How to Relocate for Seniors

The experts in residential moving at All My Sons Moving & Storage give advice and tips for how to relocate when you are a senior citizen.

As you approach the years after your 65^th birthday, you can look forward to leaving the workforce with pride, enjoying travel around the world, or spending more time with beloved children and grandchildren. Many seniors on the cusp of retirement consider moving to enjoy their golden years in a more manageable living situation, a warmer climate, or closer to their loved ones. Roughly 338,000 Americans moved for retirement in 2023 and their top destinations were Florida, South Carolina, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington.

Will you be relocating yourself or helping a beloved family member who is a senior? Here are some tips and tricks designed just for seniors who are moving.

While it may be emotionally difficult to leave a beloved home behind, sometimes your retirement calls for a change in pace, scenery, or location. The home you’ve lived in for decades may no longer meet your needs as you enter your 60s and beyond. Challenging home maintenance, accessibility issues, and high cost of living are all valid reasons to seek a simpler and more practical home for your retirement years.

As you are selecting the perfect home for your retirement, consider the following.

• Location: Your retirement home should be in an area that you love, with natural beauty and a warm, inviting climate. You also might want to consider a state that doesn’t tax retirement income to make every dollar stretch further. Be warned that some states tax social security benefits like Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia. 

• Cost of Living: Beyond the cost of housing, you should research how expensive it is to live in a specific area, including typical costs for transportation, food, and healthcare. According to the U.S. News and World Report, some of the most affordable cities to live in as a senior include Fort Wayne, Huntsville, and Wichita. 

• Accessibility: When you’re looking at houses and rental properties, you want to keep the ease of accessibility at the forefront of your mind. If you’re beginning to experience mobility issues, then staircases and large yards to take care of might be out. If you’re looking at senior living communities and apartment complexes, then you should check if the space has elevators and ramps to make navigating the community a breeze.

• Proximity to Loved Ones: Loneliness can have negative consequences just as deadly as smoking. If you have precious loved ones near your new home, you’ll be able to see them often, staving off loneliness and allowing you to build plenty of new memories. Think about the people that you most want to be close to and move toward them.

• Community Amenities: You want the new community you choose to keep you active and connected. If you’re looking at independent-living retirement homes, then study the amenities they offer and take a sampling of their events and recreational activities. 

With your new home selected, it’s time to start the process of making your big retirement move. It’s possible with this next move that you’ll be heading into the process of downsizing next. 

If you’ve lived in your current home for decades then you will likely have many happy, bittersweet, and treasured memories practically embedded into the walls. Remember it’s okay to experience moving emotions as you go through the process of choosing your home for retirement and saying goodbye to your old home.

One of the more emotionally exhausting parts of moving for seniors is decluttering and downsizing. Items that hold special sentimental value can be difficult to let go of, but if you want your new life to feel lighter then it’s important for you to be selective in what you take with you.

Plan ahead and get started on this step early so you can take this process one baby step at a time. Here are some things to do when you’re decluttering your old home.

• Take Pictures to Preserve Memories: Sometimes the memories you associate with an item are more important than the item itself. Ask yourself if you can keep the memories by taking pictures or video of your item and letting the item itself go.

• Digitize Where Possible: Important papers, bulky home media collections, and photo albums all can take up less space when you store them as searchable digital files in a hard drive or cloud.

• Hold a Garage Sale: When you’ve decided that a great deal of items need to go, and you’d like to get rid of them quickly then try hosting a garage sale. Set reasonable prices for your items and be willing to negotiate and slash prices when you’re getting close to the end of your sale.

• Ask for Donation Pick-Up: Some national charities like the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity provide free pick-up services for sizable donations. You can also check with local-interest charities in your area to see if they offer similar services.

• Call For Junk Removal: Have some sizable junk to get rid of? Try Junk.com for quick, affordable, and environmentally conscious junk removal and property cleanouts.

Once you have cut down on the number of items you own, you’ll find your entire move much more manageable. 

You have a multitude of choices when it comes to moving companies! Almost 18,000 moving companies operated nationwide in 2023 according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) moving industry overview. But senior mover beware, that same year the BBB says more than 1.5 million inquiries and complaints were made about moving companies. BBB warns that moving companies have almost four times the number of F ratings than the rate for all companies.

Yikes! How’s a senior mover supposed to find good help with so many moving scams out there? You’ll have to do some research and vetting or ask for help from a trusted family member or friend to make sure you choose the right movers.

• Read Reviews: Check the Google and Facebook reviews for your prospective moving company. What are people saying about the company and how does the company respond to complaints and negative reviews?

• Check the BBB Rating: Search for your prospective moving company on the Better Business Bureau website and check their rating. Company has a bad rating or isn’t listed at all? Probably best to steer clear of that one.

• Find the USDOT Number for Interstate Movers: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires that all moving companies carrying cargo across state lines get a USDOT number. Search for your prospective moving company in that database. 

• Watch Out for Red Flags: If the price sounds too good to be true and the company does not have a physical address, be wary. Read up on the other common moving scam red flags on the US Department of Transportation website. 

All My Sons Moving & Storage has an A rating with the BBB and is authorized by FMCSA to transport Household Goods. Get a quote from us while you’re looking at movers. 

Now that you are getting ready to make your big retirement move, don’t forget to ensure everything is in order for you to leave. You want to be sure friends and family know how to reach you and that you’re not leaving anything important behind. 

Take the following steps prior to your move.

• Update Your Mailing Address: Make sure your mailing address with all your providers and subscriptions is updated, especially for Social Security and Medicare. You can file your change of address with USPS up to 10 days before your move.

• Cancel Memberships: Are you currently a member of any gyms, recreational facilities, or local-interest clubs or groups with dues? It’s probably best to make sure these memberships have been cancelled before your move. Some gyms and local rec centers make cancellation difficult by requiring an in-person visit or written letter. This could quickly turn into a nightmare recurring charge you’re not sure how to get rid of if you leave the area indefinitely.

• Get Medical Records: If you are moving a fair distance then you will need to find new physicians and doctors. Contact all your medical providers and make sure they give your records to your new medical providers when you make your move. 

• Refill Essential Prescriptions: Before the chaos of the move sets in, make sure you have full bottles of your essential medicines on hand. These will go in your essentials and emergencies stash when you make your move. 

• Empty Out Storage Units: While you might be tempted to hang onto items in a storage unit, you should consider cleaning out any storage units you own when you move, especially if you are moving long-distance. If you are leaving the state to go to a new long-term home and there’s no telling when you’ll be back, your storage unit is liable to get forgotten. Make sure you’ve taken care of the items inside before you leave or entrusted keys and access instructions to someone staying behind.

With all the loose ends neatly tied up, you’ll be free to drive off into the sunset for your retirement move. You can get your truck loaded up and leave all your previous-home’s worries and cares behind forever.

Before you move in and start getting cozy, you should ensure your new home will meet your needs in retirement. Look for potential hazards or future pain-points like staircases, narrow doorways or walkways, slippery areas, or inadequate hand railings. Even if you do not have mobility issues now, if you want to live in your retirement home for 20 to 30 plus years then you may have problems in the future. 

With accessibility issued addressed, you can move on to designing how you want your home to look and feel according to your personal preferences. Plan the arrangements of your furniture pieces and décor items and then get ready to make your home yours.

It’s moving day, huzzah! The time has come for you to say goodbye to your old home, load up that moving truck, and drive off to your beautiful oasis for retirement. Here are some tips to make your move a smooth, stress-free experience. 

• Pack Essentials Separately: Make certain the items you use often (your essentials) are packed in the truck last and unloaded first. Getting these items unpacked and back in business as soon as possible will make your transition so much easier.

• Keep a Bag on Hand: Some items you will need to put in an essentials and emergencies bag. These will include medications, important documents, and a first aid kit in case of moving injuries.

• Explore Your New Neighborhood: When you’re unpacked, take a look around the block and see the sights. Find out where your local grocery store is, check out the restaurants, take a stroll through the nearby parks, and get to know your new home in earnest.

• Get Plugged into the Local Community: Check out your new home’s local libraries, gyms, churches, or recreational hubs and look for events and activities that you can get involved in. Meet your neighbors, make friends, and discover new hobbies you can take joy in.

Once you’ve unpacked, made friends, and found your favorite spots in your new neighborhood, your retirement years will start looking bright. 

Enjoy these next decades, you’ve earned them. 

When you’re ready to move into your perfect home for retirement, call the professional movers at All My Sons Moving & Storage to manage all the packing, loading, and heavy lifting. You can trust us to box up all your precious belongings with care when you ask for professional packing services, and our team would be delighted to take you local or long-distance. Call the national line to reach one of our 90+ locations across the United States at 1-866-726-1579, or use our online quote form to get started on your move.