Downsizing is a cliché. Moving to a smaller place comes with the well-documented emotional struggle of sorting possessions into piles of discard, donate, sell and pack. We wrestle over our kids’ adorable lumpy clay creations, our wedding china and myriad other items with sentimental pull.
Sure, I can sound detached about this in theory. But having recently moved out of our home of 35 years, I’ve been humbled. It’s been wrenching — just not in the ways I’d anticipated. Yes, getting rid of a good chunk of our stuff was initially difficult and ultimately liberating. But the real challenges were surprising.