a down sofa might want to replace it with a chair or love seat that has a harder, tighter cushion and is higher off the ground than 15 inches. That makes getting in and out of it easier. They might also consider a higher coffee table so they don’t have to reach over so far.”