Within the last couple of months, Bill and I made what has been a difficult decision. We are selling our house.

Common sense tells us that downsizing is the right thing to do. Our house is now valued at almost five times what we paid for it. Thirty years ago, when we first moved into this house, I would never, ever, EVER have believed that it would sell for what we think it will sell for today. It would practically be a crime not to take advantage of the market, especially since there are so many other good reasons to move on.

We have four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a formal living room, a formal dining room, a den, an eat-in kitchen, an office, and a finished basement about a third of the size of our footprint. We spend the majority of our time in the kitchen, the bedroom, and the den. Well, and two out of the three bathrooms are popular places.

The dining room has become my puzzle room. I haven’t served a meal in that room in probably three years. The formal living room is simply a walk-through from the dining room to the staircase leading upstairs. Since Bill retired, he spends very little time in his office. My informal office (which is one of the bedrooms) is used perhaps half an hour each day as I write my blog.

Family entertaining has been handed over to our children. I thought not hosting holidays would make me sad. It hasn’t. Not even a little bit. I will happily contribute food and beverage if I don’t have to sweep or cook the turkey. Just like God made our children’s leaving home for college bearable by making teenagers UNbearable, he also made giving up hosting family holiday dinners easy by making the parents too tired to cook.

While Bill has done a yeoman’s job at caring for our beautiful back yard for 30 years, he will be the first to tell you he doesn’t want to do it anymore. There is little doubt that we will miss sitting on our patio and looking out at our park-like yard, but I will be completely satisfied with a small patio or balcony and some potted geraniums.

Over the next few months, Bill and I will be busy packing up 30 years of stuff. I have often complained about my basement storage area, which indeed is packed full of needless items. But it certainly isn’t the only area needing to be cleaned out before our real estate agent can “stage” our house. In one kitchen drawer alone, I found three wine openers, and two thermometers that haven’t worked since Bill Clinton was entertaining guests in the Oval Office.

Kids, take my advice. Don’t hoard. You won’t regret it. One wine opener is enough.