Choosing a New Place to Call Home

Making the change from living at home to living at a senior living or assisted living facility will give you a lot to think about. One of the most important things that you should start doing sooner rather than later would be to start getting rid of some of your personal belongings. You will still have your own room at an assisted or senior care center, but if you have an entire lifetime's worth of stuff at your house, you could have some hard decision to make about what to take and what to throw away.

Start with Items You Are Not Sentimental About

We're not saying you need to throw out the toys your now-adult children played with when they are kids. If you are like most people, you've likely acquired quite a lot of random stuff that you don't use anymore and that doesn't have any sentimental value. Things like old Christmas or Halloween decorations you haven't put up in years. Things like that old exercise bike in the basement you haven't used in literally decades. Start de-cluttering your house until only things that matter to you are left and you might suddenly feel a lot better about the state of things. 

If You Are Selling Your House, Consider a Storage Facility

If you or your children will be selling your house after you are permanently moved to senior living, you will need someplace to stash the other items that you couldn't bear to part with. Consider a local self-storage facility for your precious antiques or mementos that you want to hold onto. Make sure you put your children's name on the storage unit as well in case you can't leave the assisted living center when you want to or if you become unwell. That will allow someone in your family to grab your stuff if you can't make it there.

Ask Yourself When You'll Use Your Stuff

When it's time to move into the senior or assisted living center, you can bring some of those sentimental photographs or other knick-knacks to remind you of home. But for everything else, make sure you have a reason to bring it with you. You probably don't need five different winter coats, for example. Make sure each item taken into your room at the care facility has a specific purpose to it.

Contact local senior living centers like Aspen Creek for more advice and tips