A Few Fall Touches

In these lingering days of summer, I've been adding a few subtle touches of fall to my home.  I'm going for a nod to the season rather than an all out change every surface to scream "Fall has arrived".

Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just that at this stage of life, the interest and energy level for that has changed considerably.

In fact, Brett & I have started to think about downsizing in the next year or so.

We've begun the process of looking at smaller homes.

When we first started talking about it, we had no idea where to start looking.  Just for the heck of it we visited one of the "active lifestyle" communities in the area.  We have now visited three different ones and talked to a lot of people who have made this move.  Everybody we've talked to seems thrilled with their new home and community.  The one thing we heard over and over was how much stuff they had to get rid of to downsize.  The other common theme was not to bother saving it for your kids as they don't want it.  

Our current house doesn't have a basement.

What it lacks in basement space, it more than makes up for it in attic space.  Lots and lots of attic space with lots and lots of things stored in them.

Through my years of blogging, I have talked about cleaning the attic on more than one occasion.  Many things have found new homes through the years, yet many things remain in those attics :/.

I am learning one thing through this process of house hunting.

Now is the right time to get serious about clearing the clutter.

Whether we move next year or in five years, we will be ahead of the game to start dealing with it now.

So that is exactly what we have been doing around here.

Yesterday I sorted through the bins in the attic containing fall décor.

I picked out a few favorite pieces.

I chose a few spots in the house that I thought could benefit from a touch of fall.

In the dining room it was the center of the table

and a few dishes added to the hutch.

For now that is plenty.

The remaining items were packed into the car and taken to one of my favorite charities.

As each holiday rolls around I plan to repeat this process.

It's rather amazing how much stuff a house can accumulate over the years.

When my son was home last week I had him clean out his dresser and closet.  Four garbage bags of clothes came out of there and he hasn't lived here for over three years.  Yikes!

Speaking of my son, I want to thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers on my last post.

We are happy to report that they made it here and back home safe and sound.  Thankfully there was no damage to their apartment and the power was still on.  Amber spent one night in the hospital where she works in Orlando.  They lost power and were working off of generators.  She said the room the staff slept in was on the fourteenth floor with windows from floor to ceiling.  It was a scary time and she was so glad to get back home when it was safe to do so.  

While here visiting, Jaxson decided that when raspberries become finger puppets they suddenly taste better :).

We miss him already, but are most thankful to have their little family reunited once again.