What is a Senior
Move Manager?
Debby was a tremendous help to us when we had to move our mother into a nursing home. We don’t know what we would have done without her organization and motivation to go through the entire house and remove everything we didn’t need. She made it easy to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.
She gave us great tips as to how to sell, gift and donate the items. She made several trips to the antique dealers, value village, consignment stores and even the dump to recycle our unwanted items.
Debby at Allies in Downsizing is cheerful, caring, thoughtful and sensitive to our feelings and the emotion it took to move our mother just after the passing of our father.
She is focused & thorough and we were very happy with her results. It is our pleasure to recommend Debby to anyone else looking to downsize and move their parents.
- Jeff & Lynne
What is a Senior Move Manager?
Senior Move Managers (SMMs) Professionals, help seniors downsize and relocate during one of the most stressful periods of their lives: when they either decide to move or are forced to move because they need a safer living environment. It could be that the senior just needs a smaller, easier-to-manage home. Or they may have reached the stage where it's no longer safe to live alone or care for themselves without help. Part sympathetic ear, part pragmatic organizer, SMMs streamline the entire process from sorting possessions into piles for donations, gifting, recycling, selling or garbage, strategic removal, analyzing the floor plan of a new residence, organizing the move, to unpacking boxes and setting the clock radio.
Why are Senior Move Manager Professionals & this industry becoming so popular?
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Given continuing increases in life expectancy and remaining years of expected life at age 65, seniors will become an even larger proportion of the population over the next 40 years. For example, while today's seniors represent 14% of the total population, it is estimated they will make up more than one-quarter (27%) of the population by the year 2050.
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Highlights from the Canadian census:
> The number of Canadians aged 65 and older increased more than 14% between 2006 and 2011 and is now close to 5 million
> For the first time there were more people in the age group where people typically leave the labour force (55 to 64) than in the age group where people typically enter it (15 to 24)
> 9.6 million people were baby boomers, those aged 46 to 65
Why hire a Senior Move Manager Professional?
Some seniors don’t have children or their children live too far away, have fulltime jobs or are too weighed down with their own obligations. If they are a part of the “sandwich generation” (Sandwich Generation - The generation of middle-aged individuals who are pressured to support both aging parents and growing children), they may be too tapped out by the obligations of their own kids and spouse to provide the hands-on help needed for these transitions.
Families think they can do this in a weekend. However, they find out very quickly that’s not going to be the case. Helping their Parents or Grandparents through the complicated process of choosing which possessions to keep, disposing of which ones they’re willing to part with, where & how to dispose of them and helping with the actual moving and settling-in process, this can be very emotional and taxing on any family.
That’s where Senior Move Managers come in. Part sympathetic listener, part pragmatic packer, SMMs assist older adults in all aspects of downsizing and relocation. SMMs step in to handle those tasks. Before hiring a SMMs, seniors or their families should check that the Manager has business liability insurance and previous experience.
You are in luck…Allies in Downsizing has both!