Downsizing and moving
Everything between deciding to move and moving day.
Most families underestimate this part badly. A full home is usually four to eight weeks of sorting done properly, not a weekend, and it involves more different trades than anyone expects.
Here is the whole of it, in the order it actually happens, so you can see the shape of the job before you start. You will not need to arrange most of it yourself.
Before any of it
Working out what you are actually solving
- A conversation about what matters to you, the people, the places and the things, before anyone suggests what should go
- An honest look at the current home and where it is falling short, whether that is stairs, upkeep, cost or being alone in it
- What the right size actually looks like for this stage and the next one, not just the next twelve months
- The options, including the ones that are not a move at all
Sometimes the answer is a stair lift, a snow contract and a handyman on retainer. If that is the answer we will say so, and it will have cost you nothing to find out.
Before anything leaves the house
Sorting, and finding what matters
- A room by room sort, at whatever pace suits the person whose home it is
- Paperwork first: deeds, policies, share certificates, tax records, and the cash that turns up in envelopes and tins
- Appraisal of anything that might have real value, jewellery, art, coins, silver, before a single box goes to a charity shop
- Photographs, letters and home movies scanned, so the memories survive without the boxes
- Secure document shredding for everything that should not simply go in the recycling
- Anything being kept set aside and labelled, so it does not get swept up with the rest
- Sentimental pieces packed and shipped to family, wherever in the world they are
The mistake is starting with the photo albums. It is emotionally impossible and the whole job stalls in a bedroom. Start with the boring, high volume things and work inward.
Emptying the house
Clearing, with as little waste as possible
- Donation pickups arranged with charities that will collect, rather than trips to a depot
- Consignment for individual pieces that will sell better in a shop than in a bulk lot
- An online contents auction, or an estate sale run in the house itself, where there is genuine volume or collectible interest
- Medical equipment, walkers, beds, lifts, passed on to people who need them
- Junk removal for the final pass, once everything worth keeping or selling is out
- A deep clean once the house is empty
The market for brown furniture and china cabinets is very soft. Most contents are worth less than families hope, and knowing that early saves months of trying.
The move itself
Getting there, and being settled by bedtime
- Movers who are insured, and who have worked in retirement buildings before, where elevators are booked and loading times are fixed
- A floor plan of the new place worked out first, so what will not fit is decided before it is carried in
- Specialty movers for pianos, safes and large artwork
- All the packing materials brought to you, so nobody is collecting boxes from behind a supermarket
- Someone at the house on moving day directing the crew, so you are not the one making decisions in a hallway
- Packing, and just as importantly unpacking and organising the new place, so the bed is made and the kettle is findable on the first night
- Short-term storage when a decision has not been made yet
- Address changes, utilities, and redirecting the mail
Being unpacked matters more than most people expect. A first night among sealed boxes is where a good move starts to feel like a bad one.
Getting the home ready to sell
Only what actually returns the money
- Repairs and maintenance, the small things buyers notice
- Painting and refreshing where the walls are genuinely marked
- Landscaping tidied and every light bulb working
- Staging preparation
- Photography, listing and marketing
Full renovations rarely return what they cost at sale. We will tell you honestly when you are about to spend money that does not come back to you at closing, even when the easier thing would be to say yes.
You will not be chasing any of this
We bring in people we have worked with before, book them in the right order, meet them at the house, and check the work. You approve the quotes and nothing starts until you do.
If you are doing this from out of province, that matters more than anything else on this page. We become your eyes and hands here, and most families never need to travel for the preparation stage at all.
That includes the sorting itself. Executors and family who cannot be here go through the house room by room over a video call, deciding what is kept, what is shipped and what goes, without getting on a plane.
The two questions this raises most often, answered in full: who pays for the clear out, and what happens to the things nobody in the family wants.
Hiring the trades yourself? Ask them these five things
Everything above is work we book, meet and check for you. Plenty of families would rather find and direct their own movers, cleaners and clear out crews, and there is nothing wrong with that. If that is you, these are the five questions worth asking every company before you let them into the house.
They are the ones families tell us afterwards they wish they had asked first.
Are you insured, and for how much?
Ask for the certificate. It matters most for movers and for anyone carrying things down stairs.
How do you charge?
Hourly, by the job, or by the truckload are all normal. What is not normal is refusing to put it in writing before starting.
What happens to what you take away?
Donated, auctioned, recycled or dumped are very different answers, and families usually care which.
Have you worked in a retirement residence before?
They have rules about elevators, loading times and where a truck can park. A crew that has not done it before will find out on the day.
Will your own staff be doing the work?
Plenty of companies quote a job and then hand it to a subcontractor, so the crew who arrive are not the people you spoke to and have not agreed to anything with you. Ask whether they are employees, and whether the person quoting will be there on the day. It matters more than it sounds when strangers are carrying a lifetime of belongings.
Tell us what is in the house and we will tell you what it takes
Step one, tell us where you are. The plan page asks a short set of questions: how much is in the home, how far along you are, and what is worrying you most. It takes about three minutes and costs nothing.
Step two, we walk the house with you. You get a straight assessment of what is there, what is worth selling or appraising rather than donating, what can go to charity, and roughly how long a full clear out would take. Still no cost, and no obligation to list the home with us afterward.
If you would rather just talk it through, ring us instead.