Let It Go - Peter Walsh Page 0,1

on. In the following days and months, my siblings and I would take great joy in understanding her legacy: her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Amazing stories from old friends at the funeral service. A flood of wonderful cards and condolences. And quiet snippets of conversation that revealed so much about the goodness and kindness of the amazing woman who was my mother.

Earlier, when we were downsizing my parents’ home, one of the few things I kept was a green glass pie plate she used for making desserts when we were children. Our now-scattered family once gathered around this plate. Our mother’s hands held this plate. Her serving spoon left a few scratches on its surface as she fed us and adored us.

This object is so much more than a plate. For me, it’s a truly treasured possession.

I’m telling you this so that you don’t think my advice for downsizing will be simply to discard everything! The amount I kept worked for me, and I’ll help you find the amount that works for you.

I know why so many people think downsizing is scary. But I can promise you that if you do it correctly, the process won’t live up to the disruptive, divisive, and stressful reputation it’s gotten.

Many people, feeling overwhelmed, have come to me looking for a system that solves their downsizing dilemma.

Here it is.

The Let It Go way of downsizing makes the process logical, manageable, and as swift as possible. This method provides solutions to the pressure and turmoil you may feel when you trim down your belongings or your loved ones’.

The Let It Go method also corrects the wrong impressions about downsizing that you may have learned! I’ll lead you step-by-step through a different sort of downsizing process, one that prepares you emotionally and mentally beforehand, then helps you rapidly sift through your pile of stuff and discover benefits that others rarely find, like:

New insights into the memories you’ve made and the relationships you’ve had over your life, which you’ll discover while examining the keepsakes linked to these memories and relationships

Better communication with your loved ones who are going through the downsizing process with you

More happiness, focus, and confidence as you head into this next phase in your life

DOWNSIZING IS A NORMAL—AND NECESSARY—PART OF LIFE

Most homes are filled with items that represent a lifetime’s worth of adventures and accomplishments. Some of this stuff is truly necessary. Much isn’t.

You have cookware and bedding to help you eat and sleep. Your books, magazines, and electronics entertain you. Your computers, woodworking tools, and musical instruments help you create. Your clothes, cars, and jewelry inform the world about the status you’ve achieved or hope to attain.

But as you travel from one stage of your life into another, sometimes you need to shift direction or venture through circumstances that are a little more cramped. Your new reality means that you won’t be able to comfortably bring all your possessions with you.

Or maybe a parent has died or needs to move into a smaller home, and you have to sort through family possessions and decide what to keep. As you’ll see in several people’s stories later, keeping too much can put your happiness at risk.

To move forward, you have three choices:

You can stress yourself mentally and physically by trying to bring along stuff that no longer fits in your life or space.

You can do the typical kind of downsizing that people dread, quickly speeding through it while giving it as little thought as possible. This often leads to later regrets.

You can downsize in a way that gives you peace of mind and helps you enjoy the next stage of your life to the maximum. This is the Let It Go way.

PEOPLE NEED A BETTER WAY TO DOWNSIZE

Downsizing isn’t just a spring cleaning. It’s far more than a casual decluttering project. Instead, it requires you to seriously inspect your stuff and offload a large portion of it. Chances are that you’ll only go through a downsizing project a few times in your life.

This process presents a special challenge because you’re already struggling with other major changes in your life. The distress of parting with stuff can be an ordeal on its own. But you’re probably also confronting painful memories and uncomfortable realizations during this time: “I’m grieving over the loss of a loved one,” or “How will I get by on less income?” Just in case that weren’t enough, you may be trying to sell a home, buy a new place, and schedule the moving