Senior Move Assistance Can Help Take The Stress Out of Moving

By Rebecca Roe

Moving to a new home can be a truly stressful experience for many people, but there are businesses out there these days that work hard to help insure things go as smoothly as possible.

Robin Hall is owner of Senior Move Assistance, LLC, a company based in Kalamazoo that services southwestern Michigan and portions of mid-Michigan. When it comes to moving she said that many people don’t even know where to start. "So we’ll come in and we will help them figure out how to do that, to get things going as well as do a major portion of it for them," she explained. "We pack and arrange for the movers. We’ll do address and utility change notifications for them. If they need assistance filling out paperwork we can do that also."

Senior Move Assistance coordinates moves for seniors 55 and above, Hall noted. "So if you are a busy professional or a retired senior and you are looking to right-size or downsize, which most of them are doing, we will coordinate everything that has to do with the move," she said. That includes space planning, timetable planning and even help with organization and downsizing. "Hopefully we can assist you in letting go of maybe the millions of things you’ve accumulated over the years," Hall commented. "It’s not always easy for some people to do that because that’s their life and they just need to carry around those things with them," she added. "In most situations we hope to at least downsize them enough to get them into their new place," Hall remarked. So we will work with them. We’ll have the space planning of the new place. We will assess what they have and say, ‘Well this is what we have got room for,’ and in many situations that works for us, she said.

Once a person has been moved, Hall said they then do a major portion of the unpacking at the new home for the individual. "And a lot of that has to do with how much stuff they have, how much they are willing to deal with at a time," she noted.

Using a professional moving service is a very good way for a senior to not be so overwhelmed with the move, Hall said. "Because moving is one of the main seven or ten stress ‘overwhelmed’ factors in one’s life, along with divorce, death, losing a job, things along those lines," she said. "It doesn’t matter how old you are, moving is stressful, even for children."

Even after a move has been completed Hall said she would like people to think of them as a resource. She explained that they are more than willing to give recommendations for things like where to buy new furniture and can even offer help with finding someone to take a senior to make the purchase.

Moving can be a major upheaval at any age, but there are ways to help take the sting out of the experience. For some seniors, using a professional, reputable moving assistance company has been the answer.

-From the Senior Times, September 2008, Page 15