Throughout history and across cultures, life’s major transitions have been marked by rituals and traditions.
Birth, puberty, marriage, illness and death. Each emotionally charged moment, supported by rituals and traditions that have been designed to share the burden, alleviate fear and give comfort. Whether you are excited by the opportunities retirement brings or fearful of the changes, the truth is retirement is up there with all major life stages.
So, if celebrating this new phase deserves rituals and traditions, why not empower your retirement with a good declutter?
What does that first declutter look like?
Let’s face it: retirement is a whole new chapter that can last as long as a generation. Those 25 – 30 years required for children to grow up, become adults and have children of their own.
Your plans may differ from those of your friends so it is important to decide what your retirement looks like at each stage.
Early retirement can be about your freedom to explore new hobbies, activities. To do that trip you’ve been putting off. You may want to streamline your home and possessions so you are no longer spending time and physical energy on home maintenance and housekeeping. Be free to jump in the car, on a train or plane and close your home up for an extended period of time.
Might you be decluttering to downsize?
What if you are empty nesters preparing for freedom now with the understanding that the family home may actually need to be reconfigured for future use.
We call that right sizing your home.
Your young adults may leave home but need to return at various stages. You may host them when they are between rentals, going back to study, or a work contract brings them back to the local area. New grandchildren arrive or they need to save for a home.
You may invite older members of your family back into a multi-generational home. So the space needs reconfiguration for ease of use and reduced mobility. You may also have that wing of your house or the granny flat in mind for yourself in a decade or so.
Renovations of this sort can certainly add value to your home as well as priming it for future use.
Whatever you want to do, plan for it and chunk it down into manageable steps. Because your life will evolve and modify over the coming decades. You don’t need unexpected events like a sudden illness or injury to derail your plans
The key to each stage of your retirement declutter?
3 things only. What is going or staying, who is helping to make it happen and your timeline.
If you are unsure how to approach your welcome-to-retirement declutter, I’ll be talking on just this subject at the NSW Seniors Festival Expo 2022. Come and listen or call into stand 58 for a chat.