My brother and sister-in-law recently moved to Bemidji from Winthrop, Minnesota, relocating from a rambler with 1,800 square feet of living space. They had lived there for 22 years. My nieces, my sister, a few other relatives, friends and neighbors, and I helped them pack and deal with all the details that come with buying one place, selling another, and relocating to a town four hours away.

Early in the process, I called my summer neighbor Karen Katz, whose Milwaukee-based business, A Gift of Time, works with everything from coordinating moves and settling estates to helping hoarders with out-of-control accumulations of “stuff.”

Karen’s first piece of advice was to focus on what you need. I shared this advice with my sister-in-law, Sam, as we went room to room and closet to closet throu

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