As I’ve traveled around the US speaking on the subject of my book, Rightsizing Your Life, and talking to audiences about the obstacles standing in the way of a midlife move–any move!–I also have had a chance to do a quick survey of the cities and towns I pass through.

In the process, I have been introduced to scores of wonderful communities designed for the 50-plus crowd that “New Nesters” like my husband and myself might want to live in, once we finally “simplify our surroundings while keeping what matters most.”

Given the ongoing mortgage crisis and the difficulty in finding buyers for the family homes many would like to sell in order to start this new chapter in our lives, I hit upon what I think is a great way to “try out” other communities while waiting for this housing disaster to right itself.

So, surely you’ve heard of Vacation Rental by Owner?

If you have, would you consider listing your own home as a short-term rental on such an Internet service (there are several to choose from), and then search online for the kind of residence you’ve been considering for the next phase of your life?

Image source: San Francisco Chronicle

My husband of thirty-two years and I live within view of the San Francisco Bay…a wonderful place that visitors from all over the world want to experience. I also love high desert climates–but am unsure if I would really want to make New Mexico, Arizona or Nevada my permanent home, despite many cost savings compared to living in California.

A friend described how she rents out her place in the maritime village of Sausalito when she plans to be away for more than two weeks, so it occurred to me that if my square footage was in “show place” condition (meaning ALL clutter banished), then I could rent it out at the same time that I signed on for two-week to month-long furnished rentals on VRBO in spots like beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico—which has been on our “short list” for years.

Here’s one listing I found for a darling “casita” right in the heart of town:

I realize, of course, that Rightsizing one’s home to rent to perfect strangers may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but what a great opportunity it provides for finding an economical way to experience a new locale without having to make a big decision about moving until you were sure a community felt like the right fit?

Now, another place I’ve always wanted to live is Venice, Italy….

Hmmmm…..on VRBO you can check it out and have a wonderful time imagining the possibilities!

Life in the New Orleans French Quarter is definitely getting back to normal, though huge housing problems still exist in the outlying areas.

In late May, the fun-loving, wine-loving local citizens were having a parade of members of their wine club—including my pal, real estate champ, Samara Poche of French Quarter Realty—who was crowned Queen of Cork this year.

Her excuse for prancing down Royal Street? The Food and Wine industry was having a convention in town and the Krewe of Cork wanted to show some Southern hospitality.

My own excuse for coming to The Big Easy? The annual meeting of the National Association of Home Builders/Housing 50+ confab.

The NAHB conference, held late last month, had asked me to speak on the subject “Creating The Mindset to Move” with co-presenter Margit Novack, of Moving Solutions, a professional move manager.

No…Margit does not move big pieces of furniture herself! She’s a member of a growing profession that helps busy or frail or elderly people edit and winnow their earthly possessions before the movers arrive so that they will fit comfortably into their new digs!

My job was to speak about the psychological roadblocks people 50-plus may have about dealing with—in the words of comedien George Carlin—all their “stuff.”

You know what I’m talking about: the three dead vacuum cleaners out in the garage that you never got repaired; the drawer full of 50 Twist-’Ems saved for who-knows-what? And what about that lifetime of photos jammed into boxes, and the clothes you’ve kept hoping you’ll get back to size 8, papers from a volunteer organization you quit in disgust?

Margit and I believe that builders and planners need to recognize that these obstacles stand in the way of making sensible decisions about what housing is “right” for folks as they make certain inevitable transitions at midlife and beyond.

I showed several slides seen on this blog before which illustrated my point pretty well that some people truly need professional help before they can get to “Yes, I’ll move into your pretty new development:”

During the session “Creating the Mindset to Move,” Margit and I offered lots of ideas for overcoming these sorts of obstacles that prevent the builders’ prospective customers—you—from signing on the dotted line for a new home and moving into it!

Our presentation appeared to be well-received by the beleagured home builders in Ballroom D, who are also wrestling with the aftermath of the current mortgage meltdown.

Be assured, some very pretty New Nests are out there (some at some very deep discounts), just waiting for potential buyers who can bring themselves to jettison—before they move—their unneeded and unwanted possessions that serve no purpose in their lives any longer.

No doubt about it: it can be emotionally wrenching…but these life transitions can definitely be accomplished without so much angst if builders and developers put together local teams of “value added” professionals in the fields of move management and domestic organization. These “downsizing coaches” can offer practical solutions for winnowing, editing, and disposing of a lifetime of worldly possessions.

Ultimately, such efforts will pave the way to a simpler, more serene life where the builders’ customers are living with only the things they use and love—and will be much more likely to see a mid-life move as a new adventure, not an unmitigated trial.

After all, both Margit and I did it….and so can you!

Here is a photo of the adult children of a mother—who shall remain nameless— now residing in Florida. I know personally that this particular Mom is a total sweetheart, but she’s apparently had difficulty coping with “too much stuff.”

Her adult twins, pictured here looking pretty overwhelmed, were poised to tackle the problem as, perhaps, the greatest Mother’s Day present of all: cleaning out her garage and the rest of her home stuffed chock-a-block with the accumulations of a lifetime.

Before Rightsizing Garage
Image source: C. Cass

The pair had flown down not just to clear the clutter, but to sort, cull, edit, recycle, and responsibly dispose of the myriad items the older woman no longer needed, wanted, or used (and this was just their mother’s garage!)

It’s the classic story: this lovely lady was widowed and moved from her family home, which she sold, to a second home, which became her primary residence.

Her problem, as it is for so many of us, was that she brought most of her possessions from her former place and tried to shoe-horn them into her New Nest.

And like like the rest of us, she continued to buy things and save things, while not winnowing and discarding as she went.

Finally, the situation reached a crisis point, and the older woman could hardly move freely within her own residence for all the “treasures” she hadn’t the heart or the strength to get rid of.

Fortunately, her son and daughter came to the “rightsizing” rescue:

After Rightsizing Garage
Image source: C. Cass

What was their method? The same one I espouse when helping someone else cut the clutter: first encourage them to select only what they love AND use…and then figure out what to do with what’s left.

It’s that simple…and that complicated.

Ask yourself—or anyone you’re helping: what is your life like now? What makes sense for you now? As you consider each item and whether it goes in the “keep” or “toss” pile, ask the famous four rightsizing questions:

Do I love it?
Do I use it now?
Is it sentimental?
Is it beautiful?

Make sure each item falls in at least two of the four categories to be a “keeper.”

Follow this simple plan, and you, too, will find liberation from the burden of—in the immortal words of commedian George Carlin—too much stuff!

Do it for Mom….and yourself.

Most would agree that one of the great tragedies in life is a house fire, but even worse are products intended to prevent fires that may—perhaps—cause something just as bad—if not worse?

Case in point: the fire standards for upholstered furniture.

In California and numerous other states in the U.S., halogenated flame retardants have been used to reduce the chances of upholstered furniture exploding in flames if exposed to heat sources.

Along with these worthy efforts to reduce fatality from house fires, smoke detectors, sprinklers and self-extinguishing cigarettes have all contributed to a reduction in deaths—obviously a good thing.

Now we learn that the chemicals used to make fabrics fire retardant have high levels of bromine—one of several substances linked to cancer and birth defects.

House pets, too, are apparently at risk if they lounge on furniture treated with fire retardants. The EPA reports that before the 1970′s when fire retardant chemicals were introduced, hyperthyroidism in cats was virtually unknown.

Image source: LifeEvents Media

Today, it’s one of the leading killers of cats…and of course, the question is: what are these fabric fire retardants doing to our other pets and us humans?

Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups say there are safer chemicals and materials the furniture and fabric industries can use — and the good news is, some furniture companies are already on board.

Image source: verellenhc.com

If you’re in the market from new upholstered furniture, check, out Green Sage Furniture ; Montauk Furniture ; Verellen Home Collection; Cisco Brothers Furniture’s Basal Living Collection .

We New Nesters have to believe that for every problem, there is a solution!

Image source: cottageliving.com

The current Cottage Living May-June issue has an entire section on putting together ready-made banquettes with other furnishings to create intimate eating areas.

Where were these geniuses when I was redoing a kitchen–one that was really a library in a kitchen with the walls covered in bookshelves?

It had been suggested that we install such custom built-in seating as a way of efficiently using the space under the rows of upper bookcases.

Although a pricey solution, as it turned out, the space quickly became the heart of our home: we cooked and ate there, certainly, and hung out as a family while my son often did his homework whien I was cooking. It also became the place we read those books and the newspaper, stretched out on the custom upholstered benches, and watched TV on a set that had been built into the kitchen island.

The good news is that now banquettes and ready-made nooks are as close as your online catalog store.

Image source: ballarddesigns.com

There are the upholstered type—some even with storage capacity underneath the seat cushions Just buy two—these are from Ballard Designs-–and push them into a corner:

Image source: ballarddesigns.com

And there are nooks and banquettes built of other materials like wood .

Image source: westfurnishings.com

You can even buy do-it-yourself plans and build your own—this was one I found on eBay.

Image source: ebay.com

Whichever way you go, it’s waaaaay less expensive than having them custom-made. And you don’t have to wait for some Beverly Hills designer to tell you that your banquette will take six months to be delivered….

Free Burma indeed. Free us all from government crisis mismanagement and our own lack of preparadness when disaster strikes.

Real Homeland Security consists in being ready to help yourself and others-–even when your government is unwilling or incompetent to do the job of disaster relief.

Despite the cyclone that tore through Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) last weekend leaving perhaps 60,000 to 100,000 dead and millions more homeless or with heavily damaged shelter, the military hunta there has been slow to allow global aid into the country.

We’ve all seen what killer weather can do in the developed world when Hurricane Katrina slammed into communities on the American Gulf Coast and the Federal and local governments weren’t prepared—and neither were local citizens.

No region is without its dangers.

Image source: getreadymarin.org

My own little maritime village of 7200 sits atop a spider web of earthquake faults, one of which—the Hayward Fault—is across the water from us on the east side of San Francisco Bay.

Just last month, the announcement was made that there is a 90 percent chance of a major quake along that fault within the next thirty years.

Those are bad odds for anyone under ninety!

On Saturday, my husband and I—a former damage control officer in the U.S. Navy—will be attending “Get Ready Marin” named for the county in which we live (and supported by an award from the Federal Homeland Security agency).

My husband “gets it” that we need to prepare our home and neighborhood for the worst-case scenario.

In a two-hour course given in the city council chambers, we both hope to learn the basic “best practices” for surviving the first 72 hours of an emergency.

The “first 72″ is how long a community might be expected to survive on its own devices.

Isn’t this, truly, what “homeland security” is really about? Have you secured your own immediate home with:

• Solid foundations, walls and roof
• Stocked emergency supplies of water, food, First Aid equipment, light sources, battery communication devices
• Created plans with your immediate neighbors for mutual aid
• Made a “contact and rendezvous plan” with family members living outside the area

If I pick up any more tips on Saturday, I’ll pass them along, but meanwhile: think about it. Is your own personal “homeland” secure? Can you make it even more so?

Watch this space…

Actually, I’m jealous, because the only outside space we have at our home in the Bay Area is a narrow deck. However, look at what our neighbors installed recently, having seen an ad on the Target website.
Image source: target.com

What’s so great is that they’ve created a wonderful gathering place for under $350 dollars. Already, this portable fire pit is the hit of the ‘hood with everyone vying for an invitation—now that the weather is improving and the “June Gloom” fog banks haven’t begun to roll through the Golden Gate.

Often the lucky ones bring over potluck contributions and bask in the glow of a fire created by the cannister of propane hidden below the fire pit itself.

Then, over the weekend, I was driving past a patio furniture place and screeched to a halt in front of an example of a free-standing exterior cast fireplace designed by DBC.

Image source: exteriorfireplaces.com

The plain model above can be dolled up in a variety of styles that most likely you’ll need a professional contractor or stone mason to complete. And although these models are a lot pricier ($2500 and up) than the model from Target, it’s still a pretty great addition for far less than one that’s “architect-built.”

Here is another example of this model’s versatility:

Image source: exteriorfireplaces.com

So get ready for summer and start dreaming about your very own “adult campfire” for that New Nest of yours!

In our book, cozy is the name of the game!

The developed world is an acquisitive one, and nowhere does that strike home more clearly than at home.

Or to be more precise: in the closets in your home.

A few blog posts ago, I bared all and showed a picture of the jumble of purses on a high shelf in my closet that make me want to scream every time I try to fish for the handbag I want to use. To begin with, I can’t reach them easily (and have a few I never use anymore)…and the result is one big mess.

In that post I also showed a picture emailed me by a friend of Park-a-Purse™, one solution that appealed mightily—except that it wouldn’t fit in my particular closet.

Image source: organize.com

End of story? Not by a long shot.

Look at what I found in my In-Box today: a number of other very useful types of purse organizers. Who knew so many great minds had been focusing on what I (shamefully, I admit) thought was my dirty little secret? Which just goes to show that for every House+Home problem, there are many solutions just waiting out there, thanks to the Internet!

Here we have the Short Hanging Purse Organizer:

Image source: organize-it-online.com

The details: 6″W x 30″H x 14″D 5 Lbs $15.99

….and the Long Hanging Purse Organizer:

Image source: spacesavers.com

The details: 16 compartments in 2 sizes 12W x 12″D x 50″H $39.95

If you’ve seen some other purse problem-solving products you’d like to tell us about, or have an even better idea to maintain “closet sanity,” this New Nester sure would love to hear from you.

Meanwhile, I’m still considering my options…

Anyone in the throes of <strong>shifting from larger to smaller</strong> living quarters is likely to relate stories about the difficulty they had deciding which of their possessions to keep and which to toss.

Teri Follett, as you can see, decided to capture her “decision dilemmas” in a photograph she used on the front of a postcard announcing she’d moved to a 55+ community in San Francisco.

Generally, people making housing transitions—including Teri—report that despite occasional tugs-of-the-heart when disposing of sentimental items that had no real purpose in their current lifestyle, the process of <strong>editing their worldly goods</strong> down to only what they used and loved eventually became liberating.

I had to smile, though, when some of these “rightsizers” told me they’d bought a copy of my book on domestic downsizing after they’d already moved! Why? I asked, mystified. Because, they said, they still had to– in their words — “finish the job.”

Unlike Teri, many of the people I met admitted somewhat sheepishly that they’d had to resort to some off-site storage  for a while, and many others related how they’d made several trips to The Container Storeand other home organization emporiums to get the job done.

That was the moment when I admitted that my husband and I still have an 8×10  off-site storage locker  after making the transition from 4000 feet of living space in Southern California to our current blissful 1275 square feet overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Hey, we’re human, just like the rest of you! But are we happy now that we’ve lived through the rightsizing process? You bet!

Teri Follett, by the way, became my Rightsizing Poster Girl with every one of the prized items she’d kept now perfectly integrated into her new life. Stay tuned here for many more New Nest adventures…

What do you imagine the price tag on a house in foreclosure should be?

Well, expect to see a bus with something like “The Repo Express” painted on its side, rolling down a street near you, and you’ll learn soon enough.

This week a large such vehicle emblazoned with the letters “Repo Home Tours” was seen combing the hardest hit neighborhoods in Pasadena California.

The bus was operated by just another franchisee sanctioned by a Stockton real estate broker and mortgage consultant who originated the idea of sending prospective home buyers around in groups to view clusters of distressed properties for sale in the wake of the mortgage meltdown.

Other entrepreneurs have jumped on this…uh…bus-wagon in such far-flung cities as Dallas and Palm Beach.

The advantage to the potential buyers is obvious: they don’t have to drive or fill their tanks with expensive gas; the tour operators have located the foreclosed on properties and organized their viewing in logical fashion; and, as the LA Times pointed out Tuesday, “Tour operators are able to promote each home on the ride over, explain down payments, offer loans and foster enthusiasm out of an otherwise dreary landscape.”

The Stockton real estate “wizard” who launched the idea of organized bus trips to the Land of Bargains (where cash and good credit are required) claims he’s actually performing a service to the communities hardest hit. Nobody, he says, wants an empty house with foreclosure signs peppering the front lawn on their block, blighting the neighborhood.

As indelicate as it may seem…maybe he’s right. The banks own the houses now, not the hapless former residents.

What do you think?

If you want to view a comprehensive report on the Repo Bus Tour phenomenon and its implications for the national economy, check out this video on YouTube.