Oh the horrors of downsizing—Tricia McGill.

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Most of us have done it at some time or another, depending on our age or marital status—moved house I mean.

I am in the process of selling the third house I have owned. I have been in this house 26 years come June 1^st, and I love this place. It was the first one my husband and I saw through from the bare plot to the completed build. Unfortunately, he only lived in it for five years before passing, so as you can imagine, it contains many memories. We laid out our garden together and it is now flourishing and admired.

I never considered downsizing and always told people I would be here until carried out, but the time has come to move into a village where I will be amongst people of my own era and where I will have around the clock security—a valuable asset in this day and age. I have got into the habit of clearing out unwanted stuff over the last few years, but needless to say enough is never enough when you are deciding what to part with and what to keep. I have no children so the job of sorting through my stuff when I am gone will fall to my nieces, and I have no wish to over burden them with going through the process of the big clean up. I have friends with horror stories of the mess their parents left behind—often years and years of collecting what can only be termed as junk.

The selling agents have a word for what we must do to make our home presentable for prospective buyers and this word is decluttering. At first, I felt insulted—how dare they suggest that my beloved bits and pieces, lovingly collected over many years, is no more that clutter to them.  However, I have been zealous in my efforts, and have managed to whittle it down. Some went to friends, some went off in the council waste collection truck, and some ended up in the regular garbage pickup. Oh, then there's the local op shop where one man's trash is anothers treasure.

The worst room to declutter has been my study. In the process of getting rid of stuff, you come across letters, photos or documents that haven’t been seen for years. A while back, I scanned all my photos so they are safely on file to be passed on. After my dear sister passed away, I was left to sort through a massive box load of pictures collected over her lifetime and it took me a while to sort and scan these. The family can do as they please with them, but at least they are all safely there and sorted into years on my computer.

 So here I am, moving on to start a new phase in my life, and looking forward to making new friends. I chose this village because they welcome pets, and I could never think of going anywhere without my two little dogs.

One good thing about changing abode, all remains the same on our trusty computer no matter where we are.

Coming very soon Challenging Mountains-Book 3 in my Settlers series