Smooth Moves (part 2)

Senior living communities provide a unique living arrangement to a population in need. People challenged with the activities of daily living or in declining health can receive needed support and some level of medical supervision. These communities offer the comforts of home and ready-made social opportunities. They also present a challenge to many new residents – living in less space. In this second in a series of Smooth Moves, we are sharing a most important tip for anyone moving into a senior living community:

Personalize the floor plan

The floor plan is undoubtedly the most important tool in the moving-to-a-senior-living-community tool box. Very often, seniors are moving from a home that they have lived in for many, many years. They have raised their children in a fully furnished three, four or five bedroom home. Moving to a senior living community offering a studio, one or two bedroom apartment surely requires downsizing. Not only is it important to have a floor plan of the new living space available in advance of the move, it must be to scale. A floor plan to scale does more than tell you which piece of furniture will be put where. It eliminates the guesswork. A prepared floor plan guides your decision-making when pondering which pieces will move with you.  It shows clearly how much space you have to work with and which pieces may be altogether too large to consider moving. With the clear guidelines of a floor plan,  you can avoid some very costly mistakes.

Notes from the field

One lovely couple was very sure that their new apartment was the same size as their old apartment. No floor plan was prepared. It was a sad, eye-opening experience to see piece after piece of furniture arrive that, plain and simple, did not fit in the new apartment. The couple scrambled to find a location to store the excess. What was worse, they exclaimed they never would have moved had they known all their furniture would not fit.

In another experience, a floor plan was drawn up by a third-party, however, it was not drawn to scale. The client was angry at having spent ‘good money’ on a service that did not produce the desired result. Luckily, the team at Sort It Out Boston was able to arrange all the furniture within each room to the client’s satisfaction. Phew.

For more information on how Sort It Out Boston can ensure your floor plan is just right for your next move, call us today.