Last week I took a call from a customer moving her mother into a nursing home thanking us for our help. I realized that many of the stresses of moving are amplified when taking care of someone else. With a laundry list of things to do when taking care of a loved one, some choices must take priority over other. The logistics can be overwhelming not to mention the emotional stresses, but there are some tips to “decompress” the process and make the best of it for everyone.
- First, acknowledge your role and how it’s different from your loved one’s. Their feelings are not that different than a child who is forced to move with a job transfer or family change. They feel no control and wonder why they have to leave their friends and home. You can alleviate some of their anxiety by involving them as much as possible in the decision making -- a guided or limited choice can be much easier to swallow than having no choice at all and with some luck, you won’t feel as if you forcing this on the unwilling.
- Planning ahead goes a long way to avoiding headaches. There are a lot of arrangements to make from finding a suitable nursing home, arranging financial, insurance and health records, establishing a power of attorney to all the logistics of moving, most of which can (and should) be done well ahead of moving day.
- You can also delay some of these decisions with storage units. Portable storage has made the process easier than ever as units can be delivered right to the home. You have as much time as you need to load and unload them on-site and can be used for a combination of storage and moving. They can also be used to stage the move as everything is available on-site until you figure out the best mix of furniture and personal belongings in your loved one's new home. It can also be helpful passing along antique and heirloom pieces to loved ones as they are safe and secure until people can arrange for their delivery.
This is how we helped this particular customer. She loaded her mother's valuables into four of our units and we delivered them to her new home. They took two weeks with our untis on-site to arrange and rearrange her mother's new apartment so that I was comfortable and familiar as possible and then she left two containers full so that she can sort through what to keep and what to do with her mother's valuables when things settle down and she has more time.
Lastly, it’s helpful to remember that, ultimately, everyone involved wants the same thing: a comfortable and safe home to enjoy the rest of their lives in. The customer was very relieved to have everything settle and I was happy to help and hear about a happy ending!
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