Reference for Dakota Downsizing:

I had to significantly downsize my house this fall, and was recovering from surgery. Eileen Golian was recommended to me and she was both an angel and a magician!   She spent hours with me sorting books, files, paintings, furniture, bookshelves (only 5!) from my home for the past almost 40 years.  She found new homes for some of my belongings and treasures; sold things that were of value.

She was always available, endlessly imaginative, and made sure I received donation letters from the various organizations that took my belongings. She also gave me time to share what some of the items meant to me; when my husband and I got them, background stories, etc. I’d rate her and her company 10++++++ stars!

To Whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to commend Dakota Downsizing, LLC and Eileen Golian to you. My mom was recently transferred from an independent living apartment at Vantage House to the assisted living floor. Even though she had only a small two bedroom apartment, my sisters and I were amazed at how much "stuff" had been accumulated.

Eileen met with us at the apartment and gave us many useful suggestions regarding Mom’s property and how we could dispose of same. Ultimately, my sisters and I went through Mom’s things, separated out the items which we wanted to keep, filled eight trash bags and then let Eileen handle the rest.

Eileen took items to the dump, she donated items to charitable locations, like Grass Roots, and she took items to shop owners who purchased them for resale. We received checks from the re-sellers and receipts for the charitable donations. Eileen even made arrangements for certain pieces of art to be appraised for their value and then sold.

When I returned to the apartment after Eileen had cleared out everything, it was completely empty except for several items of fUrniture, neatly grouped together, which were going to be picked up by a local rabbi for his son who is getting married.

I could not have been more pleased with my experience. I actually received more in checks than I was charged by Eileen for her services. Just knowing that the job was getting done was such a relief at such an emotionally difficult time.

Eileen Golian was honest, trustworthy, efficient and her fees reasonable.

Brenda S. Fishbein

Law office of Fishbein & Fishbein

Ellicott City, MD











 

 

Another day of successful packing!  Chuck and I pinched ourselves as we walked around our home.  The stress has lifted.  You and your associate are whirlwinds, take-charge individuals who met our goal.  In this Olympic year you deserve a Gold Metal for all you've accomplished in a short time!

We selected our realtor partly because she had someone to recommend that she felt could help us successfully empty out our basement and get ready for the move to Vantage House.  Eileen and her team of helpers certainly did meet all of our expectations and more.

Eileen works with a team of two other women Monday through Friday. She explained to us her prices, time schedule, mode of operation, and list of people with whom she deals while doing the downsizing before we started. The team would go through items in a systematic and sequential process and then present me with items which I needed to decide if they were to go with us, go into storage, or be given to charity. Before starting we gave them a list items which we wanted specifically to save so that when they came across them we could decide where to store them.

Eileen was in touch with scrap metal people (filing cabinets), scrap paper and shredding, antique dealers, stamp authority, rare book collector, etc.; so that items of worth could be seen by buyers at the house. Her knowledge of sources and ability to work carefully, but swiftly, made the difficult process proceed with the least pain. By the end of a few weeks we felt we were sharing our family history with special friends since they had seen so much of what we had saved from parents and children. There was found treasures, the sale of items, and handling of valuable items. In all, Eileen dealt with honesty and care.

I heartily recommend Dakota Downsizing for any persons in a similar circumstance who must go through many family treasurers in a limited amount of time. It was still exhausting, but very much a great experience due to her sensitivity, experienced eye, and important contacts

Subject:  Recommendation for Eileen Golian

Gentle person:

Eileen delivered us superior service with great kindness and with respect for our property.

We recommend her highly for downsizing a home or for packing and unpacking a household for a move.

The qualities that most impressed us about Eileen include the following.

She listens attentively to your needs and desires about moving and disposing of your belongings.

She is friendly, enthusiastic and easy to work with.

She has a very effective plan for organizing and packing your belongings.

She allows you to decide what you are keeping, what you are throwing away, what you want to    sell and what you want to donate to charitable organizations.

She works very efficiently and quickly.

She has a broad network of dealers, sellers, web sites and charitable organizations to use to  dispose of your goods.

She delivers many of your goods to charitable organizations using their own vehicles.

She charges a reasonable fee.

She goes out of her way to be helpful as she did for us in picking up and delivering a sewing table that we had ordered.

We could not be more pleased with the service given to us by Eileen.  We would not hesitate to recommend her to our friends, and we would certainly use her again if the need should arise.

Sincerely,

 

I have worked with Eileen and her team on numerous jobs and would highly recommend them.  Eileen comes on the scene when homeowners (who are selling their house) may be a little overwhelmed by my recommendations to declutter, edit, and purge.  Often times, Eileen and her team help sellers go through decades of accumulated items.

I have even called her in an emergency situation and she was able to quickly coordinate the liquidation process for my seller.  She is caring, as well as organized and knowledgeable, about how to get the job done.

 

I moved from a 4 bedroom townhouse on 3 floors to a 1 bedroom apartment in an elevator building. I would not have been able to do this without the excellent help of Eileen at Dakota Downsizing. I am so grateful that I found her.

Jill’s colleague Eileen was so incredibly helpful in going through the home in which my parents lived for 45 years. Eileen sorted through every room and every item with more attention and detail than I could muster; organizing a lifetime of belongings and even finding a treasured historic memento I feared had been lost.  Eileen sold or donated items my family no longer wanted, always consistent with and respectful of our values and always with an eye toward maximizing our profit.” 5/2012

PS  “Thanks again for spotting my dad’s Haggada (Passover prayer book) that my dad’s mom snuck into his suitcase as he was fleeing Germany.  It is the most precious item I own.”    3/2013

When I decided to move to a Retirement Village, I was faced with moving from a family-sized townhouse to a one-bedroom apartment.  I  needed to dispose of numerous household items that had been accumulated during 50+ years of married family life.  The prospect was very daunting.

My real estate agent, a specialist in the relocation of clients in an "eldercare" situation, introduced me to Ms. Eileen Golian, the owner/operator of "Dakota Downsizing".  While I was not familiar with this type of service, engaging Dakota Downsizing was a very fortuitous experience for me.

Ms. Golian and her staff worked very diligently to uncover our accumulated items and strategize their disposal, items that I hadn't seen or used for years.  She has numerous contacts, private and commercial, small and large, available for the timely disposition of items, through either sale or donation.  Items identified as trash were made ready for pickup by the county on their regular schedule, or taken to the county disposal facility.  The other items were scheduled for pickup so that there was a constant/daily flow of material from my home.

The income from sales far exceeded the cost of Ms. Golian's services.  At the conclusion of her efforts, Ms. Golian provided a list of the donations for tax reporting purposes.  She also provided a daily listing of items sold.

Dakota Downsizing worked very harmoniously with other contractors performing various efforts to prepare my home for sale and for my relocation.  I highly recommend engaging the services of Dakota Downsizing to anyone considering the sale of their home, particularly those in an "eldercare" situation.

Eileen Golian and her assistants did an amazingly efficient job cleaning out my mother’s house upon her move to an apartment.

They very systematically organized the items which could be sold, and those to be given or hauled away. Eileen has an extensive contact list for the right person or organization to contact for each type of item, and before anything was given away or sold she checked with me to be sure there was nothing that we wanted to keep. The fact that I didn’t need to contact and coordinate with multiple organizations myself made the whole process much more manageable.

Having Eileen do the organizing and coordination of the entire process of cleaning out the house was a life saver for me during a difficult transition for our family, and I can’t recommend her services highly enough.

Thank you for your indispensable help in downsizing from our townhouse to Vantage House.  Everyone who you helped to move here sings your praises, and I'm happy to join the chorus.  Your charges were very reasonable, and your contacts with the used markets were surprisingly broad.  You ended up knowing more about what we had in the house than we did.  You and your crew packed everything and unpacked so that we were ready to live in our new apartment with minimal effort on our part.

Again, thanks for a job well done.

Sincerely,

Bruce

I believe the Vantage House administration should know when a job by their employees and associated vendors has been well done.

I want to thank Allison Stanton for referring Eileen Golian and Dakota Downsizing.  Eileen provide help to my sister and I in wrapping things up in Miriam's (assisted living) suite following her passing.

Eileen was professional, hard working and extremely competent in providing us with resources and with her services.  all the while she displayed a positive and compassionate attitude.  Despite the short window of time she was given, Eileen completed the job on time with excellent results.

Thank you Allison and Eileen,

Joan Goloskov

Many thanks for a truly spectacular job in cleaning out my mom's apartment.  This was such a tough time for us, and you made it so much easier.     Lorrie

Dear Eileen,

Thank you so much for your help with my mother's home. It was an overwhelming job, but you worked so quickly and efficiently!   The various outbuildings and poorly maintained house were real challenges, but you got the job done. Your actual price was less than your estimate, and you are still sending me checks for things as they are sold! My mother's property just sold to a developer last week, and you helped make that possible. Thanks again for a job well done!

Connie Colclough

Eileen,

Once again, thank you so much for everything you and Vicky have done to help me get through this transition with my mom.  You made it easy and took away a lot of the stress.

Take care and all the best,

Marcia