W<\/span>hen his beloved 90-year-old cousin, Sidney, needed to move from her New Jersey home into a nearby independent living community last spring, Paul Mesard was faced with a dilemma. Mesard, 62, lives in Denver. And taking off enough time to pack up a house that Sidney had lived in for 35 years and relocate her seemed almost impossible.<\/p>\n But Mesard came across a solution: Hire a senior move manager, a professional who specializes in helping older adults move from their longtime homes to resettle elsewhere. A move manager and her team guided Sidney through every room, closet, and drawer. They quizzed her gently on what to keep or give away. And after the move, they unpacked and set up her new apartment. The entire process took just two days.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were really focused, so it wasn\u2019t a trip down memory lane,\u201d Mesard says. \u201cYou\u2019re paying them by the hour, so it\u2019s just about business.\u201d<\/p>\n Seniors moving for the first time in decades can be overwhelmed by the task of emptying out an attic or basement full of boxes. And even younger baby boomers may have recent knee or hip replacements that make moving difficult. Some seniors also face a major living transition, often into a smaller apartment in a care facility or to an adult child\u2019s house in another part of the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you do have to move because it\u2019s not safe, or affordable, or feasible for you to stay where you are,\u201d says Tracy Greene Mintz, a social worker and long-term care consultant in Redondo Beach, California. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not hard and it\u2019s not sad.\u201d<\/p>\n Senior move managers, some of whom may have social work backgrounds or special training, address these emotional minefields. Some serve as neutral third parties and divvy up family possessions. Others acknowledge the pain of saying goodbye to treasured items. Clients always have final say, but some managers find ways to help ease the transition. One manager painstakingly photographed and recreated the display of a collection of glass figure miniatures for a cabinet in a client\u2019s new apartment, says Susan Devaney, president of The Mavins Group, a move-management company in Westfield, New Jersey.<\/p>\n Move managers usually charge hourly rates between $55 and $100, depending on the type of service. Managers pack boxes or organize an entire home; tag items for family, charity, or the new residence; and keep out-of-town adult children in the loop by video chatting as they work. A typical move, which includes planning and consultation, takes three to five weeks, Devaney says. Managers can work on short notice, too.<\/p>\n Managers review the floor plan for a new apartment and help decide where the old furniture will fit. And they can recommend vetted moving companies and firms that might buy unwanted items. The cost to hire a manager to move a senior from a house to a two-bedroom independent living apartment may range from $2,500 to $5,000, which doesn\u2019t include moving company costs, Devaney says. Find an accredited senior move manager through the National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM), the industry\u2019s professional association, at NASMM.org.<\/a><\/p>\n Vera Lasser, 79, decided to hire a senior move manager when she and her husband, Norman, 84, needed help to move from their New Jersey home of almost 49 years to a continuing care community in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe house was an absolute mess,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had collected so many papers and so much junk over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n Devaney\u2019s firm encouraged them to let go of some things and to make a memory box to save meaningful items. The couple had wanted to keep a large baker\u2019s rack they loved. But the move managers helped them realize that it wouldn\u2019t fit in their new, smaller space. Having help as she sorted and made decisions, Vera says, was comforting during a stressful time.<\/p>\n What is a move manager?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2019","category-winter-2019-columns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8545"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8787,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions\/8787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Hiring Help to Ease the Transition<\/h4>\n
Reprinted with permission from Kiplinger\u2019s Retirement Report.<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"