Throughout my career, I have observed that moving from one home to another has become a feature of retirement for our generation in a way that was less so for our parents and even more dramatically less so for our grandparents. These days, it is fairly common for people to move to a new home at or near retirement, move again to downsize to a condominium or townhouse, move a third time to an apartment, followed by a move to assisted living and sometimes a move to a care center. Although we don’t have specific plans, it seems possible that we are fitting into this pattern. We moved at retirement, but we did a two-stage move, renting for a new year in our new location to size up the market and see where we wanted to purchase. Now we have moved into a home that we are purchasing. We hope to stay in this home for a long time, and should be able to do just that.

We’ve moved quite a few times in our married life, shifting from apartment to apartment during our student years. After graduate school, we settled for seven years in a parsonage owned by the congregation we were serving, followed by 10 years in a home we were purchasing and another 25 years in our South Dakota home. We upsized fairly quickly, moving from a one-bedroom efficiency student apartment into that parsonage. We owned almost no furniture at the time and the three-bedroom home with a fully finished basement seemed huge to us. The next two moves involved modest increases in the size of our home and the acquisition of more furniture and possessions.

Now we are at a life phase of down-sizing. Our rental home was smaller than the home we owned in South Dakota. We gave away, sold and otherwise disposed of some of our possessions in the move. Now we have further downsized in our move to this home. It is comfortable, but we are aware that we have too much stuff. We’ll take months to sort and dispose of some more of our possessions as we settle into this home. It is a good process for us, but it does require energy. There is a level of grief involved in saying good bye to treasured possessions and grief is work that requires an investment of emotional energy.

In the midst of this trend, however, I am aware that we are not downsizing in every aspect of our lives. While our home is smaller, our appliances are bigger. The refrigerator in this house is HUGE! It is overkill for two people, even if we live a bit farther from the grocery store than was the case in our Mount Vernon rental. We got it with the house. When I think of the under counter refrigerator in our student apartment, this refrigerator must be six or eight times the size. The ice maker on this machine is bigger than the freezer compartment on our apartment refrigerator.

Back in 1995, when we moved to South Dakota, we had never owned new appliances except for a dishwasher and a clothes dryer that replaced worn out ones during our time in Idaho. The house we purchased came with only a dish washer. We had the task of shopping for new appliances and we enjoyed a larger side-by-side refrigerator and a new glass-top range. Of course, 25 years later, we had 25-year-old appliances. The person who bought our home, however, wanted all of the appliances, including the washing machine and clothes dryer, so we included them in the sale of the home.

In contrast, this home we just purchased came with all appliances, including a washing machine and a dryer. We have a brand-new washing machine and dryer in reserve, because we purchased a new pair for use in our rental home. We got just what we wanted, so our plan is to put the ones we bought last year into this home and move the ones we bought with the home to our son’s house where they will replace an older pair. With three children and another one the way, they need good laundry appliances. I’m pleased to carry out the switch in appliances in part because the ones that came with this house are HUGE. I’m not a tall person, but these machines are only a few inches shorter than I am. The width of the machines is the same as the ones we bought, but they are about six inches deeper. The combination means that the cabinets that are over the machines are so tall that I can barely open the doors standing on my tiptoes. I need a stool to put anything into one of those cabinets.

It isn’t literally true, but it feels like part of the reason we have less space in our new home is that the appliances are so much bigger that they are taking up all of the space. For what it is worth, the bathtub is bigger, too. I was joking that perhaps I no longer need a recliner. Just toss a couple of pillows in the bathtub and I can sit there to read and relax.

This house, of course, is not designed for senior citizens. We weren’t interested in living in retirement housing at this phase of our lives. We’re happy to live on a street that has lots of families with children and a median age of homeowners that is a couple of decades younger that we. Many of the houses in this particular development are owned by people in their twenties and thirties, which makes it a very desirable place for us to live. Those folks are on the up-sizing side of their housing adventure. We just crossed paths as we are downsizing. Apparently they are eager to get to bigger and one way to do that is with HUGE appliances.

It’s a good thing we brought our own toaster and rice cooker with us. We’ve no need for ones that are any bigger.