61. The Downsizing Roadmap Method: Our 5-Step Plan From Overwhelmed to Ready

If downsizing has been sitting in the back of your mind, but you’re not sure where to start, this is the episode to come back to.

Most people don’t struggle because they’re not capable. They struggle because they don’t have a clear process. Without one, downsizing turns into delayed decisions, unfinished piles, and growing frustration.

In this episode, we walk through our Downsizing Roadmap Method—our 5-step plan we use to guide clients from overwhelmed to confident and ready.

We share what each step actually looks like, where people tend to get stuck, and how to keep moving without burning out.

You’ll hear how to:

• Start with a clear vision so decisions feel easier
• Handle the constant decisions without second-guessing
• Let go of items without guilt
• Prepare your home so it shows at its best
• Step into your next chapter with less stress and more intention

This isn’t about doing everything at once. It’s about knowing what to do next—and having a process you can trust because it’s been used, tested, and refined.

If you’re ready to talk through what this could look like for you, reach out here:
 https://downsizingroadmap.com/contact/

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!

Get connected here ➡️ https://downsizingroadmap.com/help/

Download our FREE Downsizing Guide: https://downsizingroadmap.com/guide/

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

Transcript

Jodi Rosko 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.

Heather Fisher 0:17

Hi, welcome to the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. We're going to talk to something, uh, talk about something near and dear to our hearts today. This is our five-step downsizing method. Yeah. So we're going to walk through the roadmap that we talk about in our classes and in our, you know, upcoming workbook. And, you know, this is what we've developed over the last few years of helping clients. You know, we've touched on some of these steps in different episodes and different pieces, but we thought we would take the time to just walk you through it today.

Jodi Rosko 0:54

Yeah, this is the method that we, you know, kind of guides our our plan and helps us when we go talk to people, you know, what what step they're in, what steps they might have missed, how, you know, how we can help them move forward. And um I think that it's great to for us to just kind of break it down for you because I we have talked about all the different things, but I'm not sure we've had an episode where we really just kind of step by step went through it yet.

Heather Fisher 1:17

Yeah, absolutely. I'm Heather Fisher.

Jodi Rosko 1:19

I'm Jodi Roscoe.

Heather Fisher 1:20

And let's get started and um just talk about it. Step one, you want to introduce that one, Jody?

Jodi Rosko 1:25

Yeah, so step one is dream it. And I know if you've listened to any of our podcasts, you've heard us talk about this a lot. And I think um this is the step that is really missed the most in the beginning because uh oftentimes when people start thinking about downsizing, they start thinking about it um and looking at all their stuff or they're feeling that they need to because they have too much stuff or the house is overwhelming, or you know, the reasons that they're starting to think about it. And so stuff kind of comes to the forefront and people just start like, okay, I need to just start getting rid of my stuff. And that is a pat that is one of the steps, but it's not the first step. And so um the first step is dream it. And and the reason that's the first step is that if we don't know where we're going, then we don't really have the motivation to get there when things get sticky and um we're we we won't get get there, right?

Heather Fisher 2:20

There that you can't dan downsize well if you don't know what you're moving toward.

Jodi Rosko 2:26

Right. So like anything in life, I mean if you don't have goals, I mean you've I'm sure you've heard that, you know, many times about goals and you have to know where you're going and all of that stuff. So I think that step number one is to kind of sit back and be reflective and ask yourself some questions about what your life is gonna look like. What is it that's you know causing you some friction about making you think about like, hey, I want to downsize or you know, what is it that's bothering you? Um, what is it that you would do with that time uh that it takes you to clean the house or do the lawn or do all of those things? Like what what do you want your future to look like? And spend some time in a notebook and you know with your partner, you know, spend some time thinking about that, talking about that. And so the first step is really kind of not even functioning around actually physically doing things, it's really thinking.

Heather Fisher 3:21

Yeah, once you've done that and you have a little bit of that that vision of what would make your life easier, then you're no longer asking questions in a vacuum. You know, you're you're asking along with other questions uh in different steps, you're asking, does this support what's next? And you have a vision of what that what's next is. It makes it proactive and not reactive.

Jodi Rosko 3:44

Right. Because if it j if you're just working from this isn't working, and so I better, you know, get rid of some of this stuff or I better whatever, um, you don't you aren't moving towards anything. You're just you know letting go of things. And sometimes that feels um more depressing, honestly, like if it's just all about like what are we gonna let go of and all of that. And if it is more about like, hey, this is what I want my future to look like, this is uh what I'm working towards, I want to be able to travel more, I want to be able to spend more time with my family, you know, whatever that is, um, when you're doing that and you're working towards it, and if you create kind of some little vision board around it, or you create some notebook around, you know, whatever you create that works for you, when you're in the middle of doing some of that stuff, which is gonna be a little bit hard, um, it gives you, if you go back and look at those and be like, oh right, that's why I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I'm gonna get this thing that I want in the future, it helps you with the motivation in the middle of it, but it also makes sure that you get where you want to go.

Heather Fisher 4:47

Yeah, we talk so often about decision fatigue and how many decisions are involved, um, honestly in daily life, but uh you layer on so many more in the downsizing process, and we talk about how you can ease that decision fatigue with parameters. And so that dream kind of becomes the the large parameter around everything, and you know, you're looking at each question of does this fit that dream?

Jodi Rosko 5:16

Right, because it gives you a framework to make your decisions. Yeah. And so when you have a framework to make decisions, they're easier to make or they seem obvious. Yeah. Right? So if you know that you're gonna move into a space that is fifty percent smaller than what you have right now, um, you know, you have a 4,000 square foot house and you're gonna move into a 2,000 square foot ranch, you know, whatever that looks like, um, you know, I mean, logistically, you can only take half your stuff, right? 50% of, you know, if you really look at it like that. And so then that gives you a parameter of, hey, this is w do I need this in the next place? You know, what is my life gonna look like? Are these hobbies that I don't do anymore? You know, what of what is what of this 50%, you know, 100% of stuff, what 50% wouldn't I even miss if I didn't have it? And you know what your parameters are, and so you know how to make those decisions, and they seem much more obvious because if you don't have the parameters, trying to make a decision just c out with no rules or parameters is really hard. If you've ever watched that Top Chef show or, you know, any of those shows where they're just like, make whatever you want, they're like, oh, like, you know, that just seems so hard because um they don't have any guidelines. So give yourself some guidelines by figuring out what you want your future to look like, and those future that future vision is your guideline for what you're gonna do next.

Heather Fisher 6:38

Yeah, it's exactly back to the the cooking shows, like make it with these three ingredients. What are your three top priorities, you know, on location or size or convenience? Um, you know, really the more detailed you can be um in what that dream looks like, um, number one, once you've put pen to paper, they're more likely that it will come to fruition and um become exactly what you want of your choice. Um but number two, the more detailed it is, the easier every other decision behind it becomes.

Jodi Rosko 7:15

And I think that sometimes when people hear dream it, they're like, ugh, that's super fluffy, like I don't need to do that part. Um but it actually isn't, it's the backbone of it. It's the backbone of figuring out what's next and and then what what the rest of it looks like. And so it's not fluffy at all. It's it's what you absolutely have to start with.

Heather Fisher 7:34

Yeah, and if you skip that step, then it you're uh it becomes more of a reaction to just whatever comes your way. Um and the more you do that and those instances stack on top of each other, the more your life is just happening to you. Right. And it may not be exactly where you wanted to end up.

Jodi Rosko 7:54

Right. So ask your quest yourself questions like where where do you imagine waking up, or what where, you know, what's the new chapter gonna look like, or three words that describe your next chapter, or you know, what are you relieved to be not dealing with anymore? You know, just kind of give yourself some bigger questions about what your life is now, what part of it has, you know, past that you can just let that go because it's not gonna be the same, what future fun things could be happening, and just kind of give yourself that time to figure out what that vision is.

Heather Fisher 8:27

Yeah, and if there was one action step we could apply to this step, um it's after all of that thinking, truly put it pen to paper so that you can revisit it, so that you can, you know, post it somewhere where you're thinking about it more than just a passing thought that you can't remember anymore. Um, you know, just start with the sentence, I'm downsizing so I can, you know, and fill in that blank. And the more detail you can put in there, the better. Um, but start there and and post it somewhere once it's done.

Jodi Rosko 9:02

Yeah. So you can remember, keep it, keep it top of mind while you're doing the rest of it. So um, so step one is dream it. Step two is decide it. So now you're going to start making decisions um about you know what what we're gonna do with all of our stuff and you know, all of that. So people get stuck on that stuff because they're afraid they're gonna throw away something that they want, they're afraid that um, you know, their their life is gonna be different, they don't know what the future looks like, which is why you have to do the first thing. They're guilty because somebody gave them something and now they feel bad about getting rid of it, or they have their parents' things because their parents didn't make the decisions around them and gave them to them. And you know, guilt is not a gift, right? Yeah. Guilt is not a gift.

Heather Fisher 9:48

Not a gift. We um did a an episode early on, one of our early episodes, two or three, I think, on decision fatigue. Um and it's super interesting, you know, just that whole science around it. But um it's a real thing, and this is the step where it's just endless decisions. You're gonna practice those decisions and and practice making it easier, uh, pulling some research. Uh, there's a stat that um estimates humans make 35,000 decisions daily.

Jodi Rosko 10:21

That's insane.

Heather Fisher 10:22

Daily. So crazy. That's just in normal life. Now you're adding on this project that involves a myriad of more decisions, you know, we we understand why it feels overwhelming.

Jodi Rosko 10:37

Yeah. And I think if you can take some bigger um upsweeping rules like I'm, you know, this is the hobby that I'm gonna do now, and the other ones that I have I'm not gonna do anymore, then you don't have to make a decision about every piece of the hobby thing that you have. You know, you can just let all of it go. Or, you know, I'm gonna keep my top favorite books and the rest of them are gonna go. You know, if I'm gonna read a book again, then I'll keep it. If I'm not gonna read it, but read it again if it wasn't one that I would want to read over, then I don't need to keep it. Somebody else can enjoy it. We can, you know, let that go. You know, making some some decisions like that, that then you don't have to look at every single book and decide, you know, necessarily what to do with that is a quick question. Is it good enough I want to read it again? You know, something like that, it helps with the decision fatigue too.

Heather Fisher 11:29

For sure. And each category, you know, before you start, there's a little bit of thought process around why does this category feel overwhelming to me? And it'll be different for each person. And so choosing those parameters to match how you're feeling about it. Oh, you know, the garage just feels overwhelming because it's physically hard to move all this stuff I don't want anymore. Okay, so then you get an outside resource and haul it away. But you know, this feels hard because I have gift guilt because it's all from, you know, my mom's house, then you need a different parameter. I'm gonna choose 10 things to honor the most and keep. Or, you know, match that parameter to how you're feeling about the category or what you know about that dream that's coming. I have, you know, 200 books and I'm only gonna have room for 20, you know, or I want to reduce my Christmas decorations from 10 bins to five bins. That um, you know, your situation makes the parameters make sense to make it easier.

Jodi Rosko 12:38

Because everything doesn't have the same value. So remember that some things are gonna be more valuable to you, they might have more emotional pull for you. Um, you might just love them more because they're your style, you know, whatever that is, but um not everything is the same value. So just because it was your mom's doesn't mean you know, all of those things are the same. And so again, it's a parameter. I can keep 10 or whatever that is for you, um, then it helps you be like, okay, well, the this one is my favorite for sure. Like this is absolutely I need to keep this. That one, I don't really have a lot of memories around that thing, you know, what whatever that is. And so it kind of again, parameters help you figure figure out what to keep and what to sell without uh you know, without so many hard decisions. So, and like like Heather had said, some of it is an emotional decision, some of it is physically, I need help. You know, what is it and and how can you mitigate that?

Heather Fisher 13:36

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so you know, four simple buckets to start thinking about things, to group these decisions, there's the things you know you're gonna keep, there's the things that might be, you know, giving by donating or selling trash or recycle, giving to family, and then um the maybes. And we've talked in many episodes about that maybe box. It's okay to not make every decision right in the same, you know, sitting, but you don't want to delay it by not making a decision at all. Um so that maybe box um is just putting, you know, things in a box, sealing it away, putting a date on it with that thought, if I haven't thought of something that I know is in this box to come open up and get back out, you know, having that regret over it, then you don't revisit it. That date comes and it goes out without opening the box and having to re-make that emotional decision.

Jodi Rosko 14:39

Because you've already looked at everything in that box. So you aren't throwing, you know, there's not a hundred and fifty dollars in cash in there somewhere that you're you might, you know, not yeah. You've already looked at everything in that box and you already weren't sure if you wanted it. So um it helps you from having decision paralysis if you get in a place where you're like, I don't know about this, I don't know about this. And if you're having a day like that, it's time to stop. So if you if you've been trucking along and you're making decisions and then all of a sudden everything's starting to go in that maybe pile, what that means is your mind is saying, I've made enough decisions for today. I am not gonna be making any more good decisions today. It's time to go get, you know, t get a snack, go have lunch, go pat yourself on the back for what you've already done, accomplished today, and you know, give it a rest and come back again tomorrow and and do it. So know, like pay attention to those cues. Hey, that maybe pile is really starting to fill up. It's just time to stop, and that's okay. Because it happens. And and just know that that's normal and it's not you, you know, being weak or whatever that is, it's just how your brain works.

Heather Fisher 15:46

Yeah, come back with a fresh day and fresh eyes. Um, some questions you can ask um with this general sorting. Do I love it? Do I use it? And does it fit my next chapter? And those are questions different than, oh, is this pretty? Right. Do I like this?

Jodi Rosko 16:05

Does it still have use? Yeah. It's because because that's the kind of stuff um that goes through people's heads. It's like, well, it's still useful, or it's still has the tags on it, or it's, you know, and I never used it or whatever. And that that may be true, but you don't have to be the one that uses it, right? There's somebody else who is been waiting for that and, you know, wants it. So we're not saying fill up the landfill. We're saying get it to a, you know, g give it to give it somewhere so that the person who actually is going to use it and will will use it. Um and when we do that, we don't actually have to uh I I think some people get pit mired in like, I need to find the perfect place for everything, right? Where who where's the perfect place for this thing? And so um be careful on getting mired into that and and just letting it go. You know what I really love is um I love those buy nothing Facebook groups. Yeah um and the reason that I love those is because you can put something out there and somebody who has been looking for it will be like, oh my gosh, this is exactly what I need. And I love that. And then the way that it works in our area is you just put it out on the porch so you aren't, you know, seeing them. It's not it's free, so there's no money exchange. And so they just will come and get it, and um it's very neighbor, you know, area specific, so ours is just our town, so it's not gonna be like people all over the place. And um I just love that uh because you actually are finding the right place for it without spending a lot of effort finding the right place for it.

Heather Fisher 17:40

Yeah, when we moved, I did that with I don't know, probably ten items or so, and and some of them I did meet the people because it was furniture or whatnot, and we helped load when they came to pick it up, and um that was that was lovely too because you felt how grati you know, how much gratitude they had for what use they were going to put the item to, and um, you know, even got some pictures. I think I showed you that, you know, we had a corner hutch that we weren't gonna use and it was repurposed in a little girl's room for all of her sports trophies, and you know, got a picture from from the lady who picked it up of her daughter and it all you know redecorated in in that new perfect spot. And you know, it is nice when you know where it's going, um, but it's easy. Uh on our end, someone came and picked it up and we didn't have to deal with it. Right. So it's all around good.

Jodi Rosko 18:36

Yeah. So um find ways to, you know, if your family wants it, great, but not not that they have to have it, right? So let ask them first before you start letting things go because they might really they might want something that you have no idea they want. So, you know, that happens often where it's not the things that you think the family would want, it's things that they want that are just not even in your vision of what that is. So ask them first, but then find ways to let let them go. And you know, one another question is if it disappeared, would I even notice? And that's the that's the maybe box right there for sure. Because if you're not sure whether you would notice, if you put that in the maybe box and you don't open that box, then no, you didn't notice.

Heather Fisher 19:18

Pretty much the definition of how that works. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of this that we've started talking about is moving into our step three, which is release it. It's how to, you know, move these things out of your life and into the the hands um that you need. And and I think that a lot of times in that keep or give um decision, we start obsessing on the give and we just don't move to that. And and all of the decisions that come along with give really fall into this next step. It's different. Um you've already decided it doesn't belong in your life anymore. Right. And now you're deciding, is it worthy of selling? Is it worthy of, you know, donating? Is it just trash? Do friends and family want it? Um but j be careful not to get mired in those questions back in the release it's or in the um the step before the decide it step because you'll get distracted. Yeah, you won't make enough decisions because you're worried about where will I sell this one you know set of China or something like that.

Jodi Rosko 20:32

That is such a good point, Heather. That is such a good point because the first, the whole decide it step is does it belong in my life or does it not belong in my life? Not where is it gonna go because we're gonna we're gonna deal with that later. Um where's where just only is it b does it belonging in my life now in the future or not? And then we can decide where it goes. So and find the best place or whatever that looks like. But you're so right. I think people get they they have to di decide where it goes before they release it or decide whether it's gonna go somewhere, and then they get stuck keeping it because they're not sure and all of that, and they're like, oh, I better just keep it then. So I love that. Just first, is it in my life or not in my life, and then we'll figure out where it goes.

Heather Fisher 21:18

Yeah, absolutely. And when we're thinking about figuring out where it goes, if that pile is large, the the actual easiest way to take all these decisions out of your life is something like an estate sale, because that deciding of the is it worthy for selling or donation or trash, the process of an estate sale makes those decisions along the line. Everything gets priced as if it's worthy of selling, and the people coming decide whether whether that was true or not, right? And for how much. And um, you know, then you're left with okay, these Were all of the things that did not sell, and that gets handled as a donation for everything that is not broken, damaged, you know, just not usable. And then that small amount that is actual trash gets decided. I know you you as a family um experienced this at your mom's house. We've talked about how you guys threw so much in the dumpster before you brought decided on the estate sale and brought in those professionals. And in hindsight, there was probably a lot that went in the dumpsters that wasn't at that trash stage yet, just because we all don't know what we don't know. Yeah. Um so this is another thing. Once you've made that decide it step and you know it's not you know staying in your life, there are paths that you can just let the rest of those decisions on what is sellable, what's donatable, what's trash be made by people who do it all the time.

Jodi Rosko 23:02

Right. Um and so if you have a lot, then that the estate sell absolutely works. If you're taking, you know, a decent amount and your family's taking some and you, you know, get to a place where there's just not the best stuff is left because you are taking it or your family has taken it or whatever, um, and that isn't really going to be a source of income for you in any way, um, then donation is is usually a way that that we go. And we have some um great donation people. If you're in the Dayton, Ohio area, we can share those with you. But there are great um places all over the country. And so there are obviously the national places, um, but there are some local places too. And so you may do just a little bit of research to figure out, but um we have one that um helps women who've been in bad domestic situations kind of build rebuild a house, and so that just feels great to give them those household things that they need. And um sometimes uh y just letting somebody come and take it is is better than trying to pick each individual thing and figure out you know where it needs to go.

Heather Fisher 24:12

Yeah, absolutely. And if you are um going through these steps as a longer process, you're just you know dipping your toe into these um decisions and change um and you're not quite ready for um packing and moving, um, make that release it step part of your weekly life, whether that's a donation, you know, basket that every week you drive it through the donation drop-off on your way to the grocery store, or you schedule a pickup once a month by someone that comes to the house, have that as a recurring thing so you're continually moving things out in that release it step before they just kind of creep back in because you dig through the bag for something or you you know open up that box and don't seal it back up and um you know make sure that you're moving it out so that you're feeling the the momentum of your house getting lighter.

Jodi Rosko 25:15

Yeah. I I have a bag in my um closet, and if I put something on and it doesn't feel great or doesn't look great, I just put it right in the bag because I'm not gonna if I put it back on a hanger, it's just gonna stay there. Like in my head now, that doesn't feel great. And so it it there's no point in keeping it because it'll just now sit there and I'm gonna have to leaf around it to find clothes that do make me feel good. So um you can kind of create some systems like that, a box in the garage, box in your trunk, whatever that is, that if something isn't working, you just put it in there and like you said, drop it off once a week or have, you know, if it's in your garage, you go put it out there and somebody comes and gets it, you know, once a month or whatever that is. Create some systems around that um so that you can move things out. And moving it don't feel like you have to wait until everything that you want to donate, you know, has to c has to the donate guy has to come because you don't have enough room to breathe sometimes. So if there's stuff that needs to go out to the trash, call the hall, you know, if you if you're trash, I'll take it all, great. If not, if you need a one-time pickup, do that, schedule that and put everything out and just give yourself some room so that you can start to make decisions and see and see some momentum because then that makes you want to do more.

Heather Fisher 26:33

Yeah, yeah. So um step four in our five-step method um is refresh it. So this is moving into getting ready for that move to your new place, um, how to prepare your home to show its best, and um, you know, be ready for uh putting it on the market and uh freeing yourself up for that next step.

Jodi Rosko 26:59

Yeah, so you can get go through one steps one through three and just stay there and you know you don't have to sell the house. But if you are in a place where that's your end goal is like, okay, we're gonna do this and then we're gonna downsize, then we're gonna look at what are we gonna do to um the house or what do we need to do to the house. And honestly, you need to call us or you know, have us connect you with an agent that can help you. Because even a year out is a great time to talk to to an agent because that will give you time to if there's things that need to happen in your house, that will give you time to schedule those, figure out what that looks like, you know, do all of that, maybe deep clean some things, maybe you're gonna hire somebody to deep clean some things, but it'll give you like a list and a and a plan to figure out what you need to do. Um so it's not a surprise when you get to that point and you're like, oh, I need to, you know, do all these things. I thought I was ready to, you know, I'm ready now, but you aren't because now you have another list of things to do. Um and so don't worry that the real estate agent, you know, the house doesn't have to be perfect or all the stuff that you're gonna downsize doesn't have to be out of the house. That's our job. We look past it all the time, and so don't feel like you have to do all those things before you call somebody. Um we want to give you a whole path of what needs to do to happen, and maybe we can give you some vendor help of people who can help you with it if you're stuck somewhere as you move along it and you're like, hey, we don't know, we don't have the you know, moving person to get this and this there. We've got that person. So you're you know, agents have lots of people to do lots of things, contractors, vendors.

Heather Fisher 28:40

And we, you know, have us out early because there may be things you don't need to do that you think you do. Yes. And um, you know, we can guide you to not spend that money that you might not need to spend or um guide you on a choice if it's something that needs done, um, if the intent is doing it to prepare for a future sale, you want to make sure you're making choices that align with what buyers will be looking for so that you're not spending that money twice or losing that those return on it.

Jodi Rosko 29:15

Right. So yeah, reach out to a professional for that and get their um honest opinion about what does and does not need to be done in the house for you to sell.

Heather Fisher 29:25

Yeah, some of the um, you know, refresh checklists that are common things, um a deep cleaning, especially kitchens and bathrooms, um, touch-up paints, um, updating simple fixtures, you know, lighting, things like that sometimes. Um outside, fresh mulch and trimmed shrubs and a clean walkway, um, and depersonalizing, which goes back to, you know, the decluttering and getting rid of some of your stuff. Um, you know, don't just pack it all if you're not taking it. If you've done those earlier steps, you should have a lot less, and it's just a matter of cleaning the surfaces. Um, but you should be prepared for a lot of these things to to show up on the list of things we would recommend.

Jodi Rosko 30:14

Yep. Yep. I mean, number one is number one is clean. Um, absolute number one is clean. And sometimes some fresh paint makes it feel really, really clean. Um and so as you're living somewhere and as you're moving things and cleaning them out, um, there will just be dust bunnies and whatnot whatnot behind all of those things, and that's totally normal. Um, so people just um want it wanna have a clean, a clean place that they feel like they can move into.

Heather Fisher 30:42

Yeah, and you can um be prepared that these things might come up, but you don't have to necessarily do these things yourself. Um, you know, we can figure out in that strategy what works best, that there are some you do want to do yourself and easily would do. Um, you might already have family or friends that they're like, no, no, we're gonna help you with that. Or um, you know, existing service providers you already have. If you already have someone that does all your lawn care, you know, are you just making sure that they put that fresh mulch at the right timing? Or do you need the resources? And we have those resources. So coming up with that whole strategy of what pieces need plugged in, where um is something we would help with.

Jodi Rosko 31:29

Absolutely. So um, so yeah, so that's getting the house ready to sell. And if you go all the way down that road, then you're gonna end up at living it.

Heather Fisher 31:40

Yeah, step five is the best one. You're gonna settle in and thrive and be loving your new life.

Jodi Rosko 31:47

And so that is actually full circle back to dreaming it, right? So now you've dreamed it, you've gone through the process, and now you're gonna live it. And so it's just a full circle of getting to where you wanted to be and walking down the path to get there. And um, you know, sometimes when that happens, um, there's an emotional adjustment period around it. So you think that's what you wanted to do, and then you get there and you're like, oh my gosh, this is different. And it is, and that's okay.

Heather Fisher 32:16

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 32:17

And I think if you uh if you've done the dream it part up front and you realize why you're doing it, okay, now this place feels smaller than my last place, which it probably is. Um, but now I'm gonna get to travel, or now I'm gonna get to be closer to my, you know, family, or whatever that looks like, um, or I don't have to take care of X, Y, and Z so I can spend my time doing X, Y, and Z something else, you know. Um so you're gonna have to build some new routines. You're gonna have to um, especially if you go on a into a different town. Some people are downsizing and leaving their town. So definitely, you know, finding new people and you know, where's my grocery store?

Heather Fisher 32:55

Where am I going to church? Where am I shopping? Yes.

Jodi Rosko 32:59

But but sometimes it's just new new routines around the house, you know, if you're if you're in the same area. Um, but you know, finding nearby, nearby parks, you know, social places, what are you what are you doing? Are there hobbies that you could do? Are there people you want to do those with? Like what it what is that whole new you gonna look like?

Heather Fisher 33:16

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I think at this step too, um, if you you know get there and you realize that maybe you didn't do the prior steps quite as well, you skipped a few or you didn't know.

Jodi Rosko 33:30

Kept more than you sh should have or meant to, or didn't realize what it would feel like, you know.

Heather Fisher 33:34

Yeah. Or you're listening to us and you've already done this and you didn't even know about some of these steps, rest assured it's not too late. Um you can dream about your new space and what you want your days to look like you know, while you're there already and just kind of revisit that and make some tweaks. You can get rid of more stuff if you brought too much and didn't make all the decisions that you you wanted to. And you can refresh your new space if it's not quite serving you. You can you know get some new furniture if the furniture you brought is too too large or doesn't fit the space or doesn't feel right. You can, you know, repaint it if the rooms aren't bringing you the comfort and the joy you wanted to. There's lots of ways to um revisit those initial steps in small ways until you're just just where you wanted to be.

Jodi Rosko 34:32

Yeah, and create some intentional spaces in your new in your new house. You know, if you love reading, create a little reading area that that's where you do that. If you um craft, have a room that that that's what where you do that. You know, really create some intentional um spaces um where are you gonna have your coffee in the morning and where does that feel good and what what's that view look like, or what are you doing with that? So, you know, kind of create some intentional spaces so that as you're creating your new habits, you're also having good places to do those things.

Heather Fisher 35:04

Yeah, absolutely. Um studies show that people who intentionally build new routines within the first 30 days of a move experience lower stress and increased satisfaction long term. So really work hard to get uh to jump into the change and build new routines instead of just trying to recreate everything exactly the same.

Jodi Rosko 35:29

Yep.

Heather Fisher 35:29

Um, so you know, if you've already done this or when you get there, uh just asking yourself and looking back at that dream and saying, you know, what's one small joy this move has brought to me and really focusing on that with gratitude um can change the way you look at things.

Jodi Rosko 35:48

Okay, so we're gonna start by dreaming it, then we're gonna decide without figuring out where it's going. We're just gonna decide whether it fits in our life, then we're gonna figure out how we're gonna release it. Yeah, and then we're gonna refresh the house if that's what needs to happen because we're moving, and then we're gonna live that dream that we dreamed.

Heather Fisher 36:06

Yeah, I love it. We love walking people through these five steps and just seeing how happy they are, and um, truly we have people that just wish they had done it sooner.

Jodi Rosko 36:17

That's the number one thing they say.

Heather Fisher 36:18

Yes, yes. So if we can help you get started and um walk you through these steps, we would love to do that. You can always reach out to us on our website, downsizingroadmap.com, and we will be back next week with another episode. 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.