You're supposed to live as freely as possible in retirement. That's harder to do when your old job and family life burden you financially. When downsizing a home, belongings, and financial burdens, where do you start, and how? We consulted with experts and found some of the best items to get rid of, especially if you want to shrink financial responsibilities and make bigger plans for retirement.
Downsizing from a $250,000 house to one that costs $150,000 could increase yearly income by $3,000 and reduce annual expenses by $3,250, saving $6,250 a year, Boston College's Center for Retirement Research found in 2014. That includes $3,250 a year just from reducing property tax burden and the costs of insurance, maintenance, and utilities. Housing prices have changed in the intervening years, but you get the idea.
Average credit card debt in the United States sat at $6,864 in December 2023, but its thousands more among folks who don't pay off balances in full every month. Apply some of the cash saved on a downsized house toward paying it off, fix your credit score, and pay less interest on just about everything going forward.
In 1990, the average U.S. consumer bought 40 garments a year. By the end of the 1990s, it was closer to 70. With the average American ditching 70 pounds of textiles per year in landfills, it's clear closets have room to shrink, especially with consumers spending less on clothing overall.
Are you paying between $35 and $350 monthly for items you haven't seen in years? You aren't going to have more room for it if you downsize. It's time to think about selling, condensing it into a new home, or ditching it entirely.
AAA puts the average cost of owning and operating a new car at $12,182 a year including fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, license, registration and taxes, depreciation, and finance charges. Even without a car note, a little-used vehicle still racks many of the expenses listed above. Cities with robust public transportation often offer discounts to seniors, but just getting rid of one car can save big.
Exercise equipment takes up a lot of space while going unused by many of the people who own it. Programs such as SilverSneakers, which gives Medicare enrollees free access to more than 15,000 fitness facilities nationwide, might be a better option.
There's one question you should ask yourself while going through your kitchen cabinets, says AARP's Jeff Yeager: "When was the last time I plugged that in?" While he suggests ditching items unused in the past six months, there are things that come in handy around the holidays or during large gatherings. In that case, make the test a year for appliances and mismatched utensils and containers.
Your grown children likely have their own homes and lives now, making it a good time to reclaim space by letting go of their stored belongings. Rather than hanging on to old art projects, high school clothes, and mementos, invite them over to sort through these items. It’s a chance for them to decide what’s meaningful — and saves everyone the cost and hassle of future storage.
Retirees downsizing their homes shouldn’t expect multiple bedrooms’ worth of furniture to fit comfortably in a smaller space. AARP recommends removing a few pieces to see just how much more open and spacious the room can feel. Consider selling or donating old furniture to places like Goodwill or Habitat ReStore, where it can find new purpose in another home.
If a book doesn’t hold sentimental value or isn’t one you’ll read again, it might be time to let it go. Instead of collecting dust, consider donating or selling it; many local libraries offer access to books, e-books, and more, allowing you to revisit old favorites or discover new ones without the clutter.
Organize important files into four categories, Consumer Reports advises: papers you need to keep for a calendar year or less; papers to destroy when you no longer own items they cover; tax records to save for seven years; and papers to keep indefinitely. If you're still left with boxes from a previous work life or other items of value, consider scanning and digitizing the contents instead.
Are you going to be hosting family parties in your downsized life? Are you going to have space for all the outdoor decor? Are holiday table settings ever going to see the light of day again? If not, The Washington Post suggests donating them immediately, as holiday items sell briskly year-round.
Even the heirs of wealthy collectors don't always want to inherit wine, stamps, antiques, or art. If you have a vast collection of anything that's just taking up space, just keep the few pieces that best represent the set and put the rest back into the market for other collectors.
If you have Hummel figurines, Hess Trucks, Thomas Kinkade paintings, Precious Moments figures, Beanie Babies, and other members of the "worth something someday" club collected as investments rather than for joy, cut and run immediately.
"You only need one suitcase, one bag, and possibly a purse (or two)," tiny-home fan Lindsay Schauer says. Even if you're planning to travel in retirement, there's a chance all of the duffel bags and other luggage amassed over the years just isn't useful anymore. Give the utilitarian ones to Goodwill; try to sell the nicer ones online or at vintage stores such as Buffalo Exchange.
Are you a coach? Are you in a league? Are you on the slopes each winter or in the woods every summer? No? Then tents, skis, and equipment from baseball, softball, soccer, and tennis don't have to follow you to your next destination. As Schauer points out, you can rent it all for very little.
We aren't telling you to get rid of a cherished violin or piano. But items you have no plans to use in retirement — such as that guitar you never got around to learning how to play — don't need to take up space in a new home.
"You don't have to get rid of something that has value to you, but don't collect just to collect, and don't decorate with clutter," says Allison Renner at Lifehack. If you bought items at Pier 1, Target, Pottery Barn, or elsewhere just to take up space, they don't need to perform the same job in a smaller home.
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It can be hard to kick the Costco habit. But if you can do without it, forget the bulk items that eat into storage space, and free up money for short-term needs.
Once a staple in every household, fine china is no longer a priority for younger generations, who aren’t eager to buy or inherit it. If it doesn’t hold sentimental value or have a purpose in a new home, it might be time to part ways with it.
The silver itself is valuable, but likely not as eating utensils. Younger generations are simply selling the family silver anyway, so why involve an intermediary? Unless you or your heirs want to spend hours cleaning it each year, maybe try to sell the vintage silverware and turn it into something useful.
Sure, you might want to keep a landline phone in case of emergency (so long as it remains an actual landline, and not internet-based), but that answering machine, dot-matrix printer, and computer monitor from the 1990s can likely go.
From socks with no pair to storage containers with no lids, mismatched items take up a whole lot of space. They can be the first to go when downsizing.
We know: Those issues of National Geographic still look classy on the shelf. But why are they there? Are you reading them? Weed out your favorites and donate or recycle the rest.
Do you have to get rid of all of these just to pay more money for downloads or streaming services? Absolutely not. But if you're taking up a lot of space hanging onto a VCR just to play something found easily in another format, it's time to let go. Downsizing is a good excuse to determine what you're listening to and watching.
Sewing machines take up too much space if they're not being used. And what of the furniture-sized sewing machines that Singer and others made by the hundreds of thousands? Very few are worth anything today. "I have never found one that was rare enough to be valuable," says Elizabeth Stewart, author of "No Thanks Mom: The Top Ten Objects Your Kids Do NOT Want (and what to do with them)."
Families amass a lot of games throughout the years, but tend to lose playing pieces, cards, dice, and other parts along the way. If there aren't family game nights anymore or a game's been missing stuff since the Clinton administration, let it go. Though there some board games that are worth a lot of money, chances are very slim that the ones in your closet are among them.
At one point, nearly every family had one for home movies. Since most people can now film and watch on their phone, there's very little demand for old projectors. There are services that will convert old 8-millimeter film to digital, but that projector might be better off upcycled into a lamp.
We don't mean toss your towels and sheets (though downsizing is a great opportunity to shrink the linen closet). But don't expect children to want hand-embroidered pillowcases, guest towels, napkins, and table linens. Instead, check out sites such as Prices4Antiques to see if you can sell to a seamstress or tailor who can work them into wedding, communion, and quinceañera dresses.
Your kids may want maybe a piece or two, but nobody really drinks out of crystal wine glasses with shot-glass sized bowls anymore. "The sets you have are too precious, and the wine they hold is too small a portion. Period," Stewart says. Fortunately, sites such as Replacements, Ltd. will buy your set to sell to people filling in broken or damaged sets.
The whole point of going to the trouble of taking medications you need to function is for them to work. Expired medications may not only be less effective, but they can also become a public safety issue if improperly disposed of.
So, safely dispose of any expired medications that you find in your home by removing your prescription number along with any other personal information and find a drug take-back program in your area or find a drug disposal site nearby (often located at your local pharmacy).
It’s totally understandable if you’re resisting having to toss out pricey makeup that you’ve realized has surpassed its expiration date. However, you should note that expired makeup can end up having bacteria form on it, which is an unsafe situation for you if you decide to use it. As soon as makeup expires, any of the preservatives it had have broken down, and bacteria can thus easily grow at a rapid rate.
Related: 10 Things You Should Never Buy Used
