59. Is It Time to Downsize? Signs Your House Is Becoming a Burden

At some point, every homeowner benefits from asking a harder question: does this house still make sense?

The mortgage balance is only one part of the equation. Ongoing maintenance, insurance, taxes, utilities, and repair cycles continue regardless of how much of the home is actually being used. As circumstances change — whether because of career shifts, family transitions, health considerations, or lifestyle goals — the effort required to maintain a property can quietly outweigh the value it provides.

The difficulty is that nothing may be visibly wrong. The house is functioning. The bills are being paid. Which is exactly why the evaluation gets postponed.

Housing decisions become more complex when they are delayed. Equity can be tied up longer than intended. Repair costs compound. Options narrow. What could have been a strategic move becomes a rushed one.

In this episode, we outline the specific financial, physical, and practical indicators that suggest a home may be becoming a burden and walk through the structured assessment we use to help clients evaluate whether staying still truly aligns with their next stage.

If you have been wondering whether your home is supporting your goals or quietly limiting them, this conversation will give you a clear framework to think it through.

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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

Welcome to the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. We talk to people all the time that when we go to meet them, their house just feels like more of a burden. So today we're gonna talk about that and maybe some signs when you can see that that's coming and that maybe your house isn't serving you as well as it could.

Jodi Rosko 0:40

Yeah, it sneaks up on people, I think, because you know you just have that you live with that status quo, and all of a sudden one day you're like, oh, okay, this is this is too much. But it's it's been being too much for a long time, and you just don't realize it.

Heather Fisher 0:56

Yeah. I'm Heather Fisher.

Jodi Rosko 0:57

I'm Jodie Roscoe.

Heather Fisher 0:59

And we're just gonna dive into um, you know, what that burden might start to look like well before it's a huge problem. So you can recognize those signs and then do what we always advocate for is being a little bit dreamy on how to make things better and simpler and easier, uh, what that might look like for you, and do it well ahead of a crisis-imposed quick time frame.

Jodi Rosko 1:26

Yeah. I think that um there's different categories in in ways that the house can feel like a burden. It can feel like a burden in money, in time, maintenance, maintenance, in energy, safety, um, and then sometimes, you know, it just doesn't work anymore for your identity of who you are. So we'll talk about all those pieces today. And um I think that um we have a friend who says things happen um slowly and then suddenly, right? And that is exactly what happens, I think, for people's homes when they become a burden to them. It's slowly not working, and then suddenly it really is working.

Heather Fisher 2:05

Just really doesn't to a point you have no other options to but to do something.

Jodi Rosko 2:11

So we we don't we don't want it to come to a crisis place, as always. We say that all the time. We want uh you guys to recognize what's happening as it's happening, um, see the signs, and then make some decisions while you can and when there's not any crisis happening.

Heather Fisher 2:25

Yeah, and then uh leaving space to enjoy what's on the other side of those decisions.

Jodi Rosko 2:30

Yes, for sure. So okay, so let's talk about the financial um flags first. So um some of that is maintenance and repair costs. They can creep up, and we see this a lot um where people get to a point where they are overwhelmed with their home and maintenance becomes a problem, like they have not maintained things, which is di which is different than updating, right? So when we're saying maintenance, we're saying the roof may be leaking, you know, the windows might not be good anymore. The HVAC system may be a problem.

Heather Fisher 3:07

When we're seeing clients that have been in their homes for 20, 30, 40 years, just the the lifespan of all of those major mechanical systems, you're gonna hit that once, maybe twice, maybe three times for some of them through all of those years. And so it's either, you know, that money that's coming up in that cycle that you know, okay, it's been 15 years since we did the roof, we're gonna have to do that. And how do we afford, you know, that to keep everything functioning well? Or you have spent that money several times over and that has been an expense that you've done. Um, but those major chunks just cycle through. We can't we can't choose not to.

Jodi Rosko 3:54

Yeah, and when um when you go to sell your house, your agent is gonna ask you the age of all of that stuff. So kind of keep up on what that is and know what the lifetime of it is. If if you're 15 years into a roof, even if it's a 30-year roof, you know, that's it that's halfway through it, and it's 30 years based on um certain things. So if you've had weather damage or things like that, it can be not 30 years, even though it's a 30-year roof. Um but if you're at 20 years with it, you're you're you're getting close to the end of it. So um know what that cost might be, and maybe you can say, okay, that's too much. I want to go ahead and move because I know that's coming, and I don't want to be the one that um is working through it. So um and and deferred maintenance, you know, that that usually happens um when you've gotten to a place where the house really is too much for you to handle. Um we see lots of houses that have no deferred maintenance. They they might not be updated, but uh the people who are living there are really great about getting their furnace serviced every six months, and if something's happening with the roof, they're getting that repaired, you know, very much um keeping on top of the things that need to happen to keep the house um in good working order, um, and then updates are something else on top of it.

Heather Fisher 5:13

So I think we see that often when um people were doing uh that smaller maintenance themselves and are handy and were able to keep up on a lot of those small things, and then as you know, your health and and things slow down and and you're just not quite as able to, that's when that slowly builds up and you don't realize how many things have been left deferred and not done that you may have used to do. Yeah, for sure. Um and then it's much more of a bigger project that you need um you know that money that back to the financial to call in the outside vendors to do that.

Jodi Rosko 5:56

Yeah, and roofs are you know fifteen thousand, you know, more maybe depending on what your house looks like. HVAC C systems are you know 10,000, 12,000 depending on what that looks like. Um even water heaters are, you know, twelve to two thousand dollars depending on you know what that so even littler ones uh you know can cost, can it can add up. Um and then I think we do stuff like we live with things that we shouldn't live with, like that powder room, bathroom sink drips, you know, and just kind of things that that are gonna be a problem if you're gonna sell your property that just need to be addressed.

Heather Fisher 6:33

Yeah, it it across the board it's and I've done this myself too, we've talked about it, but you live with something that you're going to have to do before you sell anyway, and it's like, why didn't I do that long ago to just enjoy the benefits of that small inconvenience not existing?

Jodi Rosko 6:54

Yeah. So um and then there's stuff that is like m weekly or monthly stuff that that is in a cost of a home. Um, you know, heating the house, all of that. Um lawn care. Lawn care can be, you know, fifty to eighty dollars a week in the we're we're we're in um the Midwest, so we only do that part of the year, but some areas are doing that all the time. Um some some areas don't, but you know, lawn care for sure is something that can um can add up. Gutter cleaning, you know, house cleaning if you have to pay somebody to because the house is too big, or um, you know, those things that are uh weekly just maintenance things of the house.

Heather Fisher 7:35

I think when um people start to investigate maybe senior living communities or a condo that might have um a condo fee monthly and it feels like sticker shock a little bit because the cost might feel not like downsizing because the the cost doesn't always, but if you really uh line item out all of the services or vendors you're paying for that might not be a necessity in that new situation and really add all of that up into your monthly living expenses, it may not look so drastically different for what you don't have to find outside resources to help with.

Jodi Rosko 8:20

And you aren't managing it.

Heather Fisher 8:21

Correct.

Jodi Rosko 8:22

Yeah, so that's also nice. Um so and then you know, there's opportunities, there's hidden opportunities costs. So if you have all of your equity, if your home's paid off or mostly paid off, then you have lots of equity in your house that you could be using to do something else. And so um it's not really draining resources, but it's also not letting you use the resources that in a way that you could use them. So um taxes can be, you know, higher dep depending on what your property looks like. Um kind of hidden little hidden costs there. Utilities, taxes. I mean, if you have a bigger house um and you only live in a few rooms of it, um, but you're paying to heat the whole house.

Heather Fisher 9:04

Yeah, heat and cool and all of those things.

Jodi Rosko 9:07

So that's kind of finances, just things to think about.

Heather Fisher 9:12

Yeah. So um physical and safety flags, taking a look at some of those that you might um you know not notice until they become a bigger problem. Um, but the back to maintaining the house itself, um, doing the yard work and heavy lifting, snow shoveling. We're in the midst of of snow here in the Midwest the last few weeks. And um, you know, I just this week talked with several people that um, you know, should not have been shoveling their own driveways, and they're telling us how, well, I didn't have another option. Um, and they were out, you know, we had 12 inches of snow in our area, and they're out shoveling um because they didn't have a plan ahead of time, and and that's the situation they're in. So thinking ahead and and making sure you're physically um keeping yourself safe and healthy by not bringing on additional injuries or um health crises by doing things that you shouldn't be doing any longer, climbing ladders to clean gutters um or to reach things inside, um, making sure that your day-to-day doesn't make those things necessities because of where you're living. Stairs, yeah, that's a big one.

Jodi Rosko 10:32

Yeah, I think that um yard work so this is one of the ones I feel like we people notice more than they notice some of the other things. I think sometimes they don't notice that maintenance isn't happening because again, you just live with something and you don't pay attention to it and then you just stop seeing it. It's like you go kind of blind around it. Um so they don't see that as much. But I do feel like when we c go and talk to people, um, they'll say, I just can't do all those garden beds anymore. I just can't do that yard work anymore, it's just too hard. Um you know, those kind of things, or the stairs are getting to be too much for me. Yeah, taking laundry up and down the stairs if you have a two-story home and your laundry is, you know, not on the floor where your bedrooms are and all of that. I think those are the things. And it when we're talking about stairs, um safety risk, falls are the number one cause of injuries in in adults over 65, and 50% of those falls happen near the stairs or the bathrooms. Yeah. Yeah. Making sure that um and I think at bathrooms is because you're going at night, like you're, you know.

Heather Fisher 11:42

Yeah, or wet floors, um, things like that. Um yeah, looking around. We've done an episode uh about preparing your home to age in place and addresses a lot of tips on some of those, making your home safer with, you know, handrails where you need them, or um just making bathrooms in other areas, getting rid of tripping hazards. Um, so that's a great episode to go back and take a listen to. Um, but the first step of that is noticing that things are more difficult, or noticing that you've tripped on the same rug a couple times and it taking those steps to change your situation completely, or start with, you know, a a smaller step of just kind of adding grab bars in the bathroom or something like that. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

Jodi Rosko 12:39

And if you are thinking, oh, okay, I go down the stairs in the morning and I make what I need to make sure I have all the stuff that I need because I don't really want to go up and down them, that's that's a key. You know, that's that the just starting to feel intimidated by going up and down them, you know, more than a couple times a day. If your laundry is located on a different floor, um, maybe in a basement, or y just even downstairs if your bedroom's upstairs, um, if you don't feel safe taking your groceries in, you know, some sometimes there's steps from the the garage to the house or the outside you steps, um just doing everyday tasks of carrying things that feel heavy and feels like it's like a long walk or a you know stairs or whatever that is. Those are the kind of things if you're starting to feel like that, now's the time to start thinking about what are we gonna do to change that.

Heather Fisher 13:31

Yeah, laundry is such a big one if that laundry is not on the floor where the clothes are, yeah. Where you're having to take baskets up and down. Uh we see that often. We've seen some, you know, DIY solutions for getting that basket up and down. And um, you know, we don't want to see you having to to live like that. There's ways to just get to that next place and have, you know, just a life that's so much easier on your day-to-day. Um and that's the way to start recognizing what pieces need to be eased up.

Jodi Rosko 14:09

And just listening to your your your self-talk, you know, if your anxiety is up about like, well, what happens if the roof leaks? What am I gonna do about that? Or um, you know, what happens if I have to shovel snow or things like that? You know, what happens if something breaks and I'm here by myself and I can't get on a ladder and fix it, or you know, whatever those things are, or I don't have the capability of fixing it, um, it stops feeling like, you know, a safe place to be and it starts feeling, you know, fragile or like care you feeling un uncomfortable about it.

Heather Fisher 14:43

Yeah, if it feels like a burden to just meet your own daily needs, that's not the way we would want you to be living. You know, how can that be changed so that you're just getting joy out of your day? Yeah. And not feeling burdened by just the tasks of getting the household things done throughout the day.

Jodi Rosko 15:05

I think the physical um section is is probably one of the most like you you really need to to come up with a different plan. Um because that one the next section is time and energy, and I think that's more like lifestyle, and so I think it's very important, um, but it's not as serious to me. Like those are serious ones where you could actually like injure yourself and change your life in a way.

Heather Fisher 15:32

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 15:32

Um so section three would be then time and energy. Um so the basically like your house just takes more time than you want to give. Like maybe you can still do all of the beds and you know, all of that, but you just don't want to because you want to be watching your grandkids, you know, do something or sports or you know, whatever. Or you don't want to be cleaning three floors of a house or two floors of a house or whatever that looks like. You could do it. It's not that you physically can't, you just don't want to spend your time doing it anymore.

Heather Fisher 16:05

Yeah, I think um, you know, from my own experience growing, you know, having kids grow up in the house, um, yeah, of course they're kids, you don't get them to do their chores all the time when you want to, but there's there's just more people there helping with um, you know, whatever chores you give them to do, or their own rooms or bathrooms, or um, you know, helping outside with the yard stuff. And then when you still have the same amount of square footage and the same amount of yard, but it's reduce, you know, the the people aren't there to help out and do it together or to do some of those chores. Maybe your partner is has different health issues than you do, and more burden is falling on you, um, let alone layering in any amount of caretaking you're doing for someone else, um, it just becomes different. It's not, you know, it's it it's the same house, but it's working differently for your time and your energy.

Jodi Rosko 17:06

Yeah. And then those deferred maintenance tasks just c feel like, oh my gosh, that's just never ending. And again, not that you can't do them touching up paint, deep cleaning things, um, you know, caulking, sealing, patching, you know, whatever those things that just have to be done. Um, it just kind of turns into an ongoing stress for you. And you just know it needs to be done, but you just don't have the time to do it, or you feel like that's an overwhelming amount of time that it would take. Um, and so those are kind of you catch yourself saying, like, I'm too busy uh to do that, I want to be doing other things than taking care of the house or the size of the house.

Heather Fisher 17:46

Yeah. Those words you said are so important, that low grade stress, it's it's a silent sm somewhat small little feeling, but the amount of weight it is on your mindset and your energy is you know triple what you feel like it it should be. It's it it's nagging at you 24 hours a day.

Jodi Rosko 18:10

And we have science that backs that up about how how not good it is for your brain health to have, you know, either clutter or deferred things that you haven't done or all of that, where it's in your brain and you know it needs to be done, but you just can't get yourself there for whatever reason. Um it it does take up energy. It takes your energy away.

Heather Fisher 18:31

Yeah, and produces more cortisol um in women when you're dealing with that and that stress and just can can really truly cause legitimate health issues just from these stressors that are putting that kind of layer on top of everything else.

Jodi Rosko 18:50

So think about um this is back to you know our first step getting dreamy, right? Like what what brings you joy? I mean, do you what would you rather be doing? Would you rather be traveling or volunteering or hanging out with your grandkids or you know, what is it, is there hobbies that you like to do? I mean, would you rather do your hobby than deep clean the basement? You know, like what is it that you would rather be doing? Right. Um and bringing you joy instead of bringing you anxiety. And so if that is, you know, if you can write those things down and um it's not an equal balance, then maybe it's time to find a different place so that you can spend more time in that happy place in your brain, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, the fourth thing is um the emotional and mental load. So um your home starts to feel it kind of goes with with uh time, but it your home your home starts to feel more like um a to-do list, like you know, it doesn't feel uh calm when you walk in. You when you walk in, it feels like uh there's all this mess, or there's all this things, you know, or this is difficult for me, or you know, you just mentally it feels overwhelming, visually it could feel overwhelming, which then back to the cortisol, back to the stress and all of that. Um that that is something that is actually really bad for your health. You you don't think so, but like when if you get to a place that isn't like that, you'll be like, wow.

Heather Fisher 20:18

So much easier. Yeah, yeah, and if things are just taking a little bit longer than they used to, that to-do list is the to-do list is real, but it just never gets as cleared as it used to, because each item takes a little bit longer, and so you're carrying a little bit more each day, um, and you're never getting to the end of that list.

Jodi Rosko 20:42

Right. And so you know, maybe the living spaces of your house, they just don't match your lifestyle anymore. And what we see a lot is what happens is people will just start living in like two or three rooms, right? They'll have their bedroom and their living room and their kitchen and maybe a little like eat-in area, and they just kind of start living in those rooms. And so the dining room maybe becomes a storage room, or you know, like the the other rooms stop getting used, especially guest rooms, you know, or upstairs rooms where the kids used to be and all of that. There's just so much empty space that's not being used in the house. Um, still needs to be dealt with and cleaned and all of that stuff, but it doesn't feel um lived in. Yeah. You know, and so that that means really the house has outlived its purpose for you in your life and how you're living it, right? And so I think people don't think about that. They just think it's my house and you know, this is where I live, and they aren't really thinking about if it working for me or what is my life look now. And it totally worked when you had kids there in those bedrooms and all of that stuff. So it's not it was a bad decision or a bad house or anything, it's just a different time now.

Heather Fisher 21:53

Yeah, a lot of um finished basements with big, you know, wreck areas and you you know, maybe a bar area and all the entertainment areas in a basement and, you know, we'll talk to homeowners when we're touring the house with them and they're like, well, I haven't been down there in months. Right. And you know, but they're paying to heat and cool it and um you really do want to be down there checking on it, making sure there's no water coming in or a problem uh that needs addressed. Um but they're not using it.

Jodi Rosko 22:29

Yeah. Yeah. So uh back to thinking about what your life is today and it is the house serving your life today and what you would want. So um we also get people who just get very nostalgic. Um and sometimes that nostalgia turns into guilt. Yeah. You know, they just feel like there's responsibility and pressure and guilt and I need to keep these things and if I moved like where would these things go if I was in a smaller place and you know that was mom's and I just should keep it and doesn't even mean I like it. Just that I should keep it.

Heather Fisher 23:06

You know we talk so often about change being hard and I think we all feel like that joy can't change. And so we get locked in on what brought us joy and then we just want to recreate that, you know, holidays and traditions and the way things always were and it's really I think for all of us a struggle sometimes to realize that you can have those memories of those moments but there is joy and fun and happiness to be found in different ways. You don't have to be locked into recreating that same situation for you to find those emotions. Yeah. And we feel people see people just being so locked into well we did this here at the house and so if I don't have that I won't be happy. And it really is choosing that new path that's choosing to be happy in the new path.

Jodi Rosko 24:10

Yeah. Yeah. Um and people find that they are like it's just that they're afraid they won't be afraid to take the leap. Yeah, because they can't see it. They can't see the what that could look like and they know what the old looks like. But sometimes you're grasping onto the old when it can't even be there anymore. And I, you know, I feel that with my mom and my grandma are gone and Christmas was always at my grandma's house and you know we don't have that house anymore and um sometimes it takes a little time to get to the next place but it's still joy. Like it's just different and we can create you know some different traditions and some different things that we do and t things do change whether we want them to or not and so sometimes we're trying too hard to hold on to what actually can't even be there anymore.

Heather Fisher 24:56

Yeah. The change is happening even though we're fighting against it and so it just makes us unhappy instead of like you said choosing right to be happy.

Jodi Rosko 25:06

Embracing something new fighting against something causes pain. Embracing something new makes it better. Yeah. So um and then that someday stress people will have emotionally like someday like oh my gosh either someday I have to clean all this up and deal with it or I'm leaving it to my kids to do that. And some people are like yep my kids are going to do it. And as as the kid I'm gonna say please don't do that. But some some people really worry about that. Oh my gosh I don't want my kids to have to do it however I'm not doing it. Right.

Heather Fisher 25:37

Yeah yeah it's always that um you know if we see that if if one generation had to deal with all of their parents stuff they're more hypervigilant like I don't want to do that to my kids too. Yeah. And then the flip-flop of well it'll be fine.

Jodi Rosko 25:53

My kids will just throw it all away or handle it or whatever they say. You know they just get like well it's just it'll be fine and they'll handle it. And um or there's the I want you to handle it all and don't you dare throw any of it away. Don't do that one. Yeah yeah so there's an emotional burden of worrying about what the future will look like and who's gonna have to handle it you or your kids or whoever's gonna have to handle it in the future.

Heather Fisher 26:18

Yeah. Yeah. So um lifestyle and identity flags this is a big one um you know they're all similar they're all intertwined they are intertwined for sure. They're very intertwined but um sometimes um you know we get locked into our home um you know we want it to give you more freedom not restrict it so it's back to leaving room for your hobbies for who you want to be and if your home is that burden that's keeping you just like well I have more to do today at home I have more to do at today at home you're keeping yourself from that life um you know of who you could be out in the world.

Jodi Rosko 27:00

Yeah you're feeling stuck by like maybe I can't I can't go because I have to you know get that lawn needs to be mowed and I don't you know or whatever needs to happen maintenance needs to happen you feel tethered to it or or you you know worry about the house if it's empty you don't want to travel because you're just worried things could happen. Um you know it takes too much effort to leave it just seems like there's a lot to do to get the house ready to leave or then the house is owning you more than you're owning that house.

Heather Fisher 27:28

Yeah distance um depending on where your house is located um if it's not um close by to all the things that you want to do a longer drive might be harder and so you're locked into not doing things because getting there is hard so that can affect your social interactions and the things that you might want to participate in that you can't any longer because driving further is harder or driving at all is harder. Having someone to come pick you up is out of the way. All of those things can tie you into being home much more than maybe you want to be yeah yeah so if that stuff isn't working then maybe it's time to make a change.

Jodi Rosko 28:12

So yeah so I think again this whole this whole this whole episode really um would be helped by that first step of thinking about just you know logistically is it working for you in the life that you have now or want to have in the future if your life is changing. You know, maybe you're in a place where your kids are going off to college or have just gone off to college and now you're trying to decide is this what I want or not? You know, maybe you've been in the house longer than that and um it's been working great and now it just feels like it isn't but I think um tr trying to figure out who you what you don't want your future to look like and then taking an honest look about whether the house is gonna work for that future.

Heather Fisher 28:57

Yeah who am I becoming and is this house supporting that future me.

Jodi Rosko 29:02

Yep. Yep. So you don't have to have all of these signs um you just some of them and they'll they'll kind of turn into a pattern and you know some of it might be fine and some of it might be like yeah this just really isn't working. So it it's just not and it's not giving up things. Again like we we really want that whole thought process about downsizing is not like well I just can't live here anymore because it's too much for me or you know whatever. It's like hey I want to do this this and this in my future and this house is going to hold me back, hold me down, whatever, and be excited about what that future looks like and not feel like it's something that's uh being taken away from you or your memories are going to be taken away because they're not um you know we moved from a house that we had lived in for 25 years and um had our kids there and I was concerned about that. I was like you know is that gonna be bad and I still have all my memories in that house. I just don't live there anymore and it's okay. It's it's okay. You know I'm not you know wringing my hands and thinking I gosh I wish I was in that house again. Like it's okay.

Heather Fisher 30:15

Yeah it really is. I have the same situation of being in a house for 20 years where I raised my kids and I'm not in that house anymore and and it it truly is okay and I think we hear that uh from so many people that we help move that they just wish they had done it sooner and they're thriving.

Jodi Rosko 30:33

Mm-hmm and yeah you know and it can bring back your energy. If you are really feeling mired in in under all of your stuff or you know in a place that isn't is too big is not working for you can get so much more energy back into your life um by choosing to make a to make a move and letting go of some of that stuff um that you might be buried under.

Heather Fisher 30:56

Yeah so some ways to start um noticing those red flags and um exploring some options um really the first thing to do reach out to us. Yeah I mean honestly we help people with this all the time and um nothing is a commitment to a move tomorrow. It's just starting to explore what could that look like and what do I want that to look like and what's the path and the timeline to get you there.

Jodi Rosko 31:24

Yeah and if you're thinking okay this home isn't really working but I'm not sure where I would go or what I would want you know those are normal questions and you really can't get the answers to them without having you know talking to an a real estate agent and having them show you some condos show you some you know smaller ranch homes like and and if you're at the end of that you're like okay that's not gonna work for me I'm gonna make this house work or whatever. It's okay because you just have to have the information. And so yeah reach out to us we can help you if you're in our area or connect you with somebody um who's great in in anywhere in the country um that can help you kind of just walk down that path a little and think help you be more proactive of thinking what that could look like.

Heather Fisher 32:12

Yeah exploring the cost difference between staying or moving um touring communities early to see if that's something in your future and how far down the line that is there's never any pressure talking to us or taking tours, going to you know workshops and classes at different places to see them, talking to your friends or you know exploring with your adult kids those conversations um just getting started and and having them early and over time. Yeah moving into those conversations.

Jodi Rosko 32:50

Yeah so just knowing getting more information and then then you can make better decisions once you have more information.

Heather Fisher 32:56

Yeah and then on the home front um just starting with small areas um we've had lots of episodes on ways to get started small places to get start to just start to clear that mental load of what am I going to do with all of this stuff and I hate dealing with all of this stuff and and look how much it's it's burdening me. So just getting started in small ways at home so that when you make those other decisions for um what your next step looks like you've already gotten started. You're already down the road.

Jodi Rosko 33:31

Yeah and I would just say just start really listening to your inner voice and your level of frustration around whatever's happening in the inside your house.

Heather Fisher 33:40

Yeah yeah so anything that we can do to help ease that burden um please visit our website downsizingroadmap.com we would love to talk with you to help you to connect you with someone if you're not in our area we've got people all over the country that can help and we look forward to talking to you soon. We'll be back next week.

Jodi Rosko 34:00

Bye.

Heather Fisher 34:00

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