Moving anywhere requires copious amounts of time and planning, but moving your adult parent into a retirement community is a whole other ordeal. Here are tips for moving into a retirement community with your adult parent.
Use a List
Moving involves coordinating dozens of tasks and tying up loose ends. Transferring utilities, packing up belonging, arranging transportation—all these tasks and more pile up if you’re not careful. Don’t let these duties overwhelm you. Take all your jumbled thoughts and frustrated feelings and make a list. Writing down your ideas and responsibilities will keep your move organized and help everything go smoothly.
When you move your adult parent into an assisted living facility, they’ll need all the help you can give. Make sure you draft a moving list they can reference at any time. This way, you can all work and make decisions together.
Sort, Declutter, and Donate
One of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of a move is organizing all of one’s belongings into boxes for storage and transport. To tackle this, you should sort, declutter, and donate items far before the moving date arrives. Start working through your parent’s home and sort out clothes, décor, tools, food, and more. Declutter the home as much as possible and donate any items your parent doesn’t wish to keep.
Organize the Move In Advance
It’s easy to let moving day sneak up on you. Avoid this tendency to procrastinate and schedule all your services well in advance. If you plan to use a full-service moving company, you should work with them to arrange all packing, shipping, and unloading plans, so everything is in place for the move.
Remember these tips for moving into a retirement community as you make all the arrangements. If you still have a hard time communicating with your parent about moving, help them get the ball rolling by planning a few steps ahead. Sometimes, the best way to support your adult parent is with a gentle push in the right direction.