162 DOWNSIZING THE FAMILY HOME The Browns …

1 162 DOWNSIZING THE FAMILY HOMEThe Browns and the Switzes 163and raised three children. They relocated to a single-story 2,000-square-foot condo less than half that size. Her husband, Don, age seventy-eight and a semiretired physician, keeps everything, she said. I had tried to help him organize his study over the years, and that always led to a conflict. Finally, it got to the point where the space was so cluttered with forty years of his career that he didn t want to work there anymore, and he moved his office to the kitchen. You can imagine how well that worked out. Their different approach to stuff was only one reason the Switzes decided that their DOWNSIZING would require a the move manager.

2 This growing group of pro-fessionals steps in when older adults can t downsize alone or would rather not, when the sorting and moving process gets too contentious, or when adult children live hundreds or thousands of miles away or are otherwise unavailable, according to Mary Kay Buysse, executive director for the National Association of Senior Move Managers. Yes, there s an only that. It s growing like cornstalks in the 2006, when Mary Kay Buysse became executive director for NASMM which tests, screens, trains, and stamps with approval professionals who help older adults downsize in place or move to a new place the association had sixty-six move manager 2015, the association, based in Hinsdale, Illinois, had nearly a thousand members in forty-six states and Canada.

3 Mary Kay, who has a master s degree in geron-tology, attributed that growth not so much to her skill as to changing points to the age wave, which is actually an age tsunami. Between 2010 and 2030, the population age sixty-five and older will jump by 80 percent. By 2030, one in five Americans will be eighty-five or older. Add to that the fact that families are more spread out than ever and you see why there s a need for her am actually comforted by the aging of America. Think of all the collective wisdom we ll like the Switzes are a perfect example of that large home was holding them back from what they really wanted to spend their time doing: traveling, going to the theater, reading, listening to music, seeing friends, and visiting their children, Lee Switz told me.

4 We were spending so much time and energy cutting the grass and maintaining the garden and the house that we didn t have time to do what we loved, she said. We didn t need all that space, she continued. We spent all our time in the kitchen, the bedroom, and the TV room. We never went into the rest of the house. Every time I paid the electric bill, I would ask myself, Why am I heating a house three times larger than we need? Switz researched options for services that help retirees unpack a lifetime s worth of memories and chose Door to 162 DOWNSIZING THE FAMILY HOMEThe Browns and the Switzes 163and raised three children.

5 They relocated to a single-story 2,000-square-foot condo less than half that size. Her husband, Don, age seventy-eight and a semiretired physician, keeps everything, she said. I had tried to help him organize his study over the years, and that always led to a conflict. Finally, it got to the point where the space was so cluttered with forty years of his career that he didn t want to work there anymore, and he moved his office to the kitchen. You can imagine how well that worked out. Their different approach to stuff was only one reason the Switzes decided that their DOWNSIZING would require a the move manager.

6 This growing group of pro-fessionals steps in when older adults can t downsize alone or would rather not, when the sorting and moving process gets too contentious, or when adult children live hundreds or thousands of miles away or are otherwise unavailable, according to Mary Kay Buysse, executive director for the National Association of Senior Move Managers. Yes, there s an only that. It s growing like cornstalks in the 2006, when Mary Kay Buysse became executive director for NASMM which tests, screens, trains, and stamps with approval professionals who help older adults downsize in place or move to a new place the association had sixty-six move manager 2015, the association, based in Hinsdale, Illinois, had nearly a thousand members in forty-six states and Canada.

7 Mary Kay, who has a master s degree in geron-tology, attributed that growth not so much to her skill as to changing points to the age wave, which is actually an age tsunami. Between 2010 and 2030, the population age sixty-five and older will jump by 80 percent. By 2030, one in five Americans will be eighty-five or older. Add to that the fact that families are more spread out than ever and you see why there s a need for her am actually comforted by the aging of America. Think of all the collective wisdom we ll like the Switzes are a perfect example of that large home was holding them back from what they really wanted to spend their time doing: traveling, going to the theater, reading, listening to music, seeing friends, and visiting their children, Lee Switz told me.

8 We were spending so much time and energy cutting the grass and maintaining the garden and the house that we didn t have time to do what we loved, she said. We didn t need all that space, she continued. We spent all our time in the kitchen, the bedroom, and the TV room. We never went into the rest of the house. Every time I paid the electric bill, I would ask myself, Why am I heating a house three times larger than we need? Switz researched options for services that help retirees unpack a lifetime s worth of memories and chose Door to 164 DOWNSIZING THE FAMILY HOMEThe Browns and the Switzes 165 Door Solutions, DOWNSIZING relocation specialists in the Richmond, Virginia, area and members of NASMM.

9 It was very, very helpful to have an organization come in and help us figure out what to get rid of and then get rid of it for us. The process from first meeting with the movers, to moving into their condo, to staging and selling the big FAMILY home took thirteen months, she said. During that time, the service made dozens of trips, dragging books off to the library, furniture to the auction house, and household items to the thrift store. Door to Door had a truck and did the heavy lifting. We didn t want to hurt ourselves, said Lee. (See what I mean about the wisdom?)Their children, she said, all in their forties, wanted very little but took a few furnishings.

10 Many of the large pieces of furniture Lee and Don really liked, such as their dining-room table, went to their new there was much that they let go. What you learn is that no matter what you have, nobody wants it anymore, she said. There s no market, and the kids aren t interested. As they whittled their belongings, the move managers helped them plan space for the new quarters and then not only moved the items but helped them settle in the new condo. Unlike regular movers, said Mary Kay, they don t disappear after the truck is unloaded. They hang pictures and curtains and set up the cable television.