Storage, Rental, & Renovation Managing A Complex Move
We’ve embraced the new term for empty nesters who are embarking on a new chapter, “free birds.” They’ve raised their kids, experienced loss through divorce or death of a partner, and they’re ready to spread their wings and try something new.
Recently, we worked with a new “free bird” couple who were doing just that and their transition came with a lot of moving parts.
They had been living together in his family home for just a few months when they decided to renovate the home from top to bottom before fully settling in together. The renovation would take about a year, which meant moving entirely out of the home and into a rental in the meantime.
At the same time, her lease was ending on the downtown condo she had rented while living on her own.
So this wasn’t simply a move from one home to another. It involved three residences, three storage units, six adult children, and a whole lot of decisions.
Six Kids, Three Homes, and Lots of Belongings
Together, the couple has six adult children, some living locally, two abroad, and one transitioning from college apartment life.
That meant there were belongings throughout both homes that needed to be considered for each of them.
Some were sentimental: childhood memories, photographs, and keepsakes. Others were practical: furniture and household items that might be useful in an adult child's first apartment or next home.
We started with the deep storage areas of the family home, sorting through memorabilia and belongings that the adult children wanted to keep but didn't necessarily need right now.
To make things easier down the road, each child was assigned a color. Their boxes were labeled with their corresponding color so that when someone needs to find their belongings, whether that's next month or several years from now, they know exactly where to look.
Basement storage area - memories, photos, sentimental items
Then Came the Big Sort
From there, we worked room by room through the entire family home.
For each item, the couple had to decide:
What do we want accessible to us at the rental for the next year?
What should go into storage?
What are we ready to let go of?
What belongs to one of the kids?
What needs to be donated or sold?
We then tackled the downtown condo, helping sort through what she wanted to keep, what she was ready to donate, what should be set aside for her two sons, and what needed to be stored.
There were many decisions, but having a plan for where everything was ultimately going made those decisions much easier.
Planning the Rental Before Moving Day
One of the most important pieces of this project actually happened before anything was moved.
Our team helped space-plan the rental home so we could determine what would realistically fit and what would make sense for their temporary year.
Would they bring their own mattress or use the rental's? Which furniture pieces did they want around them? What décor would they switch out? How much kitchenware, clothing, and bathroom storage space would they actually have?
Instead of moving everything and figuring it out later, we figured it out first.
We also researched and booked a storage facility that would work for their needs.
Three Days. Three Destinations. One Plan.
As moving day approached, our team hired the movers and created a detailed, step-by-step move management plan.
The move itself took three full days.
Day one: Storage items were moved into storage, with boxes and furniture organized by the children's assigned colors so their belongings could easily be located later.
Day two: Items from the family home were moved into the rental and their respective storage space, designated just for the couple.
Day three: Belongings from the downtown condo were moved into the rental or designated storage space.
And then came one of our favorite parts: unpacking and organizing.
Rather than leaving the couple with a rental full of boxes to deal with after three long days of moving, our team unpacked and organized their belongings so they could settle into their temporary home as quickly as possible.
The Puzzle Pieces Are Our Specialty
This project had a lot of puzzle pieces and putting those pieces together is exactly where our experience with complex moves comes in.
Not every move involves three residences, three storage units, a renovation, and six adult children. But more moves than not involve multiple steps, multiple decisions, and multiple phases.
There are timelines to manage, belongings to track, decisions to make, movers to coordinate, spaces to plan, and, of course, the emotions that naturally come with major life transitions.
Our job is to help make sense of all those moving pieces, create a plan, and keep things moving forward.
The renovations have now begun at the family home, and we'll look forward to helping this couple make their next transition, from their temporary rental back into their newly remodeled home, about a year from now.
One move may have several destinations, but with the right plan, the path between them can feel a whole lot more manageable.
