BABY BOOMERS DOWNSIZING - DOWNSIZING TALKING POINTS FOR MOM & DAD

Over 80 million other retiring baby boomers, your mom and dad, will face a major downsize of their home, and it will probably happen sooner than they think. Baby Boomers downsizing need to prepare well before the day their house sells. Many parents, Mom's and Dad's can be a bit stubborn when it comes to making hard choices about what to keep and not keep from their home. Here are some talking points that should be used to help Mom and Dad downsize.

START EARLY

Starting early cannot be emphasized enough, as a major talking point for downsizing. It is never too soon to begin a downsize. I personally did my first major downsize before I turned fifty. Fast forward twelve years later to now, my wife and I are beginning the next phase of downsizing, as we look to actual retirement life and what we want to do.

BE REALISTIC

If your mom and dad have been in their home for 20-30 years, there will be a lot of collected stuff that most people will not want. Getting your parents to understand how little value many of their “precious” household items have is a very big talking point for downsizing. If their own adult children are not interested in taking the things their mom and dad have then, there likely are no other interested takers either. Millennials are minimalists and so are Gen Xers and Gen Zees.

CATEGORIZE

Another important downsizing talking point for mom and dad is to organize everything in their home into categories. There are four basic categories:

1) Items to keep.
2) Items to throw away.
3) Items that family members want (succession planning).
4) Items to donate/sell.

Once everything is in a specific category then the process of getting them shipped, packed, moved, thrown out and/or stored can begin.

WHEN IN DOUBT

This is my favorite downsizing talking point for moms and dads; “When in doubt, throw it out!” Yes, ultimately mom and dad will be left with stuff they just can’t make up their mind on so, this talking point comes in handy because it makes it easier to let things go.

Having downsizing talking points with Mom and Dad is never going to be easy. However, the sooner you begin the conversations, the easier the downsize will be. And always keep in mind that hiring the right moving company, during this most stressful time, is key to making the downsize as painless as possible. The William C Huff White Glove Moving and Storage Company specializes in helping families downsize and have helped with thousands of downsizes over the past few years.