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How to Downsize Without Feeling Deprived

Tips for simplifying life while maintaining comfort

Mel Schlesinger
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
5 min readJan 14, 2025

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It is important to recognize that downsizing is not for everyone. However, downsizing has advantages for many people aged 65 and older.

As my wife and I learned in 2021, downsizing can turn the equity in your current home into liquid cash or significantly lower your monthly fixed housing expenses, freeing up money for retirement fun and games.

In July 2021, we sold our mortgage-free, 1650-square-foot home in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and purchased a mortgage-free, 588-square-foot home in Green Valley, Arizona. Even though both homes were mortgage-free, we still reduced our monthly fixed cost by more than $250. In addition, the smaller home in Arizona costs $250,000 less than what we sold our house for in North Carolina.

That said, you do not want to feel like you went from the frying pan into the fire after downsizing. You do not want to wake up feeling that you have deprived yourself of all the things that made living in your home enjoyable.

My goal in this article is to provide a few simple steps that you can follow so that downsizing results in an improved quality of life.

Create a Cozy and Functional Living Space in a Smaller Home

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Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

Published in Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

Mel Schlesinger
Mel Schlesinger

Written by Mel Schlesinger

Sort of retired. I am obsessed with happiness. As I write the last chapter of the story of my life, I want to share ideas on being happy.

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