The final step to downsizing is giving your keepsakes to children.  When you are moving it is a great time to give some of those keepsakes to your kids.  They could be your kids arts and crafts, family photos, thing that they will cherish and can use to start their own family traditions.  By doing this, it could help in breaking the sentimental ties or feelings to your house.  When giving keepsakes to you children there needs to be some guidelines.

Ask your loved ones to sort the items and put them into categories.

• Take now

• Take next time

• Give away

• Throw away

Make sure that the keepsakes they want to give or throw away are not items you would want to keep for sentimental value.  To not hurt feelings or create confusion always:

• Show the loved one what is being given or throw away so that they may make the decision to do that. There might be items that will stay.

• Never assume that any keepsake that a family member deems as a throw away is. Always check

• Have an open discussion about why some of the items are important to keep. There might be a special story behind it that could be very meaningful

Downsizing can be tough and very emotional, taking your time and discussing all steps with the person that is downsizing is very important.  This is not a quick process.  Expect it to take a longer and the reason for this is change.  It is hard for people to change and give up that security of their home. Being in a home for a long time results in a collection of a lot of items, but also results in a lot of great memories.  When someone is downsizing they are entering a new stage of their life and are thinking about their mortality and their life, so please be gentle and make sure the person that is downsizing is on board 100 percent.