Hiring Help Can make Downsizing Easier
Kiplingers, September 2006
A year and a half ago, when Anita and Robert Summers planned to move from their family home in Merion Station, Pa., to a nearby retirement community, they were daunted by the thought of sorting more than four decades worth’of stuff. So they turned to Moving Solutions, a Wynnewood, Pa.-based company specializing in “senior move management.” For $2,800, the consultant helped the two retired professors decide what to take with them and what to give away.
The couple says the personal touches took the stress out of their transition. The evening of the move, Robert, 84, recalls, “a team of six came to our new place, made our bed, put the photos on our bedside table in the same place, laid out our toothbrushes and set up the coffeepot for the next morning.” At 9 A.M. the next day, the team returned to empty the boxes. “The last time I moved, 43 years before, it took weeks to unpack,” says Anita, 81. “There was no mess or clutter when they left. The physical move was a cinch, although emotionally it was tough.”
The growth in retirement communities and the scattering of adult children have created this niche service. Typically, the move manager draws a floor plan of the new place, so you can see which furniture will fit. As you sort through a lifetime of belongings, the move manager helps you decide which treasures to keep. The managers arrange for consignment, donations and gifts. They oversee movers and plan for storage. They set up the new household and see that your old house is cleaned. Some managers have experience moving frail seniors into nursing homes.
But leaving behind a memory-laden house, as well as choosing among your treasures, can be difficult. Often the move has been precipitated by a crisis-an illness or death of a spouse. So beyond organizational skills, a move manager can become a sort of grief – - counselor as homeowners say goodbye. Indeed, many managers hold degrees in social work or psychology.
Susan Danick, who runs Transitional Assistance and Design (www.helpseniorsmove.com; 240-403-0177), in Gaithersburg, Md., notes that some anxious clients will call her several times a day for weeks. “The emo- tional part of moving is very tricky,” says Danick, a former nurse who began her business after moving her grandmother into an assisted living center.
A No-Hassle Move
Hiring a professional can help you avoid tangles with relatives. “There are a lot of family dynamics involved with moving, which is why sometimes a stranger can be more effective than relatives,” says Margit Nomk, who runs Moving Solutions (www.movingsolutions.com; 610-853-4300).
Mary Jo Zeller, a founder of Gero Solutions (www.gerosolutionsinc.com; 847-705-2123), which serves the Chicago area, says a client will often take her advice about what to toss, aker rejecting the same advice from an adult child. “The children can offer emotional support by taking the parents out to lunch, instead of having their head in a packing box,” Zeller says.
Costs vary, but most jobs that involve a move from a house to an apartment range from $1,200 to $2,500, not including the cost of movers. “The price was very. reasonable,” says James Hecker, who in Feb- ruary left a three-bedroom house for a two-bedroom apartment in Chevy Chase, Md. A former Marine who has moved 26 times, he and his wife, both in their eighties, found it too taxing to do all the work themselves. They paid $2,000 to Danick’s company. He says they discarded about one-third of their pos- sessions in “a no-hassle move.”
To find a move manager, check with the 88-member National Association of Senior Move Managers (www.nasmrn.com). Ask for references from clients and from retirement communities where clients have moved. Find out how many moves the firm has managed for seniors, and get a written list of services and fees. And make sure the firm is hsured and bonded.
