By Christopher Johnston

With a laundry list of things to do when taking care of a loved one, some choices must take priority. Moving can be very stressful and moving a loved one into a nursing home or care facility may be especially difficult. The logistics can be overwhelming, not to mention the emotional stresses.

Here are some tips to "decompress" the process and make it better for everyone involved.

First, acknowledge the differences between your role in the move, and the role of your loved one. Your loved one's feelings may not be that different than a child who is forced to move due to a job transfer or family change. He or she may feel no control and wonder why they have to leave their friends and home. You can alleviate some of your loved one's anxiety by involving him or her as much as possible in the decision making -- a guided or limited choice can be much easier to swallow than having no choice at all. With some luck, you won't feel as if you forcing this on the unwilling.

Plan Ahead to Reduce Stress

Planning ahead goes a long way to avoiding headaches. There are a lot of arrangements to make including: finding a suitable nursing home, arranging financial, insurance and health records, establishing a power of attorney, to planning all the logistics of moving, most of which can (and should) be done well ahead of moving day.

You can also delay some of the moving decisions with storage units. Portable storage has made the moving process easier than ever as units can be delivered right to your loved one's home.

You have as much time as you need to load and unload them at their home, and you can use the storage for a combination of storage and as moving. Care facilities tend to be smaller than the previous homes of your loved ones and it is often nice to have space for things that might crowd their new space (extra photo albums, old clothes, antique furniture, and so on).

The storage boxes can also be used to stage the move as everything is available on-site until you figure out the best mix of furniture and personal belongings in your loved one's new home. It can also be helpful passing along antique and heirloom pieces to loved ones as they are safe and secure until people can arrange for their delivery.

Mobile units have a number of other benefits:

• Simple loading. Load items once and at ground level. You don't have to take multiple trips back and forth to a storage facility. The storage units are right at your location for easy loading.
• No truck rental. You don't have to rent or drive a truck. You can take all the time you need to pack and load the units without having to race to return a rental truck.
• Variety of sizes. Units come in a variety of sizes to fit your need. Check out the Mobile Self-Storage Association (ms-sa.org) to find companies that serve your locale and see all the sizes that are available.
• Choice of storage location. You can choose where you want to store your belongings. You can leave the units on-site to have as much access as you want, or have them redelivered to the storage warehouse where you can still have access to everything inside.

Lastly, it's helpful to remember that, ultimately, everyone involved wants the same thing: a comfortable and safe home to enjoy the rest of their lives in. Good luck!