Business offers help with the entire moving process

By Jennifer Wezensky

Kalamazoo—Barbara Rank, 73, of Kalamazoo, was getting ready to move in with her daughter, but she needed a little help.

Enter Senior Move Assistance, a small Kalamazoo company dedicated to helping senior citizens with the moving process from beginning to end.

"We help them downsize if they’re going to a smaller space," said Senior Move Assistance owner Robin Hall. "We help lift and move things, donate items to Goodwill, the library and the mission."

As Rank prepared to move, Hall helped her analyze what she needed.

"I was an artist with a lot of supplies," Rank said. "But you start realizing that your possessions are your burdens."

Launched in February 2007, Hall’s business has been steadily building a client base among an age group that may find moving to be even more challenging.

"It’s been very good to have somebody I can rely upon to help me since I’m not as mobile as I used to be," Rank said.

Senior Move Assistance also helps to unpack and deal with paperwork and details like arranging for utilities.

"We’ll do everything from address changes to putting food in the fridge and pictures on the wall," Hall said.

Hall said she targeted seniors because they are such a growing population.

"Most older adults making a transition have not moved in 30, 40, or 50 years and need to downsize considerably," Hall said. "The organizational and physical tasks associated with planning and implementing such a move can be overwhelming."

Brenda Terburg-Fawley, a longtime friend of Hall’s who has used her services, said Senior Move Assistance provides a valuable service for the elderly who have children who live out of town, or for one reason or another cannot help their parents move.

"You have a lot of elderly people who physically can’t do things like organize their lives and move," she said.

"The process can just be mentally and emotionally exhausting for the seniors", she said.

"To just help them put photographs in albums is very helpful," Terburg-Fawley said. "She can organize the little details and things you don't think about. She'll put together garage sales and organize the things they do want to keep. She's kind of like a party planner in a different way."  

-From the Kalamazoo Gazette Generations, May 31, 2008; Page 8