Ray Fabik headshot
Ray Fabik

A recent study identified the most stressful life event as moving — exceeding divorce and getting married. And for older adults preparing to relocate into senior living, and their families, that stress can be tenfold.

When it’s time for an elderly parent to relocate to a senior living community, most adult children consider finding the ideal facility as the No. 1 priority, but the work doesn’t stop there. How do you ensure the olde adult can move from a 4,000-square-foot house to an 800-square-foot senior living apartment while still making it feel like a home? How do you ensure that the moving and downsizing process doesn’t result in unmanageable stress and frustration for the senior? That is where companies such as Caring Transitions come in, working with senior living communities to help facilitate easier and more fulfilling moves.

Although there is no shortage of brands offering medical care and home-improvement services for older adults, very few businesses specifically are equipped to help them move by handling everything from downsizing, relocation, decluttering and estate sales to even emotional support. Caring Transitions, for example, is a nationwide franchise that helps seniors relocate by spending time at their homes, helping them pack and organize their belongings, then moving those belongings to the new home and setting them up in a way that feels comfortable and familiar.

Overall, adult children and their parents often have different priorities when it comes to their relocating to a senior living community. The family wants to move the parent somewhere safer, get rid of unnecessary clutter and perhaps sell some of those items at an estate sale. Older adult, on the other hand, are more concerned about being moved away from the homes they’ve been in for 50 years and are not interested in losing or selling all of the belongings that are near and dear to their heart.

Unlike traditional movers, senior relocation companies aim to consider those feelings by having ongoing conversations with the future senior living resident. In this regard, patience is key. For example, you may want to get through the move as fast as possible, but if older adults wants to tell you stories about every item they are getting rid of — if that is their process — then it will require some extra time.

Then, it is about helping the older adults pick out their must-have items and making sure their new homes are set up in a familiar way. If the senior always had a favorite painting in the doorway of the house, for example, then it is important to make sure it is the same at the senior living community, even if the space is smaller. There is always room for those key sentimental items.

When it comes to those items that aren’t kept, older adults often don’t want to just throw them away. They want to pass those unique treasures on to someone else. For this reason, Caring Transitions arranges and hosts an in-person or online estate sale through its proprietary platform, CTBIDS. The online auction site has more than 500,000 registered users and more than 30 million monthly views; 96% of all listed items on the platform are sold. This isn’t eBay or Craigslist. Those items have a story — for instance, an antique kitchen table that has 50 years of memories and is ready for 50 more with a new family.

With the idea of moving more daunting than ever for older adults today, relocation companies can be an incredibly valuable partner for senior living communities looking to create the best experience for their incoming or outgoing residents. I know that at Caring Transitions, the team works closely with senior living communities across the country to cultivate a strong partnership between two providers who are, first and foremost, looking to take care of the older adult. Those communities want to ensure that the older adult is moved in as fast, efficiently and pleasantly as possible, and relocation companies are there to make that happen.

Ray Fabik is president of Caring Transitions. With the idea of moving being more daunting than ever for today’s older adults, relocation companies such as Caring Transitions can handle everything, including downsizing, relocation, decluttering, estate sales and even emotional support.

The opinions expressed in each McKnight’s Senior Living marketplace column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Senior Living.

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