Are you dealing with the ongoing chaos with the coming and going of kids and their stuff? What is it about adult children using the family home as a storage facility? If you are about to downsize this situation is something you may be dealing with. One way to solve the problem is to decide to sell your home and downsize to a place that doesn’t have room for your children or their stuff. This may seem harsh but for some of my clients it has worked very well. If you are about to downsize, here are a few tips for dealing with this situation that have worked for many of my clients.
If your kids still have stuff stored in your house, you will need to enlist their help as part of the downsizing process. Most of the time they will surprise you with how much they are able to let go of especially if they have already moved out to their own place.
Remember your grown children are smart. If you allow them to continue to store their stuff in your house, they will. After all, why would they go to the effort of dealing with it if they don’t have to. Give them a deadline for removing what they want and if they don’t take anything, please donate as much as possible.
If this effort turns into a huge battle, you may consider renting a storage locker temporarily in order to save time and energy arguing with your kids. Technically if your adult children are living in their own place and are gainfully employed they should be paying for the storage. Something to think about.
I implore you not to move to a new home that is too large for your needs just so you can store things for your kids. What have you been storing for your children? Feel free to leave a comment.