The Gale Force Organizers Podcast

Navigating Senior Moves: From Family Home to New Beginnings

• Tami Gale • Episode 2

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What’s The Best Way To Manage A Senior Move?

The journey from a spacious family home to a more manageable living situation marks a profound transition for seniors. This heartfelt exploration of senior moves reveals the nuanced approaches needed for two distinct scenarios: the exciting right-sizing that comes with early retirement versus the more significant downsizing required for senior community living.

Professional organizer Tami Gale walks us through practical strategies that transform potentially overwhelming transitions into opportunities for positive change. Rather than approaching these moves with sadness, she encourages viewing them as gateways to exciting new chapters. The episode offers wisdom on making decisions about cherished possessions, starting with spaces holding less emotional attachment, and applying simple organizational methods that make downsizing manageable.

Perhaps most valuable is the discussion around balancing family involvement with professional assistance. While family support matters deeply, the expertise of professionals provides both physical relief and emotional neutrality during decision-making. At approximately $3,000 for comprehensive moving services, this investment delivers immeasurable returns in stress reduction and relationship preservation. Tami emphasizes the importance of listening to seniors' stories about their belongings, ensuring items find meaningful second homes, and approaching the entire process with patience and empathy.

Whether you're planning your own transition or supporting a loved one through this significant life change, this episode delivers compassionate, practical guidance for navigating senior moves with dignity and purpose. Ready to approach your next chapter with confidence? Listen now to discover how organizing expertise can transform a challenging transition into an exciting new beginning.

To learn more about Gale Force Organizers visit:
https://www.GaleForceOrganizers.com
Gale Force Organizers
719-653-5610

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Gale Force Organizers Podcast, where clutter gets conquered and chaos meets its match. Hosted by organizing pro Tammy Gale, helping Colorado Springs families and small businesses bring order and function to their spaces. Organize your space to simplify your life. Let's get started.

Speaker 2:

Moving is never easy, but when it's a senior move, emotions, logistics and special care all come into play. Here's how to manage it with less stress and more support. Welcome back everyone. Millie M, co-host producer, back in the studio with owner of Gale Force Organizers, tammy Gale. How's it going? Great Thanks for having me today. Absolutely, so. Let our listeners know what's the best way to manage a senior move.

Speaker 3:

Well, I really think the first question you have to ask yourself is what is the senior move? And so really I break it into two categories. Oftentimes, a senior move can be those people who are looking to right size at the beginning of retirement. Those folks are looking for something different. They're trying to simplify their life. They're trying to minimize, maybe, their maintenance and really just find a house that's more suitable for how they live. That's one group. The other group are those people who are really looking for that last move, the move into a senior living community, the move that is really designed to make life simpler, safer. Maybe they've got some medical issues, and so they're really trying to develop a sense of community and a place that can take care of all of their needs. So each one has some very different thoughts to plan for, but the reality is they're all major life transitions, they're major moves, and so some of the keys to any successful move work for both groups, but there's some unique characteristics of each one.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about those unique characteristics. What is different from someone who's moving into that facility?

Speaker 3:

Well, if we're going to take that newly retired couple or folks who are just looking to say I'm done with the family house, At that stage you're really making a major life move, maybe taking yourself from 2,500 or more square feet into something more manageable 1,200 to 1,500 square feet in a patio home. And really the key to that is knowing how you're going to live. Is this a place that you plan to do part-time if you're going to travel the other part of the year? Is this a home where you need to have lots of extra bedrooms for the grandkids or it's just this one at a time kind of visiting scenario. And then really we talk about how you're going to spend your time in retirement. So we want to make sure that your house functions for how you live.

Speaker 3:

If you are not hosting large family gatherings and dinner, we want to make sure that your space is used for what you love. Maybe you loved a craft and you needed an extra space to have a craft room, or maybe you've always wanted a home gym. We want to put that in the room instead of another, second or third guest room. So we really talk about how you're going to live your life when you're talking about a senior community. You're really talking about 700 to 900 square feet typically, and that really does change the equation. And there, once again, we want to talk about how you envision living this next chapter of your life. You're going to have more sense of community. You're likely to take your meals in a dining room with others, so your kitchen is going to be much, much smaller. You're going to maybe have a place for snacks and a place to make coffee and maybe a light meal.

Speaker 3:

Your living room isn't going to be a space that you need a couch and three chairs to manage a family it's you and maybe a guest. So you change from a couch to two recliners and an end table In your bedroom. You're really talking about just making the space for you, and that's a very different mindset change. And so once you kind of understand what move you're making and can start to envision yourself in the move, that's really what I think of as the first steps to making the move. Yes, there's logistics and elements after that, but you've got to think about how you're going to live in this next chapter. We want it to be positive, we want it to make sure that you get supported in the things that you know and love and that, most importantly, you look at this as an opportunity instead of something that's sad and melancholy. This is really a chance to take a new lease on a new chapter.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we love new beginnings and, as you said, a lot of the transition is coming from these bigger spaces of 2,500, 3,000, maybe even 5,000 square feet down to something smaller and I was just telling you that Hoarders is one of my favorite shows. So how do we help our beloved seniors make decisions about those sentimental items?

Speaker 3:

We really encourage everybody to be patient. This is one of those times where the efficiencies and the busy lives want to just take over and zip in for a weekend and solve it, and we try to caution against it. This is a time where you have to reflect, evaluate, and so we really try to break it down into very manageable tasks, and the way we do that is to start in the rooms that don't have a lot of sentimental value. If you're not a cook, I'm starting in your kitchen. If you are an avid reader and your second bedroom is full of books, that is not where we're going to start our journey. We're going to start in the places that don't really matter, so that you can start to understand how we make decisions, and how we make decisions really comes down to what we call organization 101.

Speaker 3:

So we come in and encourage you to pick a space whether that's a drawer, a closet or a room and then pull everything out and everything is emphasized.

Speaker 3:

Everything comes out and then we sort like items together and it's the only way you're going to discover that you have 11 spatulas and it's a lot easier to decrease your duplicates when you have like items put together. So that's really how we start the decision-making process when we get to the things that are treasures. We talk about the things that you love and being surrounded by things you love, so we want to create space for that. No, you're not going to be able to take the full set of grandma's china, but maybe you have teacups that are part of the set that you like. Maybe we take some of those big family photos off the wall and put them into albums. We really try to help you be surrounded by the things that matter, and what we have found is sometimes our seniors are just carrying around this stuff because someone else gave it to them too, and so we really give people the license to say it has served you, let's pass it on.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. What are some of the signs that it's time to bring in a professional like yourself?

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, one of the things that I'm always surprised about is people assume that you should just do this on your own, that we all know how to do this. We all know how to move, we all know how to organize, and it's really not necessarily a natural talent we all have have. If you've been in a home for a long time, I would really encourage a third person to come in, a neutral party. Certainly if your family and friends want to help, that's great, but sometimes it takes somebody who isn't connected with you to help you get rid of things. I really think that it's the prime opportunity to hire expertise that you don't have. Hire an organizer, hire movers. One of the keys to a senior move is we're not 25 anymore where we can call up our friends and get beer and pizza and a pickup.

Speaker 3:

Those days have passed us, and so what you might have is family who said, hey, I can give you the weekend, let's try to get it all done. And then we find that none of us really want to move furniture, none of us really want to haul boxes, and for really what is a reasonable amount of money. You can get experts to do that for you, and so you should coordinate a move with a move coordinator. You can coordinate a move with a moving company. There's a lot of local, surprisingly inexpensive, reasonably priced moves.

Speaker 3:

You can make a big move for about $3,000, start to finish, and when you think about it in those terms, if you're getting ready to sell your home and move, this is just an added expense, but it's one that's going to save you physically and emotionally because you've got the expertise you need to help make some of the more difficult things easier. It allows you that sense of peace and calm. Really we try, particularly with seniors moving into a senior community. You're about to start this new chapter of your life. We don't want you exhausted walking through the door. We really want you excited to be there and make that as smooth as possible, and you get an easy move when it's organized, decluttered and packed appropriately, and so sometimes it's worth hiring that expertise $3,000 is not a lot to pay for peace.

Speaker 3:

When you think about. Certainly gone are the days that you could move everything in your car, but the college days are over and now it's worth saying you know what. I'm going to save my body and I'm going to save my emotional energy. For what?

Speaker 2:

matters Absolutely. You keep talking about that emotional aspect of it and, again, these things that are things that have been with us for years Talk to us about how families can handle that emotional stress during a senior move.

Speaker 3:

Probably the first thing is to listen.

Speaker 3:

Oftentimes we haven't heard all the stories we might think we have, and so allow your loved one to tell you the stories of things it matters more and it might start to matter to you and something that didn't have any value to you all of a sudden may have some value.

Speaker 3:

Sometimes it's just listening and hearing it and then saying I really appreciate knowing that let's take a picture of this and save it in a memory and move it on to someone who really can value it. One of the keys to senior moves is people really want to know that their stuff doesn't just. Keys to senior moves is people really want to know that their stuff doesn't just end up in the landfill. They want to know that it has gone to somebody who needs it, and so we work really hard at trying to pick charities where people are transitioning into their first homes or maybe have had a struggle and are getting back on their feet. We really want people to feel like their useful, usable household items that still have life in them actually have a second chance with a new family, and sometimes it just helps to know that. But it really requires us to take a deep breath, slow down and listen.

Speaker 2:

It's something that we're not used to, but something that's so very, very important. It's something that we're not used to, but something that's so very, very important. It's something that could start off as stressful, could turn into a beautiful bonding moment. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And certainly there's some prodding along the way Sometimes. That's why you hire an organizer or a mover, so that someone else is helping grandma move a little faster. You take the stress off you so that the relationships get valued and, more importantly, they're still intact when the move's over Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. Such valuable information for families out there. Thank you, tammy, we'll see you on the next episode. Quite welcome.

Speaker 1:

That's it for today's episode of gale force organizers podcast. Ready to bring calm to your chaos, call 719-653-5610 or visit galeforceorganizerscom. Organize your space to simplify your life. Until next time, stay tidy and let it go if it's gotta go.