Organizing For Seniors - Moving Your Parents

I've had a lot of people call to tell me that they need help in clearing out and organizing their parents home due to a move to an assisted living or nursing home. It's a sad and stressful time for them.

Clearing out your own home is much easier because everything is yours and you can make the decisions. Helping your parents or other relatives clear out their home is much harder because you are making decisions for someone else and there are a lot of emotions involved. If you make the wrong decision about what to get rid of the person can harbor resentment. If you throw things out without asking you are opening yourself up to a lot of anger and rage. You might think that you are helping by "getting rid of the junk" ...but you are not.

It's complicated. It's emotional. It's exhausting.

If you have to put your parents or other relatives into an assisted living or nursing home there usually are not a lot of things they can take with them. What do you do with the rest of the stuff?

How do you make the decisions on what they should take?

During this time period you are usually also going through a lot of complicated paperwork and a lot of decisions about their care. Organizing for their move could be made easier by using an outsider (such as a Professional Organizer) that has experience in dealing with seniors and downsizing. They are a non-judgemental third party that can get the job done without all of the emotions that a relative has.

In some assisted living facilities there are people that can also help the seniors with coordinating the move and making decisions on what will fit into their new space.

It's a tough time in a persons life. The child has to acknowledge that their childhood home might be no more .... and the parent is forced to let go of a lot of things they have collected over the years. Not an easy thing to do.

As your parents age and while they still have their memory it is a good idea to encourage them to start the process on their own. Encourage them to give away some of the things that they would leave to people. By doing it while they are still alive they get the pleasure of seeing the people enjoy their gift.

Downsizing is a long and emotional process. Encourage your parents to think about it years before they even think about moving. By doing it on their own time it will be a lot easier.




Organizational Consulting Services

www.organizationalconsultingservices.com