|
Transitions
Although
you may not frequently move from one home to another,
you may go through mini-moves within your living spaces.
Perhaps a better term to describe it would be a
transitioning. There are a variety of housing
transitions that can occur throughout our lives. There
might be a time when you have to change the way your
home is set up to accommodate a baby arriving, a young
adult returning from college or an aging parent coming
to live with you. Another transition might be the
blending of two households and the struggle of knowing
how to combine everything that is important without
having too much. Maybe someone in your home is limited
to living only on the first floor due to a short term or
long term physical ailment. These transitions require us
to rethink the use of our homes, to move and reorganize
our possessions to meet our current needs. How do you
transition your present space to fit your new specific
needs?
Create a list - Begin by writing down the specific new needs for your
space. This list may take some time to compile and will
require repeated communication with everyone involved in
the transition. Often when someone states a need, such
as a first floor bathroom, they are making the
assumption that you will see other parts of that need
that are connected. In this example, it really means a
full bath with shower because they aren’t able to climb
stairs. Take time to talk through each need, discussing
what is involved, why it is important and how it can be
addressed.
Think outside the box - Sometimes it is
hard to do this in our own homes. When the living room
has always been the living room, it can be a challenge
to be view the space differently. However,
transitioning may require some creative repurposing.
You may have always had the dining room where it is now,
but perhaps the room could be changed into an office, a
bedroom or a family room to fit your needs better. A
fresh set of eyes or a new perspective may be needed to
see the different possibilities for your space and
furniture. In addition, you may find that one change
may create a shuffling effect of other rooms or items.
This is a part of the transition process, and though it
may require some extra effort, working through this
cascade of changes will help to make life run much more
smoothly.
Stay flexible
- Although you may have put a lot of thought into this space
transition, you may find there is an aspect of it that
doesn’t work well. Take note of this and be ready to
adapt. Perhaps your transition was that someone is in a
wheel chair and cannot reach the upper cabinets. You
shuffled everything to the countertop and lower
cabinets, only to find out that the things at the back
of the countertops are still out of reach. Be willing
to continue to make changes to optimize your space, and
remember: transitioning is a process not just a one-time
event.
No
transition is easy, but with a little bit of planning
and work, you can make your home transition so that it
is able to meet your new needs.
© October 2011 Beth Giles
|
