Moving an Elderly Parent: A Practical Guide

Moving an elderly person goes best when there is plenty of time and room for their opinion: sort well in advance, measure the new home, recreate a familiar setting, then organise a moving day that is as calm as possible. The administrative formalities are prepared in parallel. This guide takes them in order, without dramatising.

Understanding the situation before you start

A move like this is not an ordinary operation. It often comes with a change of life: leaving a house that has become too big for a smaller flat, moving into sheltered housing or a care home (EMS, établissement médico-social), or getting closer to family. What weighs heaviest is not carrying the boxes, but what is left behind.

A few principles help you stay on course:

• Involve the person in every decision. Even when the initiative comes from relatives, it is their home, their belongings, their history.
• Announce the timetable early, without rushing them, so that everyone can get used to it.
• Appoint one point of contact in the family, who handles the paperwork and the contact with professionals.
• Accept that the pace will be slower than planned: three quiet afternoons are better than one exhausting day.

Sorting well in advance, together with the person

Sorting is the most delicate stage, and the one to start first. Several weeks, or even several months if the situation allows, avoid hasty decisions and the regrets that follow.

1. Start with the rooms least loaded with memories: cellar, attic, garage, kitchen cupboards. This builds momentum without causing upset.
2. Keep sessions short, one or two hours, one room or one piece of furniture at a time.
3. Use three categories: what goes to the new home, what is entrusted to the family, what is given away, sold or recycled.
4. Let the person keep the objects that matter: photos, books, favourite armchair, everyday crockery. An object full of meaning has its place, even if it seems bulky.
5. Photograph what cannot come along: a memory in a picture is easier to store than a piece of furniture.

For the general method, our guide on how to declutter before a move covers sorting room by room.

Measuring the new home and recreating a familiar setting

Before deciding which furniture comes along, you need to know the space available. It is the best way to avoid long discussions on moving day.

• Ask for a floor plan from the landlord, the residence or the care home, or measure the rooms, doors, corridors and stairwell yourself.
• Draw a simple plan and place the furniture on it to scale. Main rooms first: bedroom, rest area, dining space.
• Favour stable, easy-to-use furniture: a bed at the right height, an armchair that is easy to get out of, storage within easy reach.
• Keep walkways clear: no slippery rugs, no cables on the floor, no furniture that forces you to walk around it.
• Reproduce the familiar layout: the armchair facing the window, the family photo in the same place, the bedside lamp on the same side. Finding familiar landmarks helps the person feel at home from the very first night.

In a care home or sheltered housing, the establishment generally states what is provided and what you may bring. Ask for this in writing before sorting the furniture: it avoids moving what will not fit.

Preparing moving day

Moving day calls for gentleness more than speed. What helps:

• Choose a quiet day if possible, with no other appointments.
• Keep the person away from the chaos: a day with a relative, or settling first into the new home, already partly furnished, so that they do not watch their old home being emptied.
• Set aside the essentials: medication, prescriptions, glasses, hearing aid, chargers, ID papers, medical and administrative documents. They travel with the person or a relative, never in a lorry.
• Set up the bedroom first, with the bed made and toiletries within reach, then the living area.
• Plan a simple meal and water on site for the first evening, so as not to depend on boxes.

A move in stages can also make things easier: furniture transported one day, settling in and unpacking the next, with the person present.

The administrative formalities

Several formalities follow one another. Draw up the list with a relative and tick items off as you go; our moving checklist can serve as a starting point.

As for the lease, notice is given in writing, observing the three-month notice period for the date set by local custom or, failing that, for the end of a quarter, unless the contract provides for longer. If the person has to leave earlier, for example because a place in a care home becomes available, the law allows them to be released by presenting a solvent replacement tenant willing to take over the lease on the same terms. The lease contract and the local custom of your commune are what count.

If the home being left is a house that the person owns, the formalities are different: check with the commune and, if necessary, a notary.

Emptying, cleaning and handing back the property

What remains is emptying the old home. This is often when emotion returns: it is better not to do it alone, or too quickly.

• Donations and sales: charities, second-hand markets, relatives. Allow a reasonable period for items of value.
• Clearing the rest: a house clearance service avoids repeated trips to the recycling centre.
• End-of-lease cleaning: if the home is rented, its condition on handover must match what is expected; end-of-lease cleaning can be arranged once the rooms are empty.
• Move-out inspection (état des lieux): arrange it with the letting agency (régie) or the landlord, and have a relative accompany you.

In French-speaking Switzerland: what changes by canton or location

The basic rules come from federal law, but several points vary from one canton or commune to another: the deadline for announcing your arrival or departure, the customary notice dates, and local procedures linked to care homes or home help. The safest approach is to ask both the commune you are leaving and the one you are moving to, and to read your lease.

The location also matters in practical terms:

• In towns and on the shores of Lake Geneva, such as in Pully, narrow streets, buildings without a lift or scarce parking spaces may require a permit to occupy the public highway with a lorry or a furniture lift. Ask the commune a few days or weeks ahead.
• In the mountains or in Valais, for example in Sion, access, slopes and winter snow can complicate the lorry’s arrival: allow some margin in your schedule.
• For people arriving from abroad or from across the border, other formalities apply; see international moving.

Doing it yourself or getting help

A family can very well lead the sorting, the measuring and the paperwork on its own. What changes everything is the support: an elderly person needs slow gestures and presence, not haste.

Professional movers are mainly worthwhile for heavy furniture, stairs, full packing, the dismantling and reassembly of the bed and wardrobes, or when relatives live far away. This site passes your request on to movers in the region: you receive a free, no-obligation quote. You can request a quote and describe the situation, so that the team plans the time and approach accordingly.

Frequently asked questions