FREE NEWSLETTER
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.
Want to receive our weekly newsletter? Sign up now. How about our daily alert about the site's latest posts? Join the list.
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.
Michael, that was my first reaction, too, but then I remembered all the money I hadn’t been spending on travel. I’m so glad I went with the magic wand!
Thanksfor the great article Kathy, I was not aware of “senior movers”. We did two major renovations, in 2009 and 2015, at our PA home, each requiring us topic up and clear out an entire floor. We made conscious decisions to not move everything back each time. We also had a new roof in 2019 which forced us to clean out the attic. The upshot was we were in much better shape to move to the beach in 2021 than we might have been. We also moved to a much smaller home, that was already furnished, so we did have to get rid of lots of stuff. We gave most of the best furniture to relatives, and it is pleasing to see it being used in a loved one’s home.
We have much less closet space here, so many old clothes items were donated.
Books were a challenge. I had boxes of engineering, math, finance, and science textbooks, as well as others. We have very little room for books, here, so they had to go. It’s sad that there is very little market for used (I had 5) Thermodynamic textbooks. I ended up keeping abut a dozen of my favorites engineering and finance books.
the biggest challenge in 2021 was my garage. I had decades of hand tools, power tools, molding, flooring, and goodness knows what else. Habitat for Humanity’s Restore took a lot of the useful stuff. I also sold a bunch of tools to the incoming young couple.
We are still contemplating our next move, but we will be in better shape when the time comes.
I have read more books since retiring in 2019 than I did my entire previous adulthood. I like to hold a physical book, and am a slow reader so I purchase physical books rather than checking them out of the library (thus I have given way more to them than I have checked out). I mostly purchase high quality used books online or from the library biannual book sale. Once read I feel there is more value in giving most of them away so others can read rather than collecting dust on a bookshelves. I have found the local high school willing to take history books, and the local library the rest. Not sure if they keep them or sell them at the next book sale.
When we moved from our long-time home in 2019 and we were downsizing, I was struck by all the decisions that were different from what they would have been 20 years earlier. DVDs and CDs? We can stream movies and music. Photos? I went through albums and several boxes of loose photos and pared down substantially. Remember when you could get double prints for free? I had a lot of those. Next step is to digitize them.
We kept some books, but for ones that weren’t somehow special to us, I would say to myself “If I ever want to read this book again, there’s always Kindle.”
In our old house, we had a small den with built-in bookcases and cabinets, where the DVDs, CDs, photo albums, and board games lived. We basically got rid of that entire room’s worth of stuff, or about 90% of it, when we moved.
The next challenge will be what to do with the books in my campus office when I retire in a couple of years. I think I’ll keep one copy each of my own books and everything else will get offered to colleagues and students.
It’s sad that it’s so hard to find a new home for books these days. Almost all the used book stores in my area have closed, or at least gone on-line. The library doesn’t seem too keen on donations, either. The famous Powell’s in Portland is still buying books, provided you’re willing to box and ship them.
I could use your magic wand when you’re done. I’m going to be going through that stage for the next several months.
Purge items before you move to save money.
Facebook Marketplace and other selling apps are wonderful tools for garnering money for castoffs. (Much better than garage sales, although they have their place for smaller dollar items!)
I’ve been steadily selling things for years, starting with Legos, extra furniture, tools, bicycles, books, etc. No way an estate company is taking half of our sales prices!
Libraries often resell books to raise operating funds. Also consider your local Facebook BUY NOTHING Group for donating items. It’s a way to help someone AND keep items out of a landfill.
Good luck! There should be one or more in your area too.
Kathy…a little self indulgence can be practical and pleasurable, freeing you to be more productive in other ways. It sounds like all your plans are turning well and to your satisfaction.Good for you.
Thanks. I still have my fingers crossed over the move date….
I hear you Kathy. The fear of moving all the stuff kept me from downsizing five years longer than desirable. Even the thought of doing that again sends chills up my spine.
We made endless trips to a local thrift store giving stuff away which one way or another we were able to do.
We actually moved very little and bought mostly new furniture.
Hope you are all settled now.
I get to do it all again in October when I move to the CCRC. I will for sure be using the same company, and this time I need to do a little upsizing instead of downsizing. I’ll be interested to see what’s in all the boxes in the second bedroom closet!
The only time we moved from one house to another my wife was in the hospital having our fourth child and I handled the move. I did such a good job I moved the bags of garbage too. 😃
Good article with some useful information. Sounds like you did your homework and made some smart choices with how to make the move. In the past I’ve tended to do a lot of chores myself, but these days I’ve resigned myself to paying to get things done that I would’ve done in the past. The new challenge is trying to get both a fair price and a good job done. Sounds like you figured that out pretty well with your move.
Thanks. I had helped friends move to a CCRC a few years earlier and I didn’t think I was up to all that physical work.