Scaling
DOWN
Moving to a retirement estate can be – and should be – a positive, liberating
experience. It’s a line in the sand that states that you are no longer planning
your life around your children, and that you have time for yourself.
It’s a time to decide exactly how you want to live without In the 20 th century, wealth was about affluence and
the albatross of a huge suburban home, lawn, garden and acquisitiveness, but in the 21 st century it’s about freedom
two-car garage full of tools hanging around your neck. It’s and simplicity. Look at the late Steve Jobs – he wore the same
time to lighten up. There’s even a word for it: dostadning. clothes every day, not because he couldn’t afford to have a
Lighten up
wardrobe of designer clothes, but because he realised that
deciding what to wear was not how he wanted to spend the
It’s Swedish – a hybrid of the words for death and cleaning limited time he had. And we all have limited time. So, decide
– and it’s discussed in detail in a new book by Margareta now how you want to spend it, and how much stuff you
Magnusson called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. want to have around you – stuff you may have to clean, to
protect from theft, and to navigate around. And if the concept
It might sound a bit morbid, but it’s not – it’s kind of the more of freedom from stuff is not enough to inspire you, consider
controlled version of deciding what you would rescue if the the alternative. Downsizing and decluttering can be very
house was on fire. It’s a positive action that requires you to traumatic if you are forced to do it in a rush – say because you
actively choose to keep the things you own in the same way need to move into assisted living.
you would choose to buy them if you didn’t have them. And,
of course, it makes allowance for sentiment and downright Crunch time
otherwiseness. It’s not a rigid list of what you keep and don’t Downsizing involves letting go – letting go of the familiar, and
keep – it’s how you make those decisions. And the beauty of letting go of, well, stuff. And sometimes stuff gives us a sense
this process is that you do it when you are in good health and of security. And moving out of your own home also means
expect to live a decade or two into the future – but plan to do letting go of a certain measure of independence and control.
so without a whole load of baggage. It can be a very frightening experience. So that’s why it needs
to be planned and handled carefully.
48 | www.estate-living.co.za