The Upside of Downsizing – Book Giveaway
Today I’m offering another book giveaway, this time of Karen O’connor’s new book, The Upside of Downsizing. You can read Karen’s book in one sitting, but you’ll be referring to this pocket size book repeatedly.
Karen targets empty nesters and seniors, but even other ages will find some helpful hints here for practical things like getting your finances in order, decluttering your life, dividing up your treasures, and drawing closer to God.
In her book, Karen uses her own and others’ personal experiences to show you that simple is good, and that streamlining your life is not only possible, but beneficial. Her book may be small, but she offers a tall helping of fun, profitable ways to make downsizing truly a positive adventure.
In the comments below, tell me why you’d like to receive Karen’s book or share with us one way you are downsizing your life. I’ll be offering a book giveaway of The Upside of Downsizing in the next few weeks and will select one name from all the comments on this particular blog. March 15 is the deadline for your comments.
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26 Responses to “The Upside of Downsizing – Book Giveaway”
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I am all for downsizing, and I am not an empty-nester or senior. More and more each day, I am seeing how all the “stuff” we have is getting in the way of us truly living a peaceful, God-honoring life. I want to teach my three girls now, while they are young, that it is not about the “stuff,” and it is not about us. It is about living our lives in such a way that we are pointing others to Christ.
Wise words, Chrystal. Good for you! Thanks for adding these helpful, encouraging truths!
I have been giving a lot of thought to this lately and starting as I can with tossing, gifting or donating excess.
I agree with Chrystal as well…stuff gets in the way of my relationship with God.
We are almost completely in that “Empty Nest” stage of life. And…after recently losing my mother to cancer and going through all of her things, I realized how much “stuff” we keep, thinking it is so important. In the end, it’s just “stuff”. I’d love to read Karen’s book and see what other advice she offers for downsizing and simplifying our lives!
It is ironic that you have offered this book now. Suddenly, I have realized that I am surrounded by “stuff” in my home and also in my dad’s home. My dad passed away in September of 2010 and my husband and I are faced with disposing of all the items in his home.
I desperately need the advice that Karen offers to downsize and put our lives in order. I don’t want to leave a mountain “stuff” for my children to worry with in the future.
It is important for me to “declutter” my life so I can concentrate on what God has to teach me and draw even closer to him.
I feel overwhelmed by the piles of stuff that are waiting for me to sort through and find homes for. I want and need a simplified life. My daughter developed a nerve disease 7 years ago and that is when my world fell apart. I now release that is when the chaos in other areas of my life also cropped up.
I want the precious little free time I have to spend with my daughter and mother making happy memories to remember instead of days in the hospital.
The timing is amazing. Mom was an only child, so close to her parents, let go of so little when they passed away. She clings to things big to small, from clothes to dishes to cards, you name it. They MUST get down to where they can move to a much smaller place and/or have help in the home or apartment. My dad is in wheelchair all the time, and is so totally buried. If we/I could share / learn any way to help get through this process with the least amount of pain/anger/hurt it would be an answer to a 6yr prayer. Just tonight talked to my sister about such. A special “aunt” of mine nearly died in her home, between “things” even to the point of too many cats – if you’ve ever seen the horders program, it exceeded that – we barely found her alive & almost couldn’t get her outof the house, there was no room for the paramedics to get equipment to her. Now she’s lost her home, cats & all. That’s not what is wanted – it’s like we lose what we hold on to too hard when we give it the wrong place in our hearts. God wants to be what we cling to and adore, not things. Maybe reading this will help somehow, her or us. We so want to honor our parents, & want as muich love and peace during this precious limited time we have left here together. Seeing the other comments I can see it’s not just us. Thanks Becky. Again, such a timely thing.
Things! In my house there are more things than are necessary. Things to look at, things to feel, things to treasure.
But why would I treasure them when they are temporary? They can be broken, blown away, burned up, or stolen.
Only the things of God are everlasting and increasing in value. My soul thirsts after those precious things . They are available in abundance and I never get too many. There is no such thing as spiritual clutter, Praise the Lord!
I am a sentimentalist–everything means something to me. I just don’t like to part with anything. I am trying to learn to give from the heart, but it is slowwww. I have three sons and they will have to contin with a four bedroom house when I am gone, if I don’t do it now. It will probably take at least two years to downsize, but how do I downsize–only the Lord can help–I think, perhaps Karen’s book would help.
Please don’t put my name in the drawing for the book. I just wanted to comment on this post.
I think it’s very interesting that so many of us are going through decluttering in our lives, for one reason or another. I know for me, I became overwhelmed with clutter when I bought things to help me deal with a very, very stressful, abusive marriage to a very, very troubled man. It seemed therapeutic to buy things to make my home prettier, and if my home were prettier, maybe my home life would be too. Unfortunately, the marriage ended, or fortunately depending on how you look at it. After he left, my heart started to unclutter and I started to heal. Now, over five years later, my house is a very peaceful place to be. I have decluttered so much my home feels and looks like a totally different place – cleaner, cheerful, and more open to life. It is a wonderful feeling and I highly recommend it. I agree with Chrystal that stuff gets in the way of our walk with Christ and that is the best reason to get rid of all the excess stuff in our lives.
I have a story much like other women who have already shared. My mother passed away 2 years ago and so my daughter, my dad and I started going through all her “stuff.” I take after my mother, so I have too much “stuff” also.
Last Saturday, Angie and I found more of Nana’s stuff, and she spent hours going through it, with the help of Papa and me, but we still have several boxes to go through. I told her I promised I would not leave a bunch of stuff for her to go through, but now I’m not sure where to start or how to tackle all the junk I have. I have cleaned my office and my closet so many times, but within a month or so, they are right back to being full and overflowing. My husband says I’m a hoarder, but I don’t really think I’m quite that bad. I do throw things away or give it away frequently. I just don’t know how to organize it.
We are in our 60s so I need to take care of this problem, this stuff soon so I can enjoy the time I have left, and live in peace with myself, my God and my family. All the stuff really doesn’t satisfy, nor can it bring the security found only in the Lord. So, why do I still think I need stuff?!
Thanks, ladies, for these powerful comments and for your transparency in dealing with the issue of “decluttering” and simplifying. You are ministering to one another by sharing in this area of your life! It sounds like this subject has touched a difficult chord. Perhaps we will deal with it more in detail in future blogs. I can testify that downsizing is never easy. But, like Karen in her book, I agree that there are many upsides. And it is an ongoing process.
In the space of a couple years we have graduated and married off 2 children. The last one graduates college and is considering graduate school in a far off location. All the kids live just over an hour away, so empty nest hasn’t really hit hard. I am afraid it will when the baby (24) actually moves a long way away.
I need this book as we face the finality of empty nest and we encourage the newlyweds to take their clutter away from our home.
Sounds like a wonderful book, can’t wait to read it!
Thanks for your comments, Pattie!Sounds like your nest is indeed emptying.
Rebecca, thanks for the suggestion of this book…we’re in the process of doing this in our own home and look forward to reading this book and using Karen’s suggestions for putting more of our stuff in order…especially getting it out of the house and on to others!
I hear our story in some of the others…
Docena, sometimes that process seems never-ending, doesn’t it? But it does bring more simplicity into our lives. Thanks for writing!
I am a 27 year old wife, raising two children, ages 5 and 6, and going to school full time. My husband serves in the Air Force and is currently on a 1 year remote tour in Korea – so the children and I are here stateside. We are moving in July and this is the first move I’ve done by myself. We brought so many things with us here that we don’t use, that just sits in the basement! I feel like I start to find a home for things but then I’m consumed by it all…little by little.
I think we also need a lot of help to find financial peace. We are making it, but I know that we can cut expenses and give back to God or find other ways to make our money more beneficial instead of trivial, especially to live out what He calls us to do.
I am ready to life a simple, even more frugal life and become at peace with our home and God!
Tara, what a challenging season you are in! Thanks for sharing this with us. I’ll be praying for wisdom as you make those difficult decisions and pack up for this move. On the financial side, two good books that might be helpful are Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover, and Ellie Kay’s book, Living Rich for Less. (It is not about getting rich, but living on less with God’s principles.) They are both listed on my website resources page with the following link if you are interested in these. http://www.rebeccabarlowjordan.com/freebies/resources/resource-books/ I highly recommend both of them. Dave Ramsey also has a workbook called Financial Peace. I understand the need for frugality. As a minister’s wife, I’ve had to live frugally all my life. These principles work! Thanks again for sharing!
When my oldest son visited last October with wife and kids, I got a wake up call. Yes, I am a hoarder! My son tossed about a dozen slivers of soap from the counter in the bathroom, and I’m sure was biting his tongue to keep from commenting on the stacks, piles, and boxes of books in many rooms, to say nothing of the mayhem in the garage! While I have done somewhat better in the area of clothing (weeding out closets on an annual basis), I could definitely use some pointers on how to let go of printed material!!
A recovering bibliophile,
KSB
Thanks, Katie, for sharing. Paper and printed material can definitely be a challenge! I consider my stash of books as my little friends, because I love to read so much. However, by necessity I’ve started parting with some after I read them, now passing them on to people they might bless–especially since my husband’s ample office library came home to merge with mine. I keep the ones I may refer to often for study and others that I might re-read. But I am always in the process of weeding!
I’m almost an empty nester, but my daughter is better at decluttering
than me. I need to get better at it & I could use all the help I can get.
I also love to read & have too many books for our small place. And, I
like to buy Christmas & birthday gifts ahead of time for several people.
I stash them away so well that sometimes, I have trouble finding them.
Anyway, thanks for the encouragement, knowing I’m not alone in this.
Denise, thanks for your honesty! The same thing happened to me as I was stashing away gifts bought during the years. Christmas would come and go, and whoops! I’d find a gift somewhere I’d forgotten about. So I bought a plastic tub that would fit on my closet shelf and starting keeping all of the smaller ones there. I labeled it gifts, and it works great. Now for larger items–well, I’m not too sure where to stash those. But then, they are not as easy to lose!
Maybe we can all help each other!
I’ve always had trouble with getting rid of things. I think it may be hereditary — my mom has things from when I was a child, and my daughter likes to save even scraps of paper with little notes on them. I go through periods of purging, but it’s hard to tell they’ve occurred. I’m a pile maker, and while I try to keep them out of they way of general living space, they sometimes overflow. How do I know what to keep and what to get rid of? Maybe it should be like clothes — if it’s not been touched/looked at in a certain amount of time it can go. But what’s the magic time limit, and is it the same for each item? And I’m just glad my husband has his own office, with a door that can be closed when necessary.
When my mom died I had all of her stuff and all of mine to deal with while grieving. We both held on to everything in case we needed it some day. God brought me through the grieving and I realized that if He could get me through that certainly he would get me another material item if I needed it. I began to get rid of EVERYTHING and discovered the ease of housekeeping with less. Wow, I wondered, why that wasn’t obvious to me. I’ve come a long way but I would like very much to receive the book to help me further and keep me on track.
Nancy, thanks for sharing your struggle with us. It seems you are among friends. Many deal with the same issue! This is definitely something that tends to be personality related. Balance is the key, isn’t it? Hopefully, we will deal with this more in a new blog!
Sheila, thanks for sharing your victory in this area. Less is definitely easier to deal with.