A Property, Straight Up conversation with Robin Sticklin, founder of Love It or Leave It

Behind every property transaction there is a story. Sometimes that story is about ambition, sometimes about opportunity, and sometimes it is about letting go. On the latest episode of Property, Straight Up, we turn our attention to a part of the property journey that rarely gets the airtime it deserves, downsizing and moving later in life. It is a topic that touches thousands of Melbourne families every year, and one that is rarely just about logistics.

Joining the conversation was Robin Sticklin, founder and business principal of Love It or Leave It, a Melbourne-based service that helps seniors and their families navigate the process of decluttering, downsizing and relocating. What sets Robin apart is that she does not treat downsizing as a purely practical exercise. She treats it as an emotional transition that deserves care, patience and a proper plan.

How Love It or Leave It Began

Robin’s business grew out of personal experience. Not long ago, she found herself moving four times in three years, an experience she describes with a laugh as one nobody would choose, yet one that turned her into something of an expert almost by accident. Each move meant facing decades of belongings and working out, piece by piece, what was worth keeping and what was not.

What began as a stressful personal chapter became, in Robin’s words, something she genuinely enjoyed. Her husband, by contrast, responded to the fourth move by all but hiding under the table. Robin kept going, and kept getting better at it.

The idea for the business was cemented when Robin supported her husband’s parents through their own transition, first into retirement accommodation and then into aged care, in relatively quick succession. Working alongside her mother in law, Jenny, as she made decision after decision about what to keep, Robin found the moment that gave the company its name. When Jenny grew tired of deciding, Robin simply said, all right, you are going to love it or you are going to leave it. The phrase stuck, and Love It or Leave It was born.

The Emotional Weight of Letting Go

Ask Robin about the emotional side of downsizing and she has plenty of stories. One recent client was clearing out a home study that had belonged to her late husband. On the surface it was full of unremarkable items, staplers, stationery and paper. But as the space was cleared, the client had a quiet cry. It was not about the objects themselves. It was about what the room represented, a piece of him that she had been holding onto without quite realising it.

Robin’s role in that moment was not to rush the process along but to pause, sit with the emotion and let the memory be acknowledged before moving forward. It’s a reminder that downsizing is rarely just about square metres and storage space. It is about the meaning attached to what we own.

Why Getting Started Is the Hardest Part

For many families, the biggest hurdle is simply not knowing where to begin. When a home has been lived in for fifty years, the sheer volume of belongings can feel paralysing. Robin points to research from the Journal of Environmental Psychology, which found that excessive clutter can evoke feelings of overwhelm, entrapment and disconnection, and can affect relationships and self esteem. Even short of that full effect, most of us feel some version of it when we look around a home full of decades of accumulated things.

This is exactly the point where families tend to stall. A property is left unsold, or a to do list quietly grows for months, while the income and lifestyle benefits of moving are put on hold. It is also precisely where a structured, supported plan makes the difference between months of avoidance and steady progress.

Supporting Adult Children Through the Process

It is often adult children who first raise the idea of a move, usually motivated by safety, easier access to care, or simply less upkeep around the home and garden. But once the idea takes hold, those same adult children can find themselves carrying an enormous emotional and logistical load, on top of their own jobs, families and commitments.

Robin describes this dynamic candidly. Family relationships are deep and complex, and that complexity can make even simple decisions about belongings feel loaded. Having someone independent involved, someone who can listen to the stories behind the items and support decision making without being emotionally entangled in the family history, removes a significant layer of difficulty from an already demanding process.

Inside a Love It or Leave It Engagement

Every client relationship starts with conversation. Robin and her team take the time to understand what a client needs, what their goals are, and importantly, where they are moving to. From there, the process typically starts with the big ticket items, the furniture that needs to fit the new floor plan.

The team visits the new property, takes measurements of the space and the furniture, and builds a floor plan so clients can visualise exactly what will fit and what will not. A grand dining sideboard that suited a ten seat table, for example, may simply be the wrong scale for a smaller home. From there, attention turns to the smaller, more personal items, sorted into what is genuinely precious and what is functional and actually used.

At the heart of it all is a decision-making framework designed to give clients confidence and momentum, so choices about what to keep and what to let go of get made, rather than stalling indefinitely.

What Happens to Antiques and Valuables

A common concern for families is what to do with items of uncertain value, antiques, collectables or furniture that might be worth something but nobody wants to simply throw away. Love It or Leave It works with established auction houses, arranging valuations and sales through those relationships, so items that deserve a second life find one, rather than heading straight to landfill.

The Biggest Mistake Families Make

The most common misstep, according to Robin, is leaving the process too late. When a family finally turns its attention to downsizing, the pressure to sort decades of belongings quickly falls on adult children, who then have to squeeze the work in around their own jobs, kids and commitments. It is a lot to ask, and families do step up, but it is far more stressful than it needs to be.

From the property side of the equation, this delay has a real cost too. A home that sits unsold while a family works through the emotional and logistical process of clearing it out represents lost time, lost income and a missed opportunity to help ageing parents move into a better living situation sooner.

Practical Tips to Start Downsizing Today

Robin’s advice for anyone even thinking about a future move is simple, start now, and start small. Choose an area of the home with little emotional weight attached, the laundry cupboard, the linen press, or that one kitchen drawer every home seems to have, full of odds and ends nobody quite needs. Clearing these low stakes spaces first builds confidence and momentum.

Items with genuine sentimental weight, photographs, journals, letters, do not need to be sorted straight away. Robin suggests boxing them up, labelling the box, and setting it aside to work through later, perhaps in front of the television of an evening, once the easier decisions have built momentum.

The Takeaway

Whether you are planning your own move or supporting a parent through theirs, a few themes from this conversation are worth holding onto.

• Start early. The sooner the process begins, the less pressure lands on family members later.
• Begin with low emotion spaces, cupboards and drawers, before tackling sentimental items like photos and letters.
• Set a clear goal for where you are heading. A plan built around the destination makes every decision along the way easier.
• Consider independent support. A professional, unattached from family history, can carry decisions forward that stall when left to family alone.
• Do not assume everything unwanted has to go to landfill. Valuations and auction house relationships can uncover value in items you might otherwise discard.

 

Downsizing is rarely just a logistical task. It is a significant life transition, and treating it with patience, structure and genuine care makes all the difference, both for the family involved and for the property itself, which can move to its next chapter far more smoothly once the home behind it is ready.

To learn more about Robin Sticklin’s work, visit Love It or Leave It.

If you are thinking about downsizing, selling or simply do not know where to start, the team at Domain & Co is here to help guide you through the process.

This article is based on a conversation from the Property, Straight Up podcast. Listen to the full episode for the full discussion.