Selecting the Right Moving Experience: Downsizing and Move Management Companies versus Traditional Moving Companies

When it comes time to relocate, especially for anyone who is downsizing, the process can be quite overwhelming - juggling emotions, making decisions on thousands of belongings, sticking to timelines, meeting deadlines, and the tremendous amount of physical energy — it’s enough to keep a person in place.  

Understanding the difference between a Downsizing & Move Management Company and a traditional Moving Company can make a huge impact on your ‘move experience.’ Both services provide essential support during moves, but they cater to different needs and offer distinctly different services.

What is a Downsizing & Move Management Company?

Many Downsizing & Move Management Companies are also known as Senior Move Managers because they specialize in guiding older adults who are facing major life transitions such as downsizing from their family home into a smaller living space or a senior living community. This kind of company goes above and beyond the physical aspects of moving. They focus on the emotional sensitivity of a move of this nature and the decluttering challenges that often accompany downsizing for seniors moving out of the homes in which they raised their families.

Overview of Services That May Be Provided:

Decluttering & Sorting: One of the primary services offered by downsizing companies is helping clients sort through a lifetime of belongings. They work with older adults to determine what to keep, sell, donate, give to family members or discard. They facilitate this process with respect, empathy, and patience.

Floor Plans: Many downsizing companies help plan the layout of the new home as it’s an especially important step when making decisions of what to keep.

This involves measuring the space and specific furniture pieces to ensure the new space will accommodate the client’s favorite pieces comfortably, and aesthetically. 

Safety and storage solutions are additional considerations when they are designing the floor plan. 

Move Management: They handle all aspects of the move schedule, including vetting the right movers to physically move packed items, managing move day, and ensuring everything goes smoothly from Start to Settled. This includes collaborating with all parties involved (client, senior community, realtors, moving company, etc). 

Packing, Moving, and Unpacking: They will provide staff for packing & unpacking services. They will make sure that all belongings are carefully handled.  On unpacking day, they can also work on removing packing materials and recycling them.

New Home Set Up: As the unpacking unfolds, they will place items in agreed upon locations based on floor plans.  They can organize your closets, kitchen cabinets, hang artwork and gallery walls, etc.  They will set up the new home for the clients in order to ease the transition for them.

Home and Asset Inventory: In many cases, they will orchestrate home and asset inventory services before the packing begins.  This can help families keep track of which belongings are moving, being donated, sold, or dispersed to other family members. 

Sale of Items: Downsizing and move management companies can arrange for the sale of items no longer needed through auction, estate sales or specialty buyers.

Recycling & Trash Hauling Services: From document shredding to junk hauling, they will arrange for responsible disposal of items no longer needed.

Home Deep Cleaning: Some downsizing companies go that extra mile and will arrange for the client’s home to be deep cleaned to prepare for the home sale.

Emotional Support: Savvy downsizing companies understand that senior downsizing is so much more than packing and unpacking boxes — it’s about honoring a family’s life story and understanding the stress, fear, and even the excitement that can accompany significant turning points in life. They bring respect and kindness rooted in service to the experience of senior downsizing.

What is a Moving Company?

A Moving Company, on the other hand, primarily focuses on the physical aspects of moving belongings from one place to another. Their main task is to transport items safely to the new location.  They provide the muscles and the trucks.

Overview of Services They May Offer:

Packing & Unpacking: Moving companies may provide packing and unpacking services, including materials.  They might often outsource to specialty packers & movers for items such as grandfather clocks, pianos and artwork.  It’s important to ask how they pack items such as TVs, glass tops, mattresses, etc. to ensure it meets your standards for keeping these items safe or if the responsibility of packing those items falls on the client.  Moving companies may or may not use boxes, bags, moving blankets and shrinkwrap.

Loading and Unloading: The core service of any moving company is loading belongings into a truck, transporting them to the new location, unloading them and placing items in pre-determined spaces that the client has decided. 

Transportation: Moving companies are equipped to handle local and/or long-distance moves and have the necessary vehicles and logistics to transport items safely across cities or states.

Unassembling & Reassembling Furniture: Some moving companies will disassemble and reassemble furniture for a move.

Appliance disconnection & reconnection: Moving companies may or may not disconnect your appliances, adjustable beds, etc., and reconnect them at the new home.  

Trash removal: Moving companies may offer haul-away services for packing materials after unpacking or other items.  

Cargo Valuation:  Moving companies don’t offer insurance coverage, instead they offer valuation coverage for agreed-upon amounts and value based on your belongings, deductibles, etc. It’s always wise for clients to check in with their own homeowners insurance to understand if they cover belongings in transit during a move, storage, etc. 

Storage Solutions: Some moving companies offer short-term or long-term storage options if the new home isn’t ready or if there is excess stuff that doesn’t fit but you want to keep.

Key Differences

Scope of Services: The most significant difference lies in the scope of services. Downsizing & Move Management Companies offer a holistic approach, addressing both the emotional and physical aspects of moving. They are involved in much more than just the physical transportation of items; they help manage the entire downsizing process. Moving companies focus more on the logistical side, dealing primarily with the transportation of belongings.

Personalization: Downsizing & Move Management companies provide a highly personalized service. They spend time understanding the specific needs and preferences of their clients, which is crucial for older adults who may have special needs or come with attachments to their belongings. Moving companies, while professional, offer a more standardized service that is less sensitive to individual emotional needs.

Expertise in Downsizing: Downsizing & Move Management Companies have expertise in the complexities involved in downsizing, particularly for seniors. They are skilled in making transitions as smooth as possible, which often involves dealing with family dynamics and emotionally charged decisions. Moving companies are experts in the logistics of moving but don’t typically specialize in the nuances of downsizing.

Support and Guidance: The level of support and guidance also differs. Downsizing & Move Management Companies act almost as consultants & advocates, providing guidance throughout the downsizing process, from planning and selling items to setting up the new home. Moving companies provide support in terms of efficiently getting items from one place to another but do not involve themselves in the decision-making process regarding what items to move or how to adjust to a new living space.

Conclusion

Choosing between a Downsizing & Move Management Company and a Moving Company depends largely on the needs of the individual moving. Budget is also a factor as bringing on a Downsizing & Move Management Company is a financial investment above the cost of the actual moving company.  However, move managers are savvy in the liquidation and clearout of items in order to recoup some of the investment made in this service.

For aging adults, who might find downsizing emotionally taxing and physically demanding, a downsizing & move management company can offer the necessary support and services to ensure a smooth transition. 

For those who simply need to move items from one place to another, a traditional moving company might be the better option. Understanding these differences can help in making an informed decision that ensures a comfortable and stress-free move.

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WayMaker Downsizing & Move Management

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and professional expertise.

We understand the emotional journey

accompanying significant turning points in life.

Our mission is to guide you through these

difficult times with empathy, kindness, patience

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Start to Settled.

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Melanie (770) 954-6622