Florida moving companies were recently contacted and asked to talk about the special needs of moving senior citizens. Some Florida movers talked mostly about downsizing belongings, while other moving companies, FL and Tampa especially, talked about getting seniors past the idea that they have to keep everything they have ever owned. While there is a lot of psychology involved, if you are willing to help someone move, then you can suggestion some helpful strategies to them along the way.
One of the most common themes while talking to the employees from a popular Florida moving company was the fact that senior citizens often have a lot of memorabilia which they have collected over their long lives. Some of this memorabilia is important to be passed down through the family, while some of it is much more suited to be donated to charity or sold at a yard sale. While this fact is easy for Florida movers and everyone else to see, doing something about it can often be another story altogether.
If you would like to help your elderly friends or relatives reduce the amount of their belongings, one of the first steps is asking which items they want to pass down to other friends and relatives. Some items they may wish to do that with right away, while others they prefer to wait until they have passed on. Try to facilitate moving any items to a new home as possible, without being pushy. For items which will be making the move, pack those well in boxes you have gathered from your local stores or your Florida moving company.
The next biggest issue for many senior citizen Floridians, is that they often have a ton of old paperwork, books and photos lying around in boxes, bookcases and filing cabinets. Helping them to go through all of these items, report Florida movers, can really help with the amount of weight they will be ultimately paying to move.
Start with the paperwork, and let your elderly friends or relatives know that they should be keeping their tax records, both state and federal, for seven years. In addition to the tax records, they should keep only a few months worth of past bills. As bills come in each month, they should be checked for accuracy, filed in folders or a filing cabinet, and then when they are about six months old they should be shredded. Help to shred old documents and you can make a ton of free packing material in the process!
Books are often a very heavy addition to the moving process, Florida moving company representatives reported. One of the best things to do about books is to go through them for the absolute “must have” titles, and then donate the rest to the local library for their annual fund raising sale.
As you are going through the packing and purging process, you will find that seniors often have stashes of photos in various places. Make a special place to store all photos and take the time out to place any photo found in this box, or boxes depending on how many you find. These photos can be processed later into scrapbooks, photo books, or given to relatives.
Florida movers really understand the special needs of moving senior citizens, and I hope you take their suggestions when you are helping to move an elderly friend or relative into their new home.