The southeast Denver ranch-style house where Bob and Barbara Barth raised five children has been their home for 50 years.
But after an illness left Barbara, 80, hospitalized for seven weeks, the couple decided they’d be better off in a senior community with access to nursing care. In June, they learned they had secured a spot in a Sun City, Ariz., independent-living community.
Rather than call on their five children – who are scattered from Boston to California – to coordinate their move, they contacted a “senior move manager” to help them transition smoothly from their four-bedroom house to a space half that size. Such firms are becoming increasingly popular with seniors and their families.
“We sort of act as the quarterback for everything involved in the move,” said Ted DeLong, owner of Senior Move Solutions, the Denver-based company working with the Barths.
With the number of elderly Americans skyrocketing, move managers have discovered a niche in helping seniors deal with the emotional, logistical and practical aspects of moving.
According to AARP, the population of people 65 and older will increase from 35 million in 2000 to 40 million in 2010 – a 15 percent jump.
Meanwhile, the number of people over 85 is projected to grow by 40 percent between 2000 and 2010 – from 4.2 million to 6.1 million, according to the group.
Many move managers say they got into the business after watching their own family members get lost trying to navigate difficult moves alone.
They help seniors sort through items and decide which to keep, trash, donate or pass on to relatives. They fill out change-of-address forms, arrange for utilities to be shut off and organize estate or garage sales.
While some companies in the sector are more than 10 years old, the industry is relatively new but gaining in popularity, said Mary Kay Buysse, director of the National Association of Senior Move Managers.
A year ago the association had 81 member companies across the country. This year, there are 260 members in 40 states, including five in Colorado, she said.
The average cost of using a senior move coordinator is $2,500, but can range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on factors like the size of the home. Moves can take four to six weeks.
Unlike traditional moving companies, senior move managers say they give particular consideration to the emotional toll moving takes on clients, who may have decades of history tied up in a home.
Lisa Gwyther, director of the family support program for the Duke University Center for Aging, said moves “can be emotionally devastating for the older person who has to downsize.”
“It’s an irreversible change,” she said. “Things are never going to be the way they used to be.”
Carol Griswold, who started Longmont-based Step By Step Moving Consultants last year, said move managers “actually end up doing a lot of hand holding” for seniors who typically must leave behind 75 percent of their belongings in a move.
Griswold, whose services have included picking up prescriptions for clients on moving day, said that while sorting through items can be personal, hiring a move manager shouldn’t be considered insensitive.
“It isn’t that the children don’t want to help mom and dad, it’s just that they can’t take time off from work,” Griswold said. “They don’t want to just rush in and move them to a new place where they’re unsettled and unpacked.”
Gwyther said people who are 85 or older may say they don’t need a move manager because they have children. But “their daughter may be 60 and working full time and live in another state,” she said.
During a recent consultation with Senior Move Solutions owners Ted and Sherri DeLong, Barbara Barth said she’s worried about the last-minute details on moving day – what to do with the sheets they’ve slept on or the breakfast plates they’ve eaten off.
“I know there are going to be so many last-minute things,” she said.
The DeLongs reassured her they can arrange for last-minute items to be cleaned and packed up.
Barbara Barth said she doesn’t mind using a move manager.
“Our kids have been really fabulous, and I don’t want them to do more than they’re already doing,” she said.
Barth told the DeLongs she has already made a few decisions with her family.
They will keep the coffee table purchased in India and the red swivel chairs that she and Bob, 83, have sat on for countless meals. Her grandmother’s vase will stay behind.
Barth held up a stack of small dishes and admired them. They, too, will make the trip to Sun City.
“These had been my mother’s, and they’re a little bit unique,” she said.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
36.8 MILLION
Americans age 65 and older in 2005, up 9.4 percent since 1995
21.4 MILLION
Older women, compared with 15.4 million older men in 2005
10.6 MILLION
Noninstitutionalized older people who live alone, 7.7 million of them women
40 MILLION
Projected population of those 65 and older in 2010, up from 35 million in 2000
55 MILLION
Projected population of those 65 and older in 2020
Source: North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services
What they’ll do
Services provided by most senior move managers include:
Source: National Association of Senior Move Managers
