Harold and Margaret had spent their entire adult lives in a spacious Johnson County two-story home they had custom-designed and built in 1974. The house was full of decades of memories—raising their children, celebrating milestones, and collecting belongings that each told a small part of their story.
Margaret was struggling with declining vision, and her husband, who was her primary caregiver, was also struggling with getting around their home. This led them to finally accept their kids’ urging to downsize. The new apartment complex under construction near their daughter’s house seemed like an ideal solution.
After meeting with a realtor, they were encouraged. The agent was confident their home would sell quickly in the current market. But before they could list it, the couple believed they needed to deal with their house full of possessions. The task felt impossible, and that’s when we were invited in to help to provide compassionate move coordination and downsizing support services.
“We are realizing how much we’ve accumulated,” Margaret told us. Neither she nor Harold could see how it was possible for them to move for at least 6 months, since they felt the need to go through every full closet and cabinet – and for sure, the basement!
We began by creating a to-scale floor plan of their new apartment to help them visualize exactly what would fit in their new space. We then set up a straightforward system for documenting their decisions—color-coded stickers and labels for what to keep, donate, sell, or discard. We scheduled regular, manageable joint work sessions and coordinated donation pickups. As we worked together, the house became more organized, and this couple’s confidence about making this move noticeably increased.
Then, two months into the process, Harold became ill and unexpectedly passed away.
Margaret was devastated. In the midst of her grief she suddenly faced a move she could no longer postpone.
We shifted gears and helped Margaret and her family accelerate her Move Plan. We worked with them to identify the high-priority items she would take, and she accepted our recommendation to forego detailed sorting through the remainder. The day before her move, we arrived to pack everything going to her new home except for the things she needed to spend her last night in her house.
The next morning we greeted the movers and oversaw the loading and unloading. By 5 pm that same day, we had completely unpacked her things, made her bed, and organized her new space so she could find her essentials and safely navigate it her very first night there, despite her vision challenge.
At the family’s request, we referred a trusted buy-out company who could immediately remove everything left after they claimed what they wanted. With the home emptied and prepared for listing, the realtor brought it to market. Within weeks, it sold—just as quickly as promised months before.
Today, Margaret is settled in her new apartment, surrounded by familiar things from the home she and Harold shared. “It’s smaller, but it’s peaceful,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it alone.”
