Long distance move-virtually

Something I never thought I’d experience is a long-distance virtual client. Let me explain:

I recently worked with a client that had lived in Ottawa. She is currently living in northern California, and a local mover connected us.

The client needed to clean out her parents’ home in Ottawa. Because of Covid restrictions she couldn’t travel from northern California to do the packing herself. We talked and decided that we would work together via video call.

I went through her parents’ home and made notes of furniture according to her initial instructions. After that initial clean-out, we set up a video call-the first of many. For a few weeks we would hold calls where I went through the home with my phone in hand. I would show she could see what I was talking about. “How about this table”? “Do you want to keep this set of chairs” and so on.

Through many virtual calls I pointed and asked, and the client would tell me what would be travelling and what would be donated or thrown out. Afterwards I labelled the items that would be going.

When she was finally able to get to Ottawa, she had a fraction of the work to do. She went through the small items herself-items like pictures, linens, knick knacks. But the big stuff was already dealt with, so she could focus on those small, very personal items. The rest of the furniture and belongings were ready to head to California.

Although far from "regular" this is one service that I'm glad I was able to provide. Despite Covid and virtual meetings, I was able to get the client sorted out without a great deal of drama.