Here are three key strategies to help seniors make the transition to smaller living quarters in a much less stressful and smooth fashion:
- Start with the basics.
- Often people have a very difficult time looking at empty rooms and understanding, spatially, what can actually fit. This can be compounded by special mobility needs. We find that completing a scaled floor plan using actual furniture dimensions is critical to understanding – and accepting – what can reasonably fit in a new space. Often there are trade-offs to be made between pieces of furniture and other belongings that have significant sentimental value since not everything will fit. We encourage our clients to start their transition journey armed with the facts needed to make solid decisions.
- Preserve traditions with realistic expectations.
- It is basic human nature to want to preserve family traditions. However, many of our clients have children with established homes filled with their own things and not much room to spare to add more from mom’s and dad’s collections. Additionally, differences in taste, décor and lifestyle often drive the desire and need for a different style of furnishings. We increasingly find that children may want to take on a few items – perhaps even small things that are sentimentally significant but, by and large, they cannot or do not want the things mom and dad are not taking. Opening a general conversation early in the transition process to let the children know that there will be items “available” can lead to healthy discussion regarding what is truly desired and will be cherished rather than adding more stress to an already intense situation.
- Purge early, purge often.
- For the most part, once an item – or two or three or four – are out of sight they are out of mind. It is very easy to fill closets, attics, cellars, and garages with our stuff and never think about it again. Until it’s time to move and then the full impact of “all that stuff” hits home. We counsel our clients to begin the effort to sort and organize early on – often as soon as they are thinking about a move. If they can fill just one extra trash bag per week and include it with their regular pick-up or dump run, at the end of one year they will have handled enough to fill a thirty yard dumpster. If we have to come in at the end of the move when it is crunch time to make a real estate closing date, the labor and fees associated with the same thirty yard dumpster would cost $1200-$1500.
- The same concept holds true for donations and hazardous materials disposal. Start as early as possible in the transition process to take advantage of charitable organizations’ pick-ups in your area. Often they only come on a regular schedule but can only take a limited amount of stuff. Towns will generally schedule one-to-two hazardous material drop off dates per year. Taking advantage of these services can save hundreds of dollars in disposal fees.
With solid planning and an experienced guiding hand, a transition can be a positive change and the first step to a happier, more social lifestyle. If you have questions about a transition point in your life, call Transitions Liquidation Services at 617-513-0433.