For senior citizens, leaving a long familiar home in favor of a smaller living space or an assisted living facility is stressful, leading to complexities that not all movers are capable of managing.
Fortunately for seniors, a moving industry has evolved in the form of senior moving management services. They help seniors in a way that traditional movers can’t.
Is it Time to Downsize?
When people hear the word “downsizing,” it’s often taken as moving from a bigger space to a much smaller space. What most people fail to recognize is that downsizing can mean several different things, depending on the segment of society in which you belong. For senior citizens, the word downsizing can also mean “‘rightsizing.”
According to a survey conducted by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, seniors of ages 60 to 69 are joining the recent trend of renting homes instead of staying where they are.
While a majority of senior citizens prefer to age in place, they find to their dismay that their current home cannot support their changing needs, especially when they are living alone with no younger relative to take care of them. Most find it troublesome to climb up and down stairs just to get in bed or to go to a bathroom. Some find narrow doorways to be a hindrance when using a walker. Others simply cannot be left alone, lest they get into accidents like slipping in the shower.
In addition, home maintenance, not to mention utility bills, seem to be a lot more manageable when the home is sized to accommodate one or two seniors.
Why Hire a Senior Move Manager?
After deciding to downsize, it’s highly recommended by move experts to hire a senior move manager for a hassle-free relocation. Though you might have some reservations in letting strangers plan, pack, and organize your personal, greatest treasures, hiring a senior move manager eliminates any worries you might have about asking your adult child, or a close relative or friend to assist you in your impending move.
Furthermore, hiring senior moving services eliminates a number of other risk factors inherent to moving seniors.
Reduces family stress by being customer-centric
While it is truly ideal for parents to be assisted by their own children or a relative during these emotional times, not all seniors may have surviving children. It may be that the ones they do have live far away. Perhaps their children and their children’s wives have careers that preclude any ability for them to move their senior parents or house the senior themselves.
Furthermore, American families are so geographically dispersed that the relationship between parent and child might not be developed enough for the child to offer himself as his parent’s caregiver. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s also the stress of adult children fighting over what they think is best for their aging parents.
Senior move managers are trained to be customer-centric so that everyone is guaranteed that they will only act in the best interests of the senior citizen involved.
Prevents exploitation of senior citizens
Aside from the fact that they can help seniors move without the senior having to lift a finger, a senior move manager will prevent moving companies from exploiting the frailty and vulnerability of senior citizens, particularly those who are sick or just recently suffered a loss that propelled them to move (i.e., death of a spouse). The signed ethics compliance serves as a reminder for all qualified moving companies to remain compassionate in dealing with a heartbroken senior.
Helps in the process of ‘rightsizing’ and relocation
A capable senior move manager will help in the downsizing process by staying with the senior citizen as long as it takes to sort through everything. At times, a senior move manager will also help declutter a senior’s home, even if he or she was not planning to leave the family house any time soon.
While moving can be scary, it helps to enlist some expert guidance and assistance in opening this new chapter in a senior’s life.
Sources:
6 Benefits of Using a Senior Move Manager, APlaceForMom.com
The upside of downsizing: Move managers aid older adults with relocation, ChicagoTribune.com