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ONE REASON I WAITED so long to sell my house was my extreme reluctance to move all my belongings. I didn’t want to deal with the hassles involved—because I’d gone through that less than a decade earlier.
In 2013, I had the house renovated. I replaced almost all the flooring, with hardwood downstairs, carpet upstairs and tile in the bathrooms. I also updated the kitchen cabinets. That meant, of course, that every single thing in the house had to be moved. I got rid of a few boxes of books. But otherwise, I still had the same amount of stuff in 2022 that I had in 2013.
Meanwhile, in 2019, I put down a deposit on a one-bedroom apartment at a local continuing care retirement community, or CCRC. In 2020, I was able to switch to a two-bedroom apartment in a new building, with completion scheduled for some time in 2023. I was finally going to have to move—and to downsize.
Fortunately, there wouldn’t be too much downsizing involved. I would move from a 1,520-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house to a 1,660-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with den at the CCRC. I could keep my main bedroom, study and living room unchanged.
The upshot: All I’d need to do is donate the furniture in my home’s spare bedroom, the dining table and chairs, and the dinette set in the kitchen. For the apartment, I’d buy a new dining set and put it in the den.
With an eye to simplifying the move to the CCRC, I decided to sell my house in 2022 and move temporarily to an apartment, while I waited for the CCRC apartment to be ready. There was a fairly new complex near my house, with elevators and a parking garage, where I could rent a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, although it was only 1,150-square feet. I would buy counter stools for the kitchen island and do without dining-room furniture for a while.
But there was still plenty of stuff that would have to be packed and moved. I wanted a magic wand that I could point at the furniture, the books and all the other stuff, and have it disappear into a moving truck and then magically reappear at the apartment, unpacked and in the right places.
A pipe dream? Happily, no. I forget where I learned about the existence of “senior movers”—maybe it was a class at the local senior center—but they’re the closest I could find to a magic wand. To be sure, it’s an expensive magic wand, but pretty close to my fantasy. While I call them senior movers, they may also be called transition specialists or relocation specialists. They don’t move your furniture, but rather make all the necessary arrangements. There are both national and local companies, and some may belong to national organizations, such as NASMM, short for National Association of Senior & Specialty Move Managers. Besides working with people like me, some companies will also handle estates.
I got estimates from three local companies, two recommended by my future CCRC and one used by residents at a friend’s CCRC. One charged by the work segment and two by the hour. Although it was a little more expensive, I chose the former. The company gave me an estimate for the first move to the apartment and the second to the CCRC, and I paid a deposit for both moves.
Ahead of the move, I became a regular donor of smaller items at a local charity shop. Meanwhile, the company handled arrangements for furniture donations and the “trash,” which the town would pick up from the curb for a reasonable fee. The company also took hazardous and electronic items to the dump for an additional charge.
We had a few disagreements over the placement of furniture in the temporary apartment. I didn’t feel I needed a full 36-inch clearance at the foot of the bed, and I was sure all my bookcases would fit in the second bedroom, which they did, but otherwise the planning went smoothly. The company also made arrangements with the actual movers, who I then paid separately.
Ahead of the move, people from the company packed everything, except items I would need for the night. The day of the move, I went over to the apartment complex with them to get extra keys and arrange to open the double doors near the elevator. Then, as instructed, I left them to it.
When I returned, they had nearly finished. Things I could do without until the second move stayed packed, though I did have them unpack the books, which I figured would take up more room in boxes than on the shelves. I did wind up moving some things around, but I didn’t have to.
My senior movers were certainly an uncharacteristic extravagance. But as I hadn’t traveled since 2018, I figured I could afford them. After they left, and I sat down in my tidy new apartment with a cup of coffee, having barely lifted a finger all day, I decided they were worth every penny.
Kathy Wilhelm, who comments on HumbleDollar as mytimetotravel, is a former software engineer. She took early retirement so she could travel extensively. Some of Kathy’s trips are chronicled on her blog. Born and educated in England, she has lived in North Carolina since 1975. Check out Kathy’s previous articles.
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This is fantastic. I had no idea this was a thing. Great info that we can use to help my in-laws, who are in the process of moving from their home of over 50 years to a much smaller unit in a retirement community. This will also help my husband, who’s the executor and trustee of their estate, when the time comes.
Glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know. The CCRC I’m moving to definitely knows it’s a thing, so the community your in-laws are moving to may have a recommendation. If not, NASMM would be a good place to start.
Glad this worked out for you Kathy. When my mother moved into a community last year, she used a similar service. Here first reaction to the quote was that it was expensive, and to think about the minimum she would have them do after doing other things herself. In the end, she thankfully saw the benefit of letting them do most of the work, and was very happy she did.