1. Your Guide to Downsizing Starts Here

Welcome to the very first episode of The Downsizing Roadmap! In this introductory episode, we’re excited to share what this podcast is all about and how it can support you, your family, or your clients in navigating the often-overwhelming process of downsizing.

Join us as we explore why downsizing is more than just clearing out clutter—it’s about creating space for a new chapter in life. We’ll give you a sneak peek into the topics we’ll cover in future episodes, from tackling sentimental items and decluttering strategies to choosing the right new home and working with professionals like real estate agents and organizers.

In this episode, you’ll also get to know us, your hosts—two Realtors who’ve been through the downsizing process with our own families. We’ve seen firsthand the challenges, emotions, and decisions that come with letting go of a lifetime of belongings and transitioning to a new chapter. Those personal experiences inspired us to help our clients navigate the same journey with compassion and expertise. Over the years, we’ve guided countless families through the process, and now we’re here to share everything we’ve learned with you.

Tune in to discover how The Downsizing Roadmap can be your trusted guide to finding clarity, making confident decisions, and moving forward with less stress and more freedom. Let’s get started!

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave us a review and Follow our show so you never miss a new episode. We’re here for your downsizing questions — on the podcast, in your community, and when you’re ready to move. As Realtors®, we can connect you with the right specialists to make your next chapter smoother. We’d love to hear from you!

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Let’s simplify, declutter, and create space for your next chapter—together!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome back to another episode of the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast with your hosts Jody Roscoe and Heather Fisher. We're talking about all things downsizing, from our own experiences with clients to guest experts. Let's make downsizing easier, one conversation at a time. Hi. Good morning. Hi, how are you? Good. We're here. We are here on our very first episode of Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. I'm so excited to be here today.

Heather Fisher 0:29

Very exciting. We've been talking about this, and now we are here and excited to share a lot of good downsizing information, which I think people really need.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

I agree. There's um there's so much that I didn't know that I wish I had known in some of my past experience. We'll talk about what that was. But um yes, definitely so much information that is useful if you are working that through that yourself or for your your family with your kids. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm Jody Roscoe. Um this is Heather Fisher. Um, and uh we are real estate agents. Uh I've been a real estate agent since 2010 in Dayton, Ohio. And uh we have an arm of our business that's downsizing. And so um that's what we want to talk about on this podcast. So Yeah.

Heather Fisher 1:19

So like Jody said, I'm Heather Fisher. I'm a realtor on the Roscoe group, and uh we've been together on the same team. We've both been in real estate longer, but uh we've been I've been on Jody's team for almost six years.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

It's crazy, right?

Heather Fisher 1:34

Crazy, but day one, um, when I met Jody, she said, let's, you know, there's a lot going on and people need some help in the downsizing um, you know, arena and just makes real estate more complicated. Let's put some solutions in place. And so we've been doing that ever since.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah. Downsizing is a whole, you know, it's a whole own little animal, honestly. Like, you know, moving up into a bigger house is really not the same as moving down from a house that you've been in for 30 or 40 years with all the things that you have accumulated. Um, it's a whole nother and you need people, you need people that help. And so we'll talk about that. So um on our episodes, we're gonna talk about um different things that uh go around downsizing, whether that's you know, what to do with your stuff, what your mindset is, where you're gonna go next. We're gonna have interviews with people. We'll talk about um real life situations with people that we've helped. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 2:30

We've met some amazing people. We really have. Like our clients are the best.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

All their stories. I really do love all their stories. It's really cool. And it really, we do, I do really feel like we're helping them at a time when they are often feeling really overwhelmed.

Heather Fisher 2:45

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the theme. Yeah. Overwhelm. Overwhelmed. Right. That's the theme. Yeah. And um, I don't know if you I don't remember if you said vendors uh resources that we have met. We're excited to bring some of them here to answer your questions because I think not only the information that they have to share is so valuable, but we've met the greatest people with the biggest hearts for helping people. So excited.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, I think it's a it's a um an arena where people can get taken advantage of. And I think it's really important, you know, to have people that we know are trustworthy. And so we've talked to a lot of people and um we've we've been able to find that. So I I I love that. I love there are great people out there, just so you know, um, that have restored my my uh what people are. Faith in humanity is like the big way to say that. Yes. That definitely is. For sure. For sure. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 3:41

Um so uh do you want to talk a little bit about your story on why downsizing was on your heart?

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, so um I did feel like it was um a place where people needed a little bit more help when I was going to meet with people. Um, but then I just had my own personal story around it. Um Mark, my husband's Mark, who's also on our real estate team, his dad passed away in 2018. And um his mom, we ended up having his mom moved in with his sister, but we had their house to kind of take care of. And that was my first uh my first kind of step into oh gosh, this is hard. And there's a lot of stuff, um, there's a lot of stuff here, and a lot of memories, and what are we gonna do with all of it? And it took us a lot longer than I expected it to because um You're a realtor, it should be easy, right? I should just be able to knock that out, but when it's yours personally, it's just different. Um and so uh we started to figure out what resources we might need um and work on that. Um and so that was kind of the beginning of it. And then um my mom uh lived with my grandma um in the house that they've been in since 1965. She went to prom with my dad from that house, and um they're divorced since then, but um but she lived with my grandma and helped take care of her, and so all of my grandpa's stuff was in that house, and um he had been passed away for 12 years, and then all of my mom's stuff and all of my grandma's stuff, so it was really packed full of things, as you know. Yes, and um in in one year um my grandma passed away in May, and my my mom passed away that same December, and so you know, through lots of sadness and grief, um we were also dealing with lots of stuff in the house, and um I really just needed a lot more people to help me. So um that was that was just uh as much of a real life experience as I could have around it. And I learned a lot of things from that, and I learned things that I wish had been different, and if I had known about them, they would have been different, and so um I want to share that with people so that they can have that be a different experience.

Heather Fisher 5:57

Yeah, when I met you, you your family had just gone through things with Mark's family, and um, you know, we started down this journey, and um, you know, I'm so thankful for our friendship and that I was able to be there, you know, when you went through everything with your mom and your your grandma, you know, I was saw how difficult it was because you not only had your grief, but we as you know, a real estate team were trying to help with all the pieces of the house. And it is a process of finding the right people, the people that aren't going to take advantage, the people that are willing to do the hard stuff. And who are what are those things? You don't even think of everything you're gonna need. Um then, you know, since that time in my own life, I'm so thankful. Um, you know, I have both of my parents still here and with us, but we're going through all of the later in life stages that we're all going to hit and just being able to be prepared or to have the information that I never would have known before being in, you know, just this realm of finding all this has been so helpful. It's still hard.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

It's like I think it's always gonna be hard, but having some resources can make it easier. Yeah. And it makes you feel I think that my biggest um overwhelming feeling was just um helplessness. Yeah. You know, not knowing what exactly who to turn to and not knowing what to do myself, because I'm certainly not an expert in, you know, the other pieces. Some of the other pieces, estate planning and you know, where to go and all of those things. We will have people that come and talk about all of that stuff, and I'm super excited to share that information with our listeners because um, yeah, that I think you are in a place, honestly, from where we were, that you have learned more that you can help your parents a little bit better than I could have. Yes.

Heather Fisher 8:02

And I I'm thankful for that. And I know you know my family is thankful that we have those resources, and so I'm excited that we can just keep sharing that with a bigger audience because there's a lot that you just don't think about till it's urgent.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

And and once you're in crisis, that it's a whole different place. And working from a place of crisis is never a great place to be coming from, whether that whether it's you yourself that's downsizing and know that you need to and haven't and just are feeling stuck, or whether you are helping your adult child helping your parents. Either way, um, there's lots of stuff that you can do to be prepared. And and I that's what I want this you know podcast to be able to share with people is what can they do to be ready? Um, whether they're moving now or not doesn't actually really matter. Um, just lots of ways that you can get ready and find that peace of mind around it.

Heather Fisher 8:56

Yeah, because the the being ready is freedom in and of itself. It really is. You don't wake up every day knowing that you're eventually going to need to downsize what to do. You're you're carrying that weight of the unknown. And once you have a plan and a strategy, whether it's for tomorrow or for years down the road, you don't have to think about it every day. Right. Because you know you should be doing something and that weighs on you.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah. When you're not. Yep. But you're not sure what to do. So we're gonna help with that. Yes, absolutely.

Heather Fisher 9:30

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I'm excited, yes. Yes, I am too. So what so why why downsizing? What why is that why does it matter? You know, um, downsizing really isn't getting rid of everything that you have. I think sometimes that's what people think, that they think it's something that happens to them and that they have to just get rid of everything they have in their life. And and it's really, it isn't that. It's it's really um i you are gonna get rid of some things, but it's about streamlining your life and just using the things that you need and having your space work for you. Yeah. Um we have a lot of people who are in in properties that don't work. You know, all the bedrooms are upstairs and they can't go upstairs anymore. Or, you know, just reasons the height, the yard is.

Heather Fisher 10:15

It's it's not always smaller.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, right. Sometimes it's it it might even be the same amount of space. It's just that the layout is different.

Heather Fisher 10:23

Or your the space you have doesn't work because it's too full of things. Right. That the space itself is okay. Yeah. But you have to let go of some things. You haven't managed it.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

So And sometimes you want to be closer to family, you know. Yes. Sometimes uh sometimes it's health, you know, safety, sometimes um it's freedom. You just want to travel and you know be able to not take care of some care of things. So there's all kinds of um reasons for downsizing. Um and I think the mindset, we're gonna talk a lot about mindset um over over time. We'll talk about some of it today, but I think the mindset is really the first step in in in doing it. And I think that's where people maybe skip over that and that and that's why they might have some trouble.

Heather Fisher 11:07

Yeah. So Jody, I think a a whole um group that um our podcast can be really helpful to um that we have experience in is those adult children helping their parents. So if that's one of you, stay tuned. There's lots of information because that's hard too.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah, and we are those people. We are the feel you.

Heather Fisher 11:30

And um, you know, a lot of times that's the situations we come across that no one knows what to do. It's not a matter, you know, sometimes um someone physically is overwhelmed by the amount of work, but even when you've got family and friends that can help you with just the actual doing, you're not sure what to do or in what order, or you know, how it can be a little easier. So right.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

We want to help our parents, but we don't know how. Yeah. And they're feeling overwhelmed. And so there's you know, some stress around it. Um, and and as the adult kids, how can we help without adding to the stress? Yeah. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 12:09

I mean, yeah. You don't think they just want all the stuff?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I just want to take the whole house of their stuff and just take it to my house. No. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 12:17

We know that that's not the case. If you if you're trying to pass it on, we we can help with that. We know how to help you through that.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

And if you're definitely there will be things that they want that I wanted and that, you know, the kids will want, but um, it may not be the things that the parents think they are. And that's okay.

Heather Fisher 12:36

We'll talk about that for sure because that's a big big thing and a lot of feelings involved on both sides on that. So it can go awry.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Yep. Yeah. So we find the top top reasons that people downsize um are, you know, life transitions, um, uh retirement. Sometimes they retire, they move, they want to move closer to family. Um they're the house is too big, you know, they're empty nesters, they've gotten to a place where the house is too big. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 13:04

Um, I think we have that stat on empty nesters that the average American household only uses 40 percent of their house. So if you ha raised your family in a five-bedroom house and no, you know, you're down to only using one bedroom. I mean, it's a lot of space. You could have had basements that were the playroom and the entertainment room and all of that. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

There's a lot of have to clean them, we have to heat them, we have to, you know, take care of all of that, and then all the things that the room that it gives us to collect things that we don't need.

Heather Fisher 13:41

Yes, yes. But even if you're coming from a place of, well, my house isn't cluttered, it can still be just the weight of space that you don't need, right? I think. So lots of different different problems or uh hurdles. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Well, and I think that people just get um really um used to where they are and don't really think about what life could could look like. So we'll talk about mindset here in just a minute, but that's again about the mindset of things. Um we had um we had a client um who was in a situation where he was using only, I mean not even 40%. He was just kind of um he had a a problem with his mobility, and so he was in the downstairs basement all of the time um and he had stairs to go up to the kitchen, and um he could only do that once a day.

Heather Fisher 14:40

And so the energy it took, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Yeah, with uh with his mobility. And so um he needed to move and he knew it, but he didn't have the you know physical uh means to do that. So we were able to help him find people that could help him um go through the things that he had, help him pack that stuff up. We found him a great ranch house that he can, you know, move through easily and his dog um could go and be c and be comfortable with him.

Heather Fisher 15:10

Um and settled with the right stuff, not the stuff he didn't need, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah, just yeah, go through those things, get that all cleaned out, um, and then set up the house even. They set up the house so cute where they get all of his things um out and helped him get a few new, you know, bedding and some new things. And so um he was just over the moon about his new situation. And I think um we just get used to where we are, even if it's really bad.

Heather Fisher 15:40

Um we don't see how bad it is when we're living in it.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yeah.

Heather Fisher 15:44

It's the chain the change happens, declines over time.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yes.

Heather Fisher 15:49

And you don't notice it because it's just a a small bit each day that something gets harder or something gets more neglected, or you know, something is working less for you each day, and suddenly it's not it doesn't work at all, but you haven't realized it yet.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yeah. And so I think um when we talk about what we're gonna talk about a lot is mindset um and then what to do with your stuff. There's gonna be a lot of conversations around that. Um, and then where to go next and then maybe what to do with the house. Um but but when we talk about that mindset, I think that um people don't spend a lot of time just thinking about what the future could look like. Yeah. We just kind of live our day-to-day and we don't think how it could potentially be different. And we we know what the past is, um, and we we we know we have those memories from the past. We know what the present is, we know how we're living now, but I think sometimes they get stuck on what that future could look like. And so I think that's where you need to start if you're gonna start with your downsizing. I think you need to start with um, what could my future look like? And and you have options. You could think of that as a positive or a negative. Yeah. And I think sometimes a lot of people feel like they I hear them say things like, I have to move, I can't keep all my stuff. I, you know, it's it's all like almost like it's something that has to happen to them instead of maybe something exciting that they could look at and say, What could how could my life be better?

Heather Fisher 17:27

Yeah, we talk a lot about focusing on that big why. I mean, it a lot of times in the clients we've met, it's getting closer to their adult kids and grandkids. And, you know, that's amazing to be in the right space close to all the people that you love. Yeah. Or freeing up time from maintaining your house to travel, to um, you know, do hobbies, pickleball, you know, we have a lot of pickleball clients, all the fun things. Um and then sometimes it's really down to the things that come with aging. You need different health, you know, health care, you need people around you daily helping with your daily needs or health needs. You need safety and security if you fall, or if um, you know, something happens with your health, you need to be um in a senior living community at various stages to get those extra things. And what have we discovered, Jody? Everyone is so happy they've done it. Yes. And also what I was gonna say is that the senior living communities of today are not at all if you have if your only experience is a nursing home from you know 30 years ago, they are beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

They really are. Like we would we um we go to see them, we want to see where people, what their options are, and so we've gone and met with a lot of um of the people that work there who are also some really fabulous people, by the way. Um, really big hearts and big hearts. And um and so, oh my gosh, there's many times we've been like, let's move in.

Heather Fisher 19:10

Amenities, both fun and social amenities and the day-to-day laundry and meals and the things, I, you know. I could go.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

I'm telling you. I mean, you're gonna make my dinner and you're gonna do my laundry, and it's gonna be, you know, you know, social time. I'm in.

Heather Fisher 19:28

Yes. We'll be roommates next door. You know, we'll be like next door neighbors. We're ready.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

So Yeah, so so if you're thinking um that it's like your your your grandma's nursing home, you need to go out and check out some of them, honestly. And I think sometimes information is power, right? And so you just need to kind of go out and see what's out there and what other options there are so that you can kind of get dreamy about what that could look like. Because I do feel like when I was saying I made a kind of a little list of you know what could be the positives. Um and I think emotional is one of them. Social, I think there's so uh I think that to COVID kind of taught us that um we, you know, being alone like that, yeah, so isolated is not good for us. And so um even though it might feel comfortable in your house all by yourself, um, you don't even maybe know how amazing it would be to just be able to go have coffee with somebody or you know have breakfast with somebody or something like that.

Heather Fisher 20:30

Just those daily interactions unplanned, passing someone in the hallway or, you know, at the dining room and things like that can bring so much to someone's life where if not, you know, days could go by before someone is interacting with people. Um, you know, we know as adult kids we're living a full life too, and just this day and age our schedules are full, and it's not a matter of not wanting to be there for our parents and all of that, but that day-to-day community with um that extended family is just harder. And um, I do think that the community that someone could live in, if it's vibrant, can really bring so many benefits.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah, I mean, it great, it feels great to have people who are caring about you, you know, more than just your family. Hey, you know, I haven't seen her today. Let's go check on her, or let's just go have tea or let's play cards, or you know, my um my Nana was so vibrant. Like she um she was just somebody who was always on the go. And it was great to see to to have that um that role model for me of what that can look like. And she just had so many friends, and um it was really cool. It was really cool to see that. So um, so so the positives financially, you know, there can be positives about that. Big houses are expensive to take care of. Health wise, you know, it might be safer somewhere. So just kind of get a little bit dreamy. Get what are you gonna do with that time? Like, what are you gonna be making room for in your life? Are you gonna travel? Are you gonna join some clubs? My Nana, after my grandpa passed away, went and um joined a book club because she loves to read. And she went and became a docent at a um at a museum. Yeah, fun. And um she just kind of decided she needed to get out there a little bit. And what I mean, she was in her 80s. That was just amazing. Um, but she that brought her so much more joy, like watching her do that and then that's putting yourself out there. I get that. I get that that is, but the joy that it brought her back was was really cool to see. So just think about what that could look like and what those next steps could look could look like, and how how could your life be better? Write some positive things around that because step two is kind of the stuff thing, and you can get a little mired in that. And what you need is to be able to have that big Y and what your purpose and why you're doing what you're doing kind of written up there for you to be like, oh yeah, I'm you know, elbow deep in the basement that I have stored things in forever. What am I doing? Oh, that's right. I'm gonna go to, you know, Italy or I'm gonna go spend time with my grandkids or whatever kind of motivates you.

Heather Fisher 23:22

So I know this will be a topic as we go forward, uh plenty of episodes about stuff, but maybe today we dive into it just a little bit, step one.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

So so I think that um letting go of your stuff, it really is not about the stuff. It's not the stuff. What the problem is just stuff. Yeah, stuff is just stuff. It's about the memories, right? And so I think that um when when you kind of get started on what to do with your stuff, um again, I think there's some thinking that needs to happen before you before you do that. And I think some of it is what what kind of legacy do you want to leave? Or like when I think of my grandma, my mom's mom, um, the first thing I think of is home cooking. Like that is, you know, what she did. She she fed us with love. That was her, that was her love. And so one of the things that we that I kept was um she had a handwritten cookbook that I given her and asked her to start writing recipes in. And so we made a copy for everybody in the family. But I think like what legacy is it? What is it that you have? And those are the kind of important things that you want to leave. If it's books that you read or that you've liked to read, those can probably all go. There's a library, you can do all of those things, but you know, unless that was your thing.

Heather Fisher 24:42

Yeah, if books are your thing, but you still even if there's a hundred of them, yeah. You put that message in the one favorite, you make sure the story is there, that that's your favorite, yeah, and the rest is okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

So um, so it's kind of deciding what those legacy things are. I did get my love of reading part partially from my Nana. And um, so I do have her first edition of the Winnie the Pooh book that she used to read me. Yes. Um so but that's you know, I don't have everything. I just have the one, and that's you know, that g that reminds me. So um starting to let go of the stuff is um really it's the stories behind the stuff. So your kids um will want things, but not a lot of things.

Heather Fisher 25:31

How many things do we have? Oh, the average American house? Yes. 300,000 things. Nobody wants your 300,000 things. Isn't that insane?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

It is. It is insane. Yeah. So no wonder it's overwhelming. Absolutely. Really. I mean, it it's um uh overwhelming for almost everybody. So if you're in that space and you're thinking about it and you're feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. Um you are not alone in that.

Heather Fisher 26:00

I think that even for ourselves, if you're the one in the position of, I love all my things. I don't I don't want to get rid of anything. I love it all. I think there's a little bit of a reality check in there when you put that number to it. Well, you can't everything can't be special. Yeah, you don't want all 300,000 things. So that's part of the process is really thinking about that, what that legacy is for yourself. That what are the things that I really love the most that I want. Maybe a few more things in that category, but you don't need all hundred, you know, 300,000 items. Start with the ones that you don't and don't get hung up and thinking those few that you really do love is everything, all encompassing.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Right. Because honestly, even if you had a hundred of something, they can't all be special.

Heather Fisher 26:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

That's you can't even if you have a collection of a hundred teacups, they're not every single one is not as special as the other ones, right? So um so you have to be kind of realistic about what that looks like. And there are ones that are special. I'm not saying there aren't. Just you know, be realistic about what that that looks like.

Heather Fisher 27:14

Yeah. If it's truly the hundred teacups, you can't also have a collection of records and a collection of stamps and uh, you know, which you know Well, and collectors do seem to collect and so that multiple categories, multiple things.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

So and I think asking your kids um what that legacy is in their mind is also something like you you might not know that they really appreciate this something about you. Like they really like my grandma's cooking, she might not have known how much we really did love it. I mean, she did it, but she might not have known how important that was for me to have her recipes. Yeah, you know? Yeah. So um, yeah, so I think um start thinking about what that legacy looks like. We are gonna talk a lot about stuff in future episodes, so stay tuned. Um we will definitely be able to help um with what that looks like. So um, and also remember you're not letting go of the memories. If you can um, if you can write down the stories or record the stories or whatever about the stuff, it's the stories that are important, and then the stuff can go.

Heather Fisher 28:18

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Yeah. Um we get asked uh a lot of times, how how do we know when the time is right to downsize? And um and I think it's when life isn't serving you. And I think you have to be a little realistic with yourself about that because back to, you know, it kind of goes down. It creeps up. Yeah, it creeps up on you. Um and I think we have a lot of we teach downsizing classes. If that's something you're interested in, reach out to us and we can talk to you about that. But um, but we teach these classes and a lot of people know, they just know they need to. Yeah. But they're like, we're not ready right now. And I think that's just a fear of that future unknown. Um and if you start kind of having a path to go down, which we will share with you what we what our path is as we go along, um, marching down the path actually feels good. It feels like it's gonna be not feeling good, but it actually does feel good.

Heather Fisher 29:12

I mean, all through life, don't we all love when you can put the check mark beside something? I mean it's just knowing what's my small chunk today to get started and having that power of the path. And then you can just mark the things done or get the people that can mark it done for you. And we have those, you know, resources to say here's who you need for that. Um so yeah, I think I think on the flip side, we also come across people that would love that they're not fighting actually being somewhere else more manageable. They don't know how to get there. So they're kicking that can down the road and telling us I'm not ready yet. Tomorrow, tomorrow I'm not ready yet, but really they don't know how to get there and they would love it if they could snap their fingers.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Well, and we've seen that too. We've we've given them the path that they could walk down. And when they said it's gonna be three or four years, it's three or four months because once you get on the path y and they know what to do, they are ready. Yeah. They're just saying three or four years because they think in their mind, I couldn't possibly handle all of this. Yes. And if it takes you a couple years, that's okay. But if you're ready now, we've got a path to to help you get there too. So yeah.

Heather Fisher 30:30

Yeah. And that path, if if it is more of a crisis, you know, some people have done, haven't done the preparation and you have to do things quicker. You know, yeah. Definitely experience that in my own family. And you have to, you know, if you don't have a plan, you know, of course that's always a better path. But if you don't, that's okay too. We have quick plans that we can help you with.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

And I think in the quick plans, what you need is is some experts. Yeah. I think that's what you need the most. That's when you need them the most. Is um if you're gonna just kind of downsize yourself over a few years and nothing catastrophic is gonna happen during that time, you probably can do that. When something catastrophic happens, we need those experts to come in and help us quickly. And um, we have some great ones that'll come and talk to us.

Heather Fisher 31:19

So I'm excited for you on that.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Um yeah, so I think that's a a general idea of what our what our podcast is gonna be about.

Heather Fisher 31:29

Yeah, I have a question for you.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Yeah.

Heather Fisher 31:32

So when someone looks around and they're thinking they want to downsize and they feel completely overwhelmed, what's the very first step that you'd tell them to take?

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Um, I really think the first step is stepping back and doing that that big why. I think that first step is to really start thinking about um what their future could look like so they could get excited about that. Um and then we'll give you the path on how to deal with this stuff. I don't think I think that people focus on the stuff and that's where they stop because they're like, well, I I they look around and they think, it's not fun. I'm exhausted already and I haven't even done anything. And so I think focusing on the future first is is what you should do.

Heather Fisher 32:19

Great, great info. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Next week um we're gonna talk about um the 80-20 rule. Um I'm not even gonna tell you what it is, um, but I'll tell you next time. But it's a really great way to help you pair down your stuff with a mindset of the 80-20 rule.

Heather Fisher 32:40

Awesome. Yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yep.

Heather Fisher 32:42

Yeah, good stuff. Do we have any questions of from that we were gonna answer from that we've gotten before?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, I think just the one about about how how when when's the right time. We you know, we also get a lot of questions on what to keep. If you all have questions, send them to us. We would love to answer your questions. Um maybe we'll do a whole podcast on answering questions one of these times. But um we also get one of how how do we know what to keep and what to let go. Um and honestly, uh, that's where the stories come in. So I think um not everything in my house has a story, and not everything in your house has I mean the story might have been I went to Target and bought it. That's the story.

Heather Fisher 33:22

Well, that's the story of your junk drawer.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

I mean, there's a story, but it's not one that's like not a good thing. Vital for the future. It's not a legacy story, right? So which things have the legacy stories? Um and and that's where we're gonna that's where we're gonna start. So um there's a quote that um Joshua Becker, uh, who does a lot of downsizing, he has a book, a great book, but um, his quote is um maybe the life that you've always wanted is buried under everything you own. And I just love that quote. Right in the beginning, that was one of the first quotes that we found around downsizing.

Heather Fisher 33:56

And it's in our classes, the very first one we did years ago, and it it resonates with me, and I think I'm excited. I think we can unbury that life for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Yeah, I think um I think the reason it resonates so much for me is because my mom had so much stuff that I really do feel like her life was buried under it. And um, and I think stuff is heavy, uh physically heavy, but also emotionally heavy. And I think that um people always feel so much lighter, even in even in houses where they're not downsizing, and when we just tell them to clean everything, you know, so we can take pictures to sell the house after we do, after they do it, they're like, I why don't I live like this? Yeah, yeah. So it's heavy stuff, stuff just kind of wears on you even though you don't think it is. Yeah. Um, and so I love that. Maybe the life uh that you've always wanted is is buried under everything you own.

Heather Fisher 34:56

Yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

We're gonna try to help you unbury.

Heather Fisher 34:59

Well, such a good conversation today. Um, our website, if you need it, is www.downsizingroadmap.com. We've got a lot of resources and we'll keep adding as we go on in the podcast. Uh, but you can always reach out to us through there, and we're excited for next time. 8020 rule. What is it and how can it help us? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

All right.

Heather Fisher 35:22

Thank you. Bye-bye. Thanks for joining us on the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who might need a little downsizing inspiration. Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Reach out to us on our website, www.downsizingroadmap.com. Until next time, let's keep simplifying and moving forward.