Few tasks in life are as daunting as preparing to move. Packing, cleaning, sorting out the items collected over a period of years is enough to make the average homeowner shudder.

But when a person prepares to move from a home into a retirement community, the emotional obstacles of eliminating the physical clutter that has filled a home combines with leaving behind the memories made there.

Danielle Sharkowicz and Elizabeth Striano have started a new business, Better Senior Living, to help make the process a little easier, quicker and filled with laughter.

Striano said she was inspired to start the business after spending time at Greenspring, a retirement community in Springfield, where her husband works.

"I was subcontracting with someone else who helped people move from their homes into a retirement community and I knew I could do it differently and better," Striano said.

She began talking with Sharkowicz, her neighbor in Fairfax Station. Working a nine-to-five office job had lost its appeal for both women, who have young children at home.

The premise for their company is simple: Using their organizational and business skills, they help their clients go through their entire home, selecting what items they want to keep and what can be thrown out or given away. Additionally, the women help find a moving company to relocate their clients and will spend time decorating and setting up their new apartment to make the transition as easy as possible.

"In the corporate world, no one says thank you for anything," Striano said. "In this job, the people are so grateful and we know we’re making such a difference for our clients and their families. They are so thankful for your help during one of the most difficult times in their lives."

"I have never witnessed anything like this," Sharkowicz said. "You know for certain the work you’re doing is helping them."

Sharkowicz and Striano meet in a client’s home to first evaluate how much time they will have to spend sorting through furniture, knick-knacks, decorating pieces, anything that has found a way into the client’s home over the years. They develop a strategy for how best to go about sorting through the house and how long it might take. Then, they start working with the homeowners.


"MANAGEMENT IS a huge part of what we do, but we’re also cheerleaders," Striano said. Keeping their clients motivated to sort through their possessions and make what might be difficult decisions takes a delicate balance of being sympathetic to nostalgia, while reminding their clients that their new apartment is smaller than the four-bedroom house they have lived in for 30 years.

"But it’s so much easier to go through 20 boxes in your basement when you have someone working with you than doing it by yourself," Sharkowicz said. "We encourage people to reminisce when they need to, but we also keep things moving."

Often, when sorting through a client’s house, they will come across treasures that the client has forgotten about, Striano said.
"One woman was a photographer, and we found a sculpture she had made out of photos of a flower," she said. "When she moved into her new place, we made this 3-D flower a focal point and she just loved it."

Antique lamps, souvenirs from overseas travel, photos from long-forgotten family gatherings often make the homeowners pause and begin to tell stories, which Striano and Sharkowicz encourage them to tell.

"We want them to keep what’s most important to them," Striano said.
"Plus we get to showcase that in their new homes, so they can share it all over again with new neighbors," Sharkowicz said.

Being available to their clients also means answering their cell phones whenever someone calls, they agreed.

"We only work with one or two clients at a time so we can give them all the attention they might need," Striano said.

Finishing up a project may include not only help settling a client in to their new home, but making sure their adult children have received heirlooms or old toys, plus calling auction houses to sell what is no longer needed.

"If they need to ship something, we find companies and take care of it for them, anything they need," Striano said.


IN THE SIX OR so months Sharkowicz and Striano have been in business, they have helped about a dozen clients clean out their homes and move into new apartments.
Mary Lou O’Donoghue moved from her home into an apartment in Greenspring in Springfield.

"It was a miracle," she said. "They facilitated my downsizing. They helped me get rid of stuff in my house. I had just lost my husband and the girls were so kind and friendly and helpful, it was wonderful."

O’Donoghue admitted that she did not want to take on the huge task of cleaning out her house, but Sharkowicz and Striano helped make things easier.

"I went from a five-bedroom house I had lived in for 51 years into a one-room apartment," she said. "They helped me decide what would look good in the new place. They found things I forgot I had. Their help was invaluable to me."

Mary Ellen and Doug Bashioum are preparing to move from their home in Reston to a retirement community in North Carolina and said working with Sharkowicz and Striano has been more than helpful.

"We’ve lived here since 1972, and we have five kids, so there was a lot to go through," said Mary Ellen Bashioum, chuckling. "I liked that we could pick and choose what services we needed from them, and that they worked with us to sort through everything."

Sharkowicz had a computer program that helped determine how much furniture could be used in the new apartment, which made those decisions easier, Bashioum said.
"Elizabeth helped my husband with his den, because I couldn’t do it, he needed someone objective," she said.

At times, deciding what to keep and what to give away was difficult, but Bashioum said her move will be much easier now because of the help she and her husband received.
"They were very lovely young ladies and we’re so thankful for their help," she said.