By Jacqueline Kimball
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Linda Omohundro has a message for people who’ve surrounded themselves for decades with collections of things they love and now have decided to downsize. "Start early," she says. "Don’t put it off. If you aren’t physically using it, pack it up today!"

Linda and Dick Omohundro, who will move to Erickson’s Hickory Chase community outside Columbus, Ohio, started downsizing 16 months ago. But it was slow going because her collections—houseplants, miniature pianos, rocks, books, and purple cows—have memories attached.

Late last summer, Hickory Chase’s Andrea Albertson, a personal moving consultant with Erickson Realty & Moving Services, visited the Omohundros to help them prepare to stage and sell their house. The program’s staging, moving, and referral services are complimentary to people moving to any Erickson community.

When Albertson compared the size of their Upper Arlington house with that of their new apartment home, she told the Omohundros they did not have to downsize as much as they’d thought because of the community’s spacious floorplans. They wanted to do house maintenance and updating, but "Their big concern was downsizing," Albertson says.

Before the couple’s garage sale, Mrs. Omohundro sent an SOS to Suzy’s Helping Hands, a local organizing firm recommended by Albertson.

It was the right decision. "What would have taken me a week took a day with the organizer’s help," says Omohundro. Omohundro was able to corral her pianos and many of her cows.

The organizer helped disperse several loads of garage sale leftovers to churches and Goodwill and helped Omohundro with the den: sorting, packing boxes for Hickory Chase, and carting out boxes of books for donation. "Nearly an entire wall in the den was books—now it’s empty," says Mrs. Omohundro. "And I really like looking at the garage. It’s clean!"