Moving a Parent Long Distance Blog Summary – Part 5

By Joy Loverde

Mom and Bill’s long-distance move from Florida to Chicago taught me numerous invaluable family-caregiving lessons which I wrote about in twenty-four blogs. I’d like to share with you the highlights of what I learned in the hopes that you can bypass some of the unexpected twists and turns of the aging parent relocation process.

• Packing up your parents’ belongings is only half the task. Make a plan ahead of time regarding who will unpack once the movers and boxes arrive at the new location.

• Don’t underestimate your emotional response to packing and unpacking your parents’ belongings. The grieving process has begun.

• The moving process offers abundant opportunities to capture precious present-day memories. Stay awake to the possibilities, step back and take it all in. These are the good old days.

• Delegate. Delegate. Delegate. Ask for and accept help.

• Keep your parents in control of as many decisions as possible. This keeps the trust level high.

• Even in the moving process there are opportunities for our parents to parent us. What can they teach us today?

• Selling a house among other financial transactions can get quite complicated in a later-life marriage, especially when adult children from both marriages are included in the mix. If parents own the house jointly, decide if one check or two checks should be issued at closing. Talk to an elder law attorney.

• If you have a full-time job in addition to managing the move of your parents, accept up front that you will probably use vacation days to complete the task or forfeit a vacation altogether until the move process is completed and the bulk of the boxes are unpacked.

• If your parents have a new apartment or house to furnish, consider shopping at the following lower-prices retail outlets: Costco, Ashley Furniture, Ikea, JC Penny, Hobby Lobby, Home Decorators, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, and Value City Furniture.

• If buying new furniture for your parents’ new home, consider the cost of furniture delivery. Buying from one store can save lot of money.