
Tips for Helping Your Senior Loved One Sort Through their Home
Over their lives, seniors accumulate many many things. As they age and start to slow down, many of those things are no longer used, such as sets of dishes for hosting large dinner parties or the seven Christmas trees they used to elaborately decorate the home with each winter. For some, the items are sentimental, and they want to hang on to them. For others, they keep them, hoping they can pass them down to future generations. Going through all of the items is often a monumental task and one that overwhelms seniors, as well as their families. But it is often a task that is better to do while senior loved ones are still with us so they can explain where the items came from and what the meaning behind them is. As you help your senior loved one prepare to go through their home and their collections, here are some tips to keep in mind.
Be Gentle
Remember, these are items that are most likely very important to your senior loved one and have a lot of memories behind them. Don’t criticize or force them to get rid of things. There’s nothing wrong with having a laugh together over some hideous items they have hanging around the 1970s. But be gentle with how you respond to certain things that they want to keep that you would never think of putting into your home.
Take Notes
As they are telling you the history of items, write it down. Get a notebook just for this purpose, or use the notes app in your phone. You might think you’ll remember it, but with so many items around the home and so many of them having various stories behind them, the memories can get clouded. Writing down what they are saying will help you remember when your senior is no longer with you.
Grab Some Sticky Notes
If you are going through the home with relatives and picking out what you might want once your senior no longer is using it, a great way to mark your territory, so to speak, is to put sticky notes on the bottom of items. You can also give your senior loved one their own sticky notes to use, and they can write the names on the bottoms of specific things they might want you to have before you even go through them.
Make Piles
A great way to go through things is to sort them into piles. The first “pile” is items they are keeping within their home. Those things do not need to be moved. The rest of the items can be divided into actual piles - items to hand off to a loved one, items that can be donated and items that can go into the trash. You may also want to have a pile of items to sell in online forums or at an estate sale. Some items can also go to resale or consignment shops in the area.
Get the Kids Involved
Something fun to do for the kids is to get each of them a plastic bin. They can put items that grandma or grandpa no longer need inside of the bin. Maybe they are items the grandchildren will use now. But they also can put in unique items, cute dishes or fun trinkets they see around the house that they will want in their future homes growing up. Even if they don’t have their own place now, when they do in the future, they can have remnants of their loved ones in their home. There is probably an item that for them personifies their grandparents’ home, and looking at that in the future will bring back fond memories. It could be cookie cutters from the baking they used to do together or a special book that they would read together. It can even be a figurine or a collectible that they weren’t allowed to touch as a kid but always loved to look at.
We Can Help
At Visiting Angels, our compassionate caregivers can help ensure your senior loved one is safe, happy and secure as they age in place in their own home. Our professionally-trained caregivers at Visiting Angels The Villages can help meet the needs of your senior, whether they are high-needs areas like dementia care or everyday needs such as help with toileting, bathing and help getting ready each morning.
Our caregivers serve seniors in The Villages, Lady Lake, Fruitland Park and other communities in Lake and Sumter counties. We can help your seniors maintain meaningful lives. For information on helpers in Lake and Sumter Counties, contact us online or call us at (352) 643-0702. Our main office is located at 367 Fennell Blvd.