No one likes to move. When you consider all of the furniture, cherished keepsakes, and accumulations over a lifetime, you have to wonder what to do with all that stuff! Downsizing your possessions and beginning the transition to senior living is the topic of the next Senior Living Live webinar.
In the upcoming webinar on July 15 at 4:00 p.m. (EST), host Melissa Lee will sit down with Gina Holsopple from Moves for Seniors, and discuss some hands-on tips and techniques to use when downsizing and making the move to senior living. To prepare for our webinar, Melissa discussed some of these tips with Gina. In the video below, Gina gives us a preview of what to expect on the webinar, and shares some great downsizing tips. Click the video to watch the interview, and you can register for the full webinar at ArborCompany.com/Downsizing.
Video Transcript
Hello, everyone, and welcome in to this edition of Senior Living Live. My name is Melissa. And I am thrilled to tell you about an upcoming webinar we have scheduled for July 15 at 4 o'clock Eastern.
It is everything you need to know about downsizing and taking those first steps into making that transition into senior living. Nobody likes to move. And when you've collected years of furniture and keepsakes, it becomes really difficult deciding what to do with all that stuff. Good news is, we've got some help for you.
Today I sat down with Gina Holsopple of Moves for Seniors. She will be our guest for our webinar on the 15th, and she was gracious enough to give us some early insight on how you can make your next move as stress-free as possible. Take a listen.
Gina Holsopple is now joining me, client services manager for Moves for Seniors. Gina, hello. How are you today?
I'm great today. How are you today, Melissa?
Doing fantastic. It is always good to talk about senior living and certainly things that can help our seniors make that move and that jump to senior living. And I know you've got a lot of great information for us today. So first thing's first, Moves for Seniors, the title seems like a no-brainer But what services do you provide?
Well, Melissa, we are able to provide for our seniors and for residents moving into new communities pretty much everything and anything that they need to get from their current home to their new home and to live in their new stress-free environment. So we are able to provide them with assistance with local movers. We can also do long-distance moving. We can provide them with assistance in packing and helping them decide what they will take. And on the other end, we can also provide assistance unpacking and helping to resettle them into their new community. We also have the ability to arrange for donation. Many people have charities that are near and dear to their heart, and we're very happy to help them in that way to fulfill that need and obligation that they've created. And we also can take away those unwanted items that maybe it's time for them to go to trash or junk removal. Sometimes that is a little harder than it sounds, but unfortunately, we all have things that have built up in our homes that it's time to see go. We can arrange, for example — if you have a child or a sibling that lives in another state and you would like to send them your China, for example, or a piece of your furniture, we can arrange for the transport of that item as well, so you don't have to worry that it would just be sitting where it could be damaged in any way. We also can provide other means of helping people — also, we do provide assistance with storage. But I personally, Melissa, like to try to stay away from the storage, because it can cost a lot of money to store items that, if you haven't used for the last 10 years, to store it is not your best option. So if you're ready to let go, I can totally help you make that transition of letting go of those items. I do also have the ability to arrange in-home auctions. They are a wonderful alternative to an estate sale, especially now, during the COVID situation we have all found ourselves in. And I can talk more about that as well. And really, anything that someone would need, it's kind of like another person who's done this for many years as a sounding board. Because I can also visualize and use your floor plan and help you put all of those things in front of you, so you can get a visual of what your new home will look like.
And on that end, Gina, let's talk a little bit more about that, because this can get pretty high-tech.
Yes.
You guys have some fantastic technology that really takes the guesswork out of transferring our things into the new space that's waiting for us. Tell us about that.
Well, there's one thing, Melissa, that I've noticed, and I'm so happy to say, is that our senior population is so tech-savvy, and it's wonderful. And we do have the ability to download an app on our phones, where it's called a RoomRover. And it's much like FaceTime, the difference being that while I am here sitting in my home and the client is in their home, they can go around their home and show me all of the items in their home that they would like to take, or maybe they don't want to take. And we can have that discussion just like I was there with them, because they can also see me. So we can have that connection as well, which to me is very important. And what happens at the end of that RoomRover, all of that information is downloaded into what is called a cube-sheet. It's a video, that's downloaded into a cube-sheet. The cube-sheet is basically what a mover uses to create an on-site estimate. So that on-site estimate can be very tight, and it can be very accurate because we'll know the dimensions of the items that they want to take. We'll know what kind of truck that we need. We'll know how long it's going to take to pack everything. We'll know how long it's going to take to unpack everything, loading in and loading out of a truck. And then that video is also preserved because, sometimes, we don't live close to our families. So that video can also be sent to our daughter, or our son, or our sister, or our brother to help us make decisions. And that video can be sent to them, so they can see exactly what's going on and also give them the opportunity, should the senior need some assistance in making decisions — it gives them the opportunity that everyone can help them out and feel like, OK, I've seen it. I'm not just making this decision based on what you're telling me. I've seen it. I see the color. I can see that size. Maybe I want that piece, so you can't take it, mom. So that is the beauty of the RoomRover. And like I said, it's very easy. It's very easy.
Absolutely. Great. Thank you so much for sharing that. One thing you did touch on earlier — and that is the pandemic. Of course, we are all dealing with this around the world. Everybody has had to really make adjustments, whether that's at home or in business. How have you adjusted to doing this, making moves during the pandemic?
Well, one of the things — as I had said the RoomRover has been fantastic because — I've had to do RoomRovers even just locally because I can't go into people's homes. I'm trying to keep everyone safe — myself, my family, the seniors, the communities. So the RoomRover has been key in helping still get these things done even during the pandemic when I can't be there on-site. I touched upon the estate sale or an in-home auction. I tended to stay away from the estate sale. And we've discussed before, Melissa, that right now is not the time to have multiple people in your home. And these online auctions are fantastic because they can be organized completely with — I mean, it does take some effort, but they can be organized completely with no one in your home. And it's a very short time parameter. It can usually be done in two weeks or less from the sorting and the division into lots to the uploading online, so you can look at it online. Nobody has to come to your house. No one is traipsing through. And then also, the pickup of the online auction is also organized completely through Moves for Seniors. Everyone comes in one day. It's all organized, a pickup, and they're going. Nobody comes in the home. So it's a very wonderful response to this situation of the pandemic keeping everyone safe. And we also have teams with our communities. We follow all of their PPE requirements. Our movers are vetted. They are licensed. And they sign off — I think we all get our temperatures taken about 50 times a day, so we are constantly keeping up with the daily changes in PPE requirements to keep everyone safe. So it all can be done. It's just a matter of taking the time, creating a plan, and really trying to stick to the plan with somebody who is organized and will see it all the way through to the ends.
Now, the online estate sale, I have to say, even for me, that sounds pretty darn good.
Yes. To have all of that done online, you don't have to have people come through your home. And, of course, you don't want people walking through your home in the middle of a pandemic. But even without a pandemic, there's a lot of people that don't want strangers in their homes.
Exactly. Absolutely. So that is fantastic to offer. One thing that I think is also important to mention with the estate sale is that could defray the cost of the move.
Absolutely. So the estate sale is not exactly — or the auction — we all understand that, like I said before, even though items have sentimental value to us, in the marketplace, there's not a lot of value in things like there used to be. Things aren't made like they used to be. But when you have all of these items together and they have been sold, you can definitely see the value. And then that value, that amount of income can defray the cost of the move, so that not only are you helping yourself get to your new place. You're helping other people, and you're keeping things out of a landfill that can still be really useful and enjoyed by people who really want them. And that is so important, knowing that your item is going to someone who really wants it. That's what I think is so beautiful about the auction. They're only bidding on it because they want it, right? It's not like some impulse buy at a flea market. They are looking online at your things and they're going to bid on it because, hey, I want that. So I want that grandfather clock. I want that beautiful mirror. So it's very important to understand that you're doing a service not just for yourself, but to your community as well, because it's local people that are bidding on your items.
Oh, that's even better. That's fantastic.
Right, it's local to you. So when I'm doing an auction here in Philadelphia, it's people from the surrounding area. No one's coming from out of state. It's all from the surrounding area.
Fantastic.
