Moving from a Beloved Family Home
When John and Janet decided it was time to sell their Upper Arlington home of more than 40 years and move into a retirement community, they reached out to M+M Transitions for help. With all four of their adult children living on the west coast, they were looking for a caring local solution.
We divided their project into three elements, the first consisting of setting up the new two-bedroom apartment. To accomplish this, we worked with John and Janet to: (1) determine what furniture, artwork and decor they would like to take with them, (2) create a detailed floor plan to make sure everything fit, and (3) purchase items for the new space as well as repurpose existing furniture for their new home.
The second element involved the actual move to the retirement community and the final customization of John and Janet’s new living space. In addition to doing all the packing and setting up the apartment, we installed extra wall shelving in the hall bathroom and assembled rolling racks to optimize their storage unit.
“When we moved from our five-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment, it seemed like an impossibly difficult task. M+M Transitions helped make our decisions about what to take painless because all I had to do was say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” according to Janet. “Every room (in our new apartment) is so beautiful. M+M have a great sense of design.”
The third and final element focused on clearing out the contents and preparing their five-bedroom, four full-bath, home for sale. Throughout the project, we communicated regularly with John and Janet’s children via phone, text and e-mail to facilitate the process and to reassure them about the project. Ultimately, John and Janet found themselves happily downsized and ready to enjoy their new community.
““M+M personify kindness and organization in a ‘dream team’ for helping families downsize, and particularly with their innate understanding of the potential difficulties for senior parents to move from a beloved family home to an apartment setting. By initially organizing the new apartment with favorite belongings and freshening the décor, the gradual transition of sorting through a lifetime collection of belongings, finding ‘homes’ for furniture, collections, memorabilia, etc., aiding with the sale of certain items, and in some cases, arranging for the shipping of belongings across the country to family members, was tremendously eased by their formidable work ethic. Their efforts were a gift to our parents and to their four children. I cannot thank them enough for their assistance and gentle touch.””