Getting ready to transition from living on your own most (if not all) of your adult life to assisted living for caregiver services can feel difficult. There are plenty of challenges that moving at any time of one’s life poses, and when you’re in your 70s or 80s, those challenges can seem monumental. First, take a breath and relax. Even for the senior who lives alone and has no family support system close by, there are things he or she can do to help.
Let’s focus first on downsizing.
Tip #1: Understand what’s accepted at assisted living.
Every assisted living facility is different so you don’t want to assume they all have the same requirements when it comes to permissible items. Your room in this new community may or may not be smaller than your current environment (as far as the bedroom area, at least), but your space will likely be less.
There will also be limitations that the facility places on how much you can bring and what items. So, the first step in downsizing is to know precisely what will be allowed in your room.
Once you know that, you can begin determining what you’ll want to bring along with you. From there, you’ll then have a good understanding of what you’ll need to either get rid of or give away to family or friends and what you’ll need to sell or dispose of.
Tip #2: Avoid the temptation to ‘store’ everything else.
If you’ve noticed, over the past couple of decades, self-storage facilities have exploded in popularity across the country. People tend to hold onto so many unnecessary items, mostly because they think they’ll need them later in life.
In truth, we might spend $150 to $300 a month keeping items that have a total value of less than one year’s worth of storage fees, items we could have easily replaced five years later with the money saved if we had simply gotten rid of them when we had the chance.
A senior may feel more comfortable holding onto various items and storing them when they transition to assisted living, but the best option is to find family or friends who a) want the items and b) are willing to take them.
The default position of too many people, when they downsize, is to simply put everything into storage, but this is an opportunity to truly downsize and scrape off a ton of material possessions that may drag you (and your finances) down.
Tip #3: If you need help, hold a moving sale.
People love finding great bargains, and many focus on tagging and moving sales. This is the perfect time to offload a lot of the items you can’t take with you, that family or friends don’t want, and that someone else would find value in.
It’s not easy hosting a tag or moving sale, so be sure to find help. Neighbors and close friends are a valuable resource if you don’t have family nearby. Or you can plan a ‘working’ family reunion with kids and grandkids.
Once you move and have downsized, you’ll feel more rejuvenated because you won’t have to worry about everything packed in boxes and stored away; you’ll be able to focus on the key aspect of assisted living for caregiver services: living.
If you or an aging loved one is considering a move to an Assisted Living Facility for Caregiver Services in Austell GA, please contact the caring staff at Woodland Ridge today. 770-431-7055
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