LifeAfter

I'll start in the middle. When the downsize appraiser saw what I had she simply remarked , " You have five generations of goods to be handled.". She was correct, Great grandparents papers, Grandparent papers and momentos, Parents goods ,momentos and papers, fifty years of marriage goods,momentos and papers, and two children's (now adult) goods. All this was sitting in a house which was about to be sold and had to be cleared. The task was impossible to even begin to plan. And now to the beginning. At the suggestion of my realtor I called Simply Home Downsizing (SHD). The initial assessment focussed on the reality of the situation and shocked me. THe consultation and suggestions that came next were a God sent solution. The SHD lead assigned to the project came up with the complete , timed out, and estimated cost plan to move me to a new place which was a third of the space I had in the house. Here is what they did for me. They identified all the material which was essential to take to the new place. This was packed and taken to a storage area. (moving team and cost was included The residual material including heavy equipment was then grouped into lots for auction, arranged by SHD. The SHD lead then oriented the auction team (third party) to the lots which facilitated the auction. In the end only two (!) pieces of glassware remained. The house was bare to the walls and sold four days later. But the story goes on. SHD four weeks later completed the job by transporting all my goods in indexed order to my new home, to my daughter's home and into temporary storage near the new place. And wait !!! They unpacked all my kitchen goods and set up my new kitchen, an office and a bedroom ! I was up and running in the new place. The work this group did for me saved my sanity and all but eliminated my anxiety as well as removing the physical strain I and my family would have had doing this on our own. You might think this adventure was just a complex move but it was also a life lesson. My children and myself learned how to let the past go while keeping the memories. SHD staff lead us through the process of questioning the actual value of things. They showed us how to preserve the past without holding onto things we knew in our hearts represented memories but really no longer fit our present lives. We took pictures of memorabilia which we were then able to let go. It was the letting go which became the best release as I (we) moved forward into a new part of our lives. My children and myself continue to downsize, as a result of our working with Simply Home Downsizing staff. Simply HOme Downsizing staff are incredibly efficient, ruthless in their logic, compassionate and helpful. One might rightly say they are humane, non-judgmental, facilitators of a potentially traumatic event in a person's life. They are worth the cost if you value your personal well being when you have to downsize or if you just wish to downsize. I would hire them again in a flash. PS There are no photographs of this event as it happened so quickly the thought never occurred to us.