by Jackie Norris

David and Anne Robinson knew it was time to downsize. "We wanted to do it before we got too rickety," David says.

At ages 72 and 69, respectively, the Columbus, Ohio couple sold their five-bedroom home in 2008 and opted for a two-bedroom apartment in the highly rated Westminster-Thurber Retirement Community in Columbus.

With just six weeks to streamline a lifetime worth of belongings, the Angie's List members didn't know where to start until they hired Ginny Shimrock, director of highly rated Senior Transition Services in Columbus. "The move would have been near impossible without her help," David says.

As a senior move manager, Shimrock hired a licensed moving company to do the move, and spent three days helping the Robinsons pack, unpack and decide what to do with unneeded items.

"Moving can be frustrating for anyone," Shimrock says. "But for seniors it can also be physically and emotionally challenging since they may be purging items they've had for years."

David says he and his wife mentally prepared themselves for the move, but they faced some difficult decisions while transitioning from a 2,000-square-foot home to a 900-square-foot apartment. "The [real] issue was deciding the fate of all our books and furniture," he says.

Shimrock helped them find a place to store some of the objects, and they sold or donated other items. "We would use her again, and we'll be suggesting her services to a friend who is about to move into Westminster-Thurber," he says.

The demand for these moving services is on the rise, says Jennifer Pickett, associate executive director of the National Association of Senior Move Managers. "With more than 73 million baby boomers reaching later life, we're witnessing incredible interest in the profession," Pickett says.

After helping her father downsize, Miriam Bogard, owner of highly rated MB Organizers in Gahanna [Ohio], started offering moving services geared toward seniors. "I had the time and skills available to help my dad work through the project," Bogard says. "But I realized there are a lot of people out there who don't have that luxury."

Shimrock says you can expect to pay anywhere from $600 to $2,400, depending on the services required and amount of time the move takes.

Ohio doesn't require senior move managers to be licensed, so Bogard suggests consumers ask the provider for references from clients they've previously worked with, and obtain the name of the moving company that the company uses so you can check their reviews on Angie's List. "You want to make sure you hire someone that has a trustworthy and complete team," Bogard says. "Entering a new season of your life should be stress free."