![]() As you go through each item, identify items to keep, donate or sell. The first step is decluttering your home. To break this down, follow these simple steps: Streamline Your Belongings The first part of the moving process will be choosing what items will go to your new assisted living apartment. This easy-to-follow moving to assisted living checklist will help you navigate each step of the way so you can stay organized and stress-free. The good news is you can break this process into small tasks so you can stay motivated as you move into your new community. Whether you’re preparing for the move yourself or helping a loved one, the best way to ensure a seamless transition is to plan ahead so you can be confident and ready for moving day. “That will be the reward at the end of the road.Making the move to assisted living is a major life change. "The sensation of freedom is quite powerful,” Mischoulon says. Though downsizing can bring painful memories to the surface, finishing the task brings its own satisfaction. People find money in “all kinds of nooks and crannies” when they sort their possessions, she says. “You don't want to have any regrets,” she says. Start with the least emotional area of your home first. “The kitchen can be a well of emotions,” Buysse says.“They don't have the same sentimental attachment,” and can help you stay focused on the task rather than just the memories and your feelings. “They're more objective,” says Mischoulon. While sorting, enlist help from a family member, trusted friend or professional.Focus on what you'll gain rather than what you're losing. For example, if you sell your home, and move to an active lifestyle community with an indoor and outdoor pool, pickleball courts, and an art studio, become involved in new activities and interests rather than dwelling on the past.“Identify it and understand it.” That “detoxifies” the feeling, he says. While downsizing, that unresolved conflict can resurface. ![]() Maybe when you were a child your family was constantly moving, and you lost friendships in the process. The feelings that surface could be some unresolved conflict from your past, he says. “Talk to a friend or if that doesn't work, speak to a counselor,” Small says. Recognize your feelings, whatever they are.Guidelines for a Smoother Transition to a Smaller Home The ‘choice’ piece is an important part of the success” of a move. “At 88, there's less of a choice,” she says. In your 60s, “there is still a lot of life left,” says gerontologist Mary Kay Buysse, executive director of the National Association of Senior Move Managers, a membership organization that helps manage transition trauma and the downsizing and relocation process. For example, if you “think of downsizing as a new adventure,” Small says, you are more likely to enjoy it.īeing part of the process is the key to a good outcome.ĭownsizing tends to be more successful when the downsizers are making a conscious decision about how they want to live their lives. There are ways to think about the process that can make it easier, even exciting. If the move is a good one, the transition and feelings that go with it will be faster, Mischoulon says. We don't need as much space there's an empty nest.”Ĭhanging direction can create unease or feelings of sadness, grief, even anxiety. “When we're downsizing we're going in the opposite direction. “For a large part of our life we're building, creating, amassing,” Small says. Finding a livelihood, finding a mate and having a family are among them. Small, founding director of the University of California at Los Angeles Memory Clinic and director of the UCLA Center on Aging. "There are certain developmental milestones as we go through life,” says psychiatrist Gary W. Though downsizing is not an area that's been formally studied, it is a life transition. Just finding old cards or letters can trigger memories that overwhelm, experts say. "Items can be sentimental or there can be some other important meaning to them,” says David Mischoulon, director of the Depression Clinical Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Downsizing and dismantling a home filled with possessions from the past 20 or 30 years can be emotionally difficult, experts say. And among retirees that made a recent move, 51 percent downsized, according to a Merrill Lynch study. In fact, almost 4 in 10 retirees have moved, according to a 2018 Transamerica Center for Retirement Research report. Wherever you go - across the country or across town - retirees, or those headed toward retirement, will not be alone in seeking change. ![]() En español | The nest is empty, the mortgage is paid off and you're thinking of moving to a smaller home.
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