By: James Watson 

        These are not your typical moving solutions; disproportionably top-heavy men toting tattoos and smoking cigars, wearing flannel shirts, loading up flat-beds and dropping pianos from precarious lifting contraptions 20 stories up above a dumbfounded cartoon duck cruising along the city street below. Rather, the moving solutions I wish to touch on in this article are ones more specialized, ones more personalized and ones more meticulous than normally understood of moving and organization.

        I asked a few questions of Vicky Riley Keyes, owner and operator of Red Coats Moving Solutions and I believe that her responses will do best to explain exactly what I am talking about. The Q & A goes as follows: 

Q: What kind of people will wish to use your services and under which circumstances?
A:  Our client base is primarily seniors, their children (boomers) and busy families.  When someone has lived in a home for many years the thought of moving is overwhelming; there is so much to do and organise it is often too much to do on your own.  If you live in a different city or even country to your parents it is difficult to offer them the support they need helping them downsize to a smaller home. The boomers have often experienced our services with their parents. Now that they themselves are starting to downsize from a family home to a condo, they have called on us to help.  We help them get the home ready for sale (decluttering, staging) and then co-ordinate all aspects of their relocation.

Q:  Are there typical cases?
A:  Most often seniors whose children don’t live close by, seniors who are on their own and sometimes people who are too busy with their own lives and need help.

Q:  What precisely is it that you will do?
A:  We have two companies, move management and home staging.  With Red Coats Moving Solutions we manage all aspects of the move starting with designing the floor plan of the new home and helping with sorting through things in the home, to finding solutions for possessions people don’t need any more (such as selling antiques and collectibles, arranging for donations to needy charities and help with recycling.)  Our Red Coats team packs, hires a reputable mover, oversees the move, unpacks and sets up the new home, including making the beds, hooking up the computer and hanging the artwork. With Red Coats Home Staging we help the client prepare their home to sell in the best possible manner to appeal to the largest number of potential buyers. We start with helping them sort through things, oftentimes packing things up to get ready for their move.  We use the principals of ReDesign, working with the client’s existing furniture and fixtures to stage the home. We usually bring in accessories for the final touches.

Q:  Is it just moving or could it be simply the decluttering of somebody’s existing home?
A:  Decluttering is an important part of what we do and is recommended to be done on an on-going basis whether you are moving or not. If you declutter on a regular basis, you will be much more ready to move when the time comes.

Q:  What kind of questions should somebody ask when comparing companies?
A:  How long they have been in business, references, are they properly insured, are the people they hire bonded and criminal reference checked? Are the movers and other subcontractors WSIB approved? How the employees are compensated. Red Coats has been in business for five years, we carry $2 million commercial general liability insurance, our team is bonded and criminal reference checked, our sub- contractors are WSIB certified, our employees are on payroll and are professionally trained.

Q:  Are you liable for damages?
A:  If anything is broken during a move, we either repair or replace it.  We provide our clients with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.