Downsize and Enjoy Life

Brian and Trish Allen describe themselves as "empty nesters".

They moved from Victoria to Queensland around six years ago to be closer to their children and grandchildren and after that their large family home developed into something resembling "Paddington Station".

Several family members moved in and out as all that extra space afforded by the larger home was utilized whenever it was needed. But it wasn't long until that need died down.

And eventually the couple found themselves alone in a four bedroom house with a study, pool and basketball court, along with all the work to maintain the property. It was then they started looking at downsizing. We already lived in a townhouse in Melbourne, so to downsize wasn't a big emotional issue,

We decided to do it now because we've started travel­ling a bit more with the caravan and friends, and by not having as much work to do around the property it freed our weekends up to give us more leisure time." After a month of searching the couple settled on a new townhouse.

Brian said he was look­ing forward to not maintain­ing their yard. He suggested couples look­ing to downsize set out exactly what they're looking for early on, and start their search from there.

The first thing you need to do it sit down and look at what you've got, and what you really need,"

'We had too much of things we didn't need and didn't use. We didn't use two-thirds of the house.

Therefore we started look­ing at what were the essen­tial things, a checklist of the 10 most essential things, that we want from a home and that ticked all the boxes.