The kids have grown up and moved away, and now it’s time for their parents to play.

These empty-nesters don’t need a large residence and property anymore, and they’re ready to buy a smaller house and change their lifestyle.

For former Los Angeles resident Katy Crowne-Fenn of Bend, the decision to downsize was easy. Two years ago, she and her husband, both 54, moved from a 2,400-square-foot house in Broken Top to a 2,000-square-foot production house in Skyliner Village.

That wasn’t the original plan. When Crowne-Fenn moved to Bend in 1997 and bought her Broken Top home, she bought the lot next door and intended to expand the residence to 4,000 square feet.

”I thought I had to replicate the whole California lifestyle here,” she said. ”But I found out I liked living in a smaller area and I wasn’t using all the space in the 2,400-square-foot house.”

Another change came in Crowne-Fenn’s attitude and priorities.

”We decided having a trophy house wasn’t important,” Crowne-Fenn said. ”We like to travel and our emphasis is on family and friends.”

Crowne-Fenn is part of a popular downsizing trend in Central Oregon.

Over the years, area house size has generally increased, according to Tim Knopp of the Central Oregon Builders Association, but that doesn’t hold true with every age group and category of home buyer.

”In the 50-plus age group, we’re seeing some downsizing,” Knopp said. ”The houses may be getting smaller, but the buyers still want the amenities.”

The downsizing trend is particularly evident in some of the more upscale communities, said Dirk Fearing, marketing manager for Hayden Enterprises. These include The Parks and The Bluffs, he said, which are luxury townhouse developments near the Old Mill district.

”The draw is the so-called secret of Central Oregon,” Fearing said. ”It’s almost unnecessary to sell Bend’s lifestyle. People can downsize here and still live in a sense of luxury.”

The majority of people in the area who are downsizing are in the 45 to 54 age range, Fearing said, and they tend to be empty-nesters or professionals with one child.

”The house they are buying may not be as spacious,” he said, ”but we can build the interiors to suit them and make the space use much more effective.”

But there are a couple of considerations before making the move to a smaller home. For example, the kids will come back to visit and need a place to stay.

And while that smaller house on the tiny lot won’t be as hard to keep clean or require as much maintenance, there’s no room for a storage shed or enough space in the garage to put the toys needed for Central Oregon recreation.

One way of coping with smaller guest space is the ”bunkhouse,” or bonus room concept, Fearing said. Basically, he added, this is a room over the garage that can be converted into overnight accommodations.

”It is also a place to spread out the excess furniture,” Fearing said. ”The room may be used for other activities until it is needed for a sleeping area.”

But what do you do if you downsize the house, but want to keep some cherished mementos that don’t fit in with any decorating scheme?

One option might be long-term storage. Some downsizers view a storage unit as part of their downsizing investment.

Many homeowners prefer to invest in long-term storage as opposed to building on a storage room, said Ruth Mallen, owner of Wall Street Storage in Bend.

One tenant had a storage unit for 11 years, she said, and another rents four separate units.

”We get a lot of downsizing clients,” Mallen said. ”People want to simplify, but they want to hang on to Grandma’s chair, or store the kids’ things while they’re off at college.”

Some people rotate seasonal items through their storage unit, Mallen said, to avoid cluttering the garage.

”In the summer, you store the snowblower and skis,” she said, ”and in the winter those come out and the patio furniture and raft go in.”

Regardless of how you do it, more and more people are getting rid of useless items, downsizing their properties and becoming happier with fewer and smaller possessions.

”We don’t have all our money tied up in a house, we have the time and money to travel and with the smaller space, we use every bit of the house,” Crowne-Fenn said. ”I’d recommend everyone downsize. I love having less.”