Downsizing can be a challenging, stressful and emotional time. Whether you are moving to a new home or trying to figure out how to stay in your own home longer and more safely, it often means letting go of a lifetime of possessions that are attached to the memories you’ve built in your home.
Helping people go through the homes where they’ve raised children, built lives and memories, requires more than just knowing how to best pack the good dishes. It requires listening skills, empathy, patience and creativity that a life change like this needs.
As a partner throughout the process, I work with people who are downsizing or looking to age-in-place (stay in their home) in order to help them through all aspects of the preparation process, including:
- Setting up an overall process and schedule and figuring out where to start
- Identifying vendors to help with packing, moving, temporary or long-term storage, etc.
- Helping make decisions, considering the alternatives for what to keep, what will work in the new home, what might not
- Identifying places for where items will go, once you part with them, with all sorts of potential destination
- Thinking through furniture placement in your new home — what furniture will work? What’s the best layout, and how do your current belongings work with that?
- Organizing important paperwork: A lifetime of paperwork in your filing cabinet? What needs to go with you, and what can you recycle or shred?
- Reviewing all medicines and medical supplies, ensuring clear labeling easy access, safe discarding of expired or unneeded prescriptions, help transferring prescriptions, etc.
- Organizing photos and memorabilia, potentially digitizing, preserving and sharing
- Identifying space-saving products to help make the most of a smaller space
- Identifying easy to use systems and products to help to make living at home easier and safer, making the spaces in the home more accessible
- Changing addresses and updating contact information
Contact me today to learn more about how I can help you or a loved one with this very important phase in life.