DOWNSIZING SPECIAL
Your four-page guide to making that next step, in association with Anchor
LIFE comes with some major milestones: starting work, leaving home, perhaps getting married and having a family and, eventually, retiring. Along the way we pick up souvenirs that have special memories and by the time we retire most of us will have precious mementos, such as vinyl records bought with our first take-home pay, football programmes or theatre tickets, our children’s first paintings or birthday cards from muchloved relatives who may be long-gone.
So when you finally make the decision to downsize to a smaller home there are two decisions you have to make: what sort of property to move to and what to do with all of your stuff?
The first decision is easy. Anchor has retirement properties for over-55s, ranging from one or two-bedroom apartments to courtyard houses, in its purpose-built developments.
Some of these are modern apartment blocks with communal facilities such as an owners’ lounge and café or restaurant, plus hair and beauty salons. Others are retirement villages set in communal grounds with wellness centres featuring a heated pool, gym, exercise studio, sauna and steam room, as well as a lounge, restaurant and activity rooms.
You may relish the idea of embracing a new lifestyle in a retirement village, where you can live independently yet still join other residents in exercise classes at the superb wellness centre facilities or start book clubs together and maybe a choir.
Or you may prefer the smaller developments, where you can also maintain your independent lifestyle and still have the advantage of neighbours with similar interests plus staff to help with day-to-day living. There may be fewer on-site facilities but these properties have cafes, communal lounges and salons too.
Whichever Anchor retirement solution you choose, though, there is still the issue of what to do with a lifetime of memories. Anchor has the answer to that, too, thanks to some top tips from the experts: Anchor residents who have had to make those decisions already. So here’s what to do:
Rather than taking boxes of drawings, school reports, children’s clothes and treasured photographs to your new home, make “memory boxes” that can be given to each individual child or grandchild.
Before selling furniture, find out if there are any items your family would like. If furniture remains that you won’t have space for but you know you’ll miss, take photographs of your room to include special items and ornaments so you’ll always have a keepsake.
If you can’t make up your mind about certain items, hire a storage container and give items to family, friends and charities at a more leisurely pace.
Some items can be donated to your retirement village. Bishopstoke Park, Hampshire, for example, accepts books for the library and tools for the village shed.
Find out how much storage space is included in your new home. It may be more than you think.
Anchor understands you are used to spacious accommodation after living in a family home and have designed the rooms at new developments with this in mind.
There are two decisions that you have to make: what sort of property to move to and what to do with all of your stuff