To RightSIZE is a completely different and more positive act. It’s you telling yourself that you're going to shed the tonnage of stuff; that has robbed you of a kind
of fluid mobility you really want now.
Downsizing is often the frustrating logistical act of trying to cram a big unfocused life into smaller square footage. Whereas RightSIZING is the thoughtful process of living with only that which you love, frequently use or when gaze upon it, its being there moves and inspires.
RightSIZING UP is a declarative act of liberation. Whereas, downsizing is a sorry affair that suggests that life is taking away your toys, without your permission.
Downsizers keep stuff they may never use again for fear that they may one day suddenly find themselves poorer and wish they had it.
RightSIZERS have a very clear vision of their next life phase and the right stuff they'll need to live it.
Downsizers postpone choosing, thinking that they'll purge once they've relocated.
Whereas RightSIZERS purge first and then choose the place, they'll inhabit next
based on clarity, not just square footage.
The Downsizer's math usually only calculates expense by "room" square footage.
Whereas RightSIZERS calculate by every item owned, Their math acknowledges that everything they have takes up valuable inches, which then add up to feet, that translates to square footage, which determines the very size of the real estate they should inhabit.
So for those who can’t quite yet envision what a new spiritually enriching life could look like, they can easily equate, that less stuff means smaller, and smaller means more efficient, and that spells less square footage that is more often than not, much more affordable.
Downsizers who reduce, generally do it mostly because of expense or age.
Whereas those who RightSIZE are intentionally shifting the pride of ownership to the need for greater fulfillment making more funds available for more freedom and fluidity at any age. They don't buy stuff; they afford new experiences.
Tidy downsizers are into organization thinking that if all the stuff they can't decide about (or never really use) is neatened up into decorative containers that it's then okay to keep it.
RightSIZERS look at storage containers as basically landfill. The places where undecided, useless stuff goes to hide and charge them rent for.
Note: When I finished my first book on the topic the publishers demanded that organization, for marketing purposes, was on the front cover. It killed me, but I lost the battle because the word reinvention scared the bejesus out of them. Those who actually cracked the cover realized that it was far more about thoughtful purging then anal retentive organizational neat-freaking.
The Downsizer's acts of decluttering don't last very long.
Whereas RightSIZERS change their habits by developing a distinct distaste for clutter and the unnecessary.
While downsizers continually fight the battle of the bulging,
RightSIZERS refuse to rummage through stuff they rarely use to find the stuff they need every day.
Downsizers tend to either emulate others' lifestyles or duplicate the last one they had even though their needs, wants, and desires have totally changed.
RightSIZERS have the courage to allocate space and the things in that space based to what they really want, where it really should be and how they really use it whether it defies convention or not.
Downsizers tend to purchase more because it's newer and that they like it better. Their quality of life is in the thrill of "the GET."
RightSIZERS continually make choices based on "instead of"" versus "in "addition to." Their thrill is in owning far less, but the very best version of it. Their ideas of quality are...well, actual quality.
Downsizers tend to fill space.
RightSIZERS are continually emptying them.
Downsizers think "minimalism is "cold."
RightSIZERS know how to make less feel just as inviting.
Downsizers tend to create rooms that look good at a glance when no one is using them.
RIghtSIZERS create spaces that work the best when people are actually living in them.
Downsizers make excuses for the reduction.
RightSIZERS brag about it.
Downsizers still feel reinvention is something one is forced to do because what they were doing didn't work out.
RightSIZERS know that constant reinvention and experimentation is really all we're here to do. After all, the stuff? You can't take it with you...you never could. The shared experiences of joy, faith, creativity, and wisdom left in other's is a far more lasting footprint that matters once we're out of here.
