- November 26, 2024
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Senior citizens who feel anxious about moving might want to turn to a Palm Coast woman and her new business for help.
Jackie Clevenstine, 57, is a senior move manager and owner of Senior Move and More. Her company works to assist senior citizens during the moving process, whether they move to an apartment, assisted living facility or back home to their families. She is a consultant for seniors to help them through the transition.
Clevenstine has always been involved in home-related business. Before she started her independently owned company in October 2012, she spent 15 years working in real estate.
After learning that there were no senior move managers in Flagler or Volusia counties, she became certified by the National Association of Senior Move Managers and then started her company. She said she is one of about 900 move managers in the nation.
There is an expanding need for senior movers, Clevenstine said.
“Our senior population is growing by leaps and bounds,” she said. “They’re wanting a better quality of life.”
Clevenstine is involved in every step of the move. She provides free initial consultations, plans, chooses moving companies and even unpacks seniors’ belongings. She also prepares the old homes for realtors to see, and she hires qualified crews to assist with the move.
She works to make the process as easy as possible, she said.
“I am to a senior what a wedding planner is to a bride,” Clevenstine said. “I try to eliminate the stress for a senior.”
Moving can be a physically and emotionally difficult time for seniors, Clevenstine said, and she feels that giving seniors time to think about relocating is important. Some of them feel they could lose their independence by moving, and they need to make the decisions for themselves.
“It’s a needed service, and they need to know that you truly care,” she said. “You have to really be compassionate or you shouldn’t be in this.”
Clevenstine said that seniors’ hesitations have little to do with the fact that they are older.
“We are creatures of habit,” she said. “It’s not an age thing. … It’s emotional at any stage.”
Clevenstine encourages the families of seniors to be involved, and she even uses computer-based communication networks, such as Skype, to show the seniors’ children the new living places.
“I want them to be involved,” she said. “I want communication.”
Each client has individual situations, and no one job is exactly as the last one.
Clevenstine also works to “de-clutter” and organize seniors’ homes in order to make the living environment safer and more accessible.
She said she currently has no plans to expand her business. For now, she’s content working as a move manager. She describes her current career as her first “feel-good” business.
“I love them,” she said. “When I see the smile on my seniors’ faces after the move is completed, it’s worth a million bucks to me.”
Contact Clevenstine at 986-0201.
