Think your home is cluttered? Margit Novack, founder and president of Moving Solutions in Havertown PA, has seen and dealt with clutter on the most severe level. Her company specializes in helping older adults downsize to a new home. In some cases, the homes are packed with items acquired over decades by hoarders— people who are unable to get rid of anything. The homes often are unsafe and the occupants, too embarrassed to let others in, become increasingly isolated.

 

Novack began researching information about hoarding and developing ways to best help these clients. After publishing articles on her findings and insights, she’s gained national recognition as an expert on hoarders, an unexpected expertise that her ten years in the move management industry has led to.

 

Before founding Moving Solutions, Novack worked as the Chief Operating Officer of the Scheie Eye Institute in Philadelphia from 1986 to 1990. Then, from 1990 to 1994, she worked as the Administrator of the Department of Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1996, at a conference of the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Homes for the Aging in Harrisburg, PA, she conceived the idea for the moving business.

 

She saw a gap in services for adults 65 and over in the moving industry. She recognized that there were services to help them find and finance a new home and services to transfer people’s things from one home to another. But there was nothing available to help people 65+ get their homes and belongings ready for the move.

 

All of this suggested a unique business opportunity to Novack.  

 

 

“When I came across the idea to do this, I was immediately smitten,” Novack said recently in her Havertown office. “I knew that this was it.” The “it” was her calling to a new career at age 46. “I discovered a passion I didn’t know I had, both for the elderly and for being an entrepreneur.”

 

Novack founded Moving Solutions in 1996. After just three years the American Society on Aging named it the Small Business of the Year, recognizing the importance of this pioneering service to older adults. In 2002, Moving Solutions became a founding member of the National Association of Senior Move Managers, an alliance with over 100 members that provides networking, education and insurance information to help expand this industry.

 

In 2005, Novack jump-started the Moving Solutions franchise. Now, aspiring entrepreneurs can establish and own a branch of Moving Solutions, spreading the company’s services nationwide. “I had to create everything from scratch, make my own mistakes and learn the hard way.” She said. “The experience convinced me of the value of franchising—learn from others who have done it before you.”

 

Her high energy and passion for this work push her business forward as she identifies ways to expand further and better serve her clients. As she frequently encountered people who were hoarders, she came to realize that this was important to investigate further.

 

In her office, she recalled one of her earliest experiences working with a client who was a hoarder. An 85 year-old woman wanted to move out of her three story house, “No aisle in the house was wider than this,” she said while holding up her hands less than a foot apart. “I asked the client, ‘How do you feel about your house?’ I didn’t want to assume that the woman was unhappy with it or saw it as a problem just because we did.”  But the client said she hated it and saw it as a big problem. No one had been in the house in ten years because she was too embarrassed to let others see its condition.

 

Through similar conversations, Novack found that hoarding is a private issue and not often talked about openly. After she published articles on hoarders, she heard from many people who struggled with hoarding. Thankful to have somewhere to turn to, they asked her for help.

 

Many of Moving Solutions’ clients are dealing with other emotional issues surrounding the move, such as having recently lost a spouse. These people are still grieving a loss and must now face living alone. Novack and her staff, sensitive to each person’s situation, make an individualized plan with each client on how to handle the moving process. “A big part of our job is listening to their stories” Novack said.

 

Often, the amount of furniture, artwork, papers and kitchen supplies is overwhelming— even for non-hoarders. To establish structure and discipline, Moving Solutions’ workers separate belongings and furniture into groups: which are essential to keep; which to be given to family members or donated; and which are sentimental items to be handled with care. The process is gradual so that the transition feels less abrupt and more natural. The client makes the final decision on everything given away so that he or she still feels in control of the process.

 

Moving Solutions’ workers also will set up the person’s new home by unpacking boxes and arranging furniture. Workers are careful to create an appropriate environment for their older clients who have physical limitations; for example, they will put dishware on reachable shelves. The workers even make the beds and stock the refrigerator with groceries so it can feel like home from the moment the client moves in.

 

Sometimes, a client asks Moving Solutions to continue helping them with other needs such as paying bills after the move is completed. But this goes beyond the company’s resources and expertise. Novack explains, “They are dependent on us for a while and then we cut them off cold turkey? Yes, we have to,” she said. “They have us now as a resource, but it’s important [for them] to put the move behind them.” She attributes the effectiveness of the company’s services to ending those services after the move so that the client can move on in life.

 

To learn more about Moving Solutions, go to www.MovingSolutions.com. Margit Novack will be speaking on ” Recognizing and Responding to Clutter Addiction” in a three-hour presentation in American Society on Aging 2006 Autumn Series on Aging the afternoon of September 12 at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue in Philadelphia.   For more information about her presentation, go to ASA Autumn Series on Aging.