Summer Retirement Project: Painless Decluttering

Now that you have recently retired, so much has changed, but so much hasn’t changed.  You have decided to stay in the same house where you have lived for decades, so you don’t have to get ready for a move.  Finding ways to occupy your time is one of the biggest challenges of adjusting to retirement.  Sure, you can volunteer and participate in social activities, but setting goals and working toward them is more challenging; it might even be the hardest part of adjusting to being out of the workforce.  You have been meaning to declutter your house for years, but you have been putting it off because you have always been busy with work.  Decluttering your house should not be your project for this summer; an amorphous project with no deadline when you are new to retirement is a recipe for procrastination.  Instead, you should declutter the closets that house the clothes you used to wear to work.  If you need a break from decluttering and feel inspired to revise your estate plan, contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.

Decluttering After Retirement Is Many Projects, Not One

Whatever you do, don’t call it “Swedish death cleaning,” but that is what the Internet is calling it.  According to Mariah Thomas of Yahoo News, decluttering after retirement is a rite of passage in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries.  Retirees make decluttering a habit so that, in the future, their surviving relatives will not face a herculean task of sorting through a house full of clutter.  They don’t do it all at once, though.  If you try to declutter your entire house over the course of a few weeks, it will feel like your plans for retirement go “first enjoy retirement, then declutter your house, then twiddle your thumbs and wait for the Grim Reaper.”

Trying to decide which sentimental items to get rid of is also stressful enough that it should not be the decluttering project you choose for your first summer of retirement.  Instead, you should focus on decluttering the clothes and shoes in your closet.  You will easily find numerous items you don’t mind parting with.  There is no reason to hold onto the outfit you wore to the wedding of your niece who is long since divorce or two of your three winter coats, which you have only worn on a few trips north since you moved to Florida.  Once the summer ends, get on with enjoying retirement and be amazed at how spacious your closets now look.  If the items are especially gently used and if you paid a lot for them when they were new, you might even be able to sell them on consignment.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Estate Planning at a Relaxed Pace

An estate planning lawyer can help you take baby steps with your estate plan as soon as you retire, so you don’t get stuck in a cycle of estate planning.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

news.yahoo.com/heres-everything-know-swedish-death-210400432.html