Senior Moving & Downsizing in St. Louis | First Place Moves

By the time the boxes get taped, a downsizing move is mostly already settled, and almost none of it had to do with how heavy the couch was. The hard part is the choosing. A son or daughter ends up standing in a parent’s living room weighing which lamp, which dishes, which framed photos belong in a one-bedroom apartment or a building where help is close by, and which ones a grandchild will want, and which a stranger should buy or a charity should take. Nobody grows up planning to be the person who makes those calls. Gina opened First Place Moves back in 2011 and trained every crew with mornings like this in mind, so the people who knock on the door are calm, soft-spoken, and content to let the family steer. Maybe it is a Webster Groves house emptying into a Kirkwood care community; maybe it is a Florissant ranch with half of it riding out to a daughter in St. Charles. Either way, we read the room and wait for the lead.

Nothing about our day runs on a stopwatch. Pull up a chair with us and we will help draw the lines: this furniture earns a place in the new rooms, those pieces are already promised to the kids, these lots go to an estate buyer or down to a donation center, and the rest can sit in our care while the dust settles. We get the tape measure out at the destination before a thing leaves the curb, because a cherished hutch should never travel the length of the county only to wedge in a frame an inch too tight. For everything staying behind, we drive it where it is meant to land, the buyer’s door, an uncle’s basement, the spot a charity sends its truck, sparing the family a morning of flagging vans up and down one tight brick street.

When loading day arrives, the heirloom going to a granddaughter and the tired armchair bound for the thrift store earn identical treatment. Quilts and stretch wrap go on the furniture, anything that has to come apart comes apart and is bolted back together where it ends up, every carton gets the name of its room, and runners go down on floors and bannisters. A good share of these moves wind up at an assisted-living residence, and the office there usually wants proof of insurance, a parking bay roped off, and an elevator reserved for the carry-in. We handle every line of that ourselves with whoever staffs their front office, leaving the family free to simply be present. Whoever lifts the first piece out of house one is the same hand that sets the final piece in place at house two, with no fresh face slotted in along the way.

Should the household need somewhere to land while the old place sits unsold or the next door is still being settled, anything extra waits in our short-term, climate-controlled storage until there is a firm date. Rather have it all packed early so nobody is bubble-wrapping a parent’s teacups by lamplight the night before? Lean on our full packing service, one truck and one set of hands the whole way. And when a St. Louis cold snap glazes the front steps, we salt and clear them before any box meets that ice.

Walk us through how things sit right now and where every piece needs to go, and the plan gets built around the family’s wishes, not around what fits our calendar. Ask for a written figure, and an answer reaches you before the business hour is out.

What’s Included

• Patient guidance on drawing the lines: what suits the new rooms, what the children have spoken for, and what leaves for a buyer or a charity
• A tape measure taken to the apartment or residence first, so a cherished piece is never carried the length of the county only to jam in a frame
• An heirloom for a grandchild and a tired armchair for the thrift store treated to the same wrapping and the same patience
• Whatever has to be unbolted at the old place rebuilt and squared away once it lands
• Items run out to where they belong, a buyer's door, an uncle's basement, or the truck a charity sends
• The residence's requirements handled by us: proof of insurance, a parking bay roped off, the elevator reserved
• A single crew carrying it from house one all the way through house two, with no fresh face slotted in midway
• Room in our climate-controlled storage for the stretch before the home sells or the next door is settled