How to downsize your home without losing your mind

Full article publish on MarketWatch – Sept 9, 2017 10:39 a.m. ET

Packing up a home and moving is always a grueling process, but if you’re downsizing after decades and moving into a smaller home or assisted-living facility, it takes special training and sensitivity — in addition to brute strength.

A retirement wave is sweeping across the U.S. — 10,000 people turn 65 every day — and with it comes moves and the remaking of households, which can include the sorting of family furniture, treasures — and clutter.

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Why Are Millennials Rejecting Prized Family Possessions?

Full article publish on Observer.com –08/23/17 7:45am

As a verb, “konmari”—the life-changing technique of decluttering, as proselytized by Marie Kondo—may well suffer the same fate as the adjective “metrosexual.” Go on, try to recall the last time someone dropped that into casual conversation. But as an idea, it may also enjoy the same future: silent ubiquity in our culture. After all, we live in a world where male grooming industry sales now rake in $50 billion annually. So what does a culture where konmari has been internalized look like?

According to senior citizens, it looks like a culture where nobody wants their stuff. For the past few years, there’s at least one article a year wherein downsizing baby boomers are shocked (shocked!) that their children and grandchildren do not want their generously-offered possessions.

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How to clean out a house (hint: Start now)

Full article publish on CNBC.com –12:47 PM ET Sun, 27 Aug 2017

Empty nesters often face cruel irony: The kids are gone, yet the house full of stuff remains.

After half a lifetime of accumulating furniture, artwork, books, china, crystal, flatware, jewelry, clothing, sports equipment and so on, facing a home filled to capacity can be overwhelming.

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