The couple was excited, but moving meant making a lot of decisions that went well beyond decluttering drawers. Decisions about what to do with the art, furniture and sentimental items collected over a 47-year marriage, a collection that certainly wouldn’t fit in a smaller space.

They hired an estate sale organizer who had them tag only what they wished to keep. That in itself was a bit of a puzzle. The 2,200-square-foot space they’d purchased needed a “complete redo,” the homeowner says, so the house was still a work in progress when they began to plot their move.

And facing a completely full three-story house with six bedrooms, a full basement and a detached three-car garage was overwhelming.

For several years, she had her own interior design business. While she was no stranger to this type of task, weeding out so many possessions really took some planning.

“I did my furniture layout first, before I did anything else. I knew that I could take my existing upholstered pieces,” she says, gesturing to two white armchairs. “These were in a guest room.”

She points out a couple of other white chairs, explaining that they’d been in her old living room and were once covered in multicolored striped upholstery. A pair of black, lacquered chairs she’d had for 40 years also made the move.

She replaced anything that wouldn’t work in the new house with pieces more aesthetically appropriate. The old house had been filled with fairly traditional colonial furniture, but she wanted to cultivate an “East meets West” vibe in their new home—mid-century modern with an Eastern twist.

What didn’t translate exactly right—or what they simply had no room for—was a great deal of art, much of it created by their son, a professional artist who lives in New York. They sold furniture, too. Family heirlooms. And then there were the boxes of things that had been in storage.