Imagine your mother—she’s lived in the same home for more than 40 years. The carpet still holds the shape of furniture that’s stood in place since your childhood. The bookshelves are lined with dog-eared novels and knickknacks collected from family vacations, old birthdays, and long-forgotten anniversaries. The attic is packed, the basement full, and the closets are time capsules of a well-lived life. Now, for reasons that are often practical and sometimes painful, she needs to move. You want to help. Of course you do. But where would you even begin? Which boxes hold value, and which hold memories too heavy to lift alone? How do you ask her to part with a house—and all that it represents?
That’s where Liz McCulloch and Carl Reid step in. Liz and Carl are the couple behind Seniors Moving Smarter and White Mitten Movers, two Grand Rapids-based companies that have quietly transformed what it means to move, particularly for those later in life or anyone seeking a gentler, more thoughtful approach. Their work isn’t about trucks and boxes. It’s about transitions. It’s about honoring lives, alleviating stress, and, ultimately, helping people let go of spaces without losing what made them feel like home.
Liz, a former medical social worker, started Seniors Moving Smarter in 2006 after witnessing, firsthand, how many older adults—and their adult children—struggled with moving. She had worked in local hospitals, often recommending changes to a patient’s living situation but finding few resources to help with the actual logistics. Families were overwhelmed. Time was limited. The emotional load was staggering.
So she began helping people herself. At first, it was simple: helping a senior pack, deciding what to keep and what could go. But it didn’t stay simple for long. Liz quickly realized that what people needed was much more than a helping hand. They needed a team that could walk with them from beginning to end. So she built one—packers trained not just in logistics but in empathy, in discernment. A staff of eight, including three social workers, now supports clients through a process that’s both practical and deeply personal.
They pack every item as if it were their own. China is wrapped piece by piece. Trinkets from travels are secured in bubble wrap and gently placed into clearly labeled boxes. Favorite books are cataloged, boxed, and then returned to the same order on new shelves, as if they were never moved at all.
“We tell our clients: you won’t miss a night’s sleep in your own bed,” Liz says. “That’s our promise. We’ll make your bed, hang your art, put your toothbrush in the holder—and when you wake up the next morning, it’s like you’ve always lived there.”
As the business grew, Liz’s work began to outpace the capacity of traditional moving companies. Her clients needed more than just transportation—they needed continuity, reliability, and above all, the same level of care her team gave to packing and planning. That’s when Carl, who had a background in business and logistics but wasn’t originally a mover himself, stepped in.
What began as him helping with a few moves quickly evolved into something more. In 2018, Carl launched White Mitten Movers with one goal: to carry the same care and compassion of Liz’s work into the physical move itself.
Carl’s company serves clients of all ages, from busy families relocating across town to seniors heading into retirement communities. And yet, whether he’s moving a single person or a household of six, the approach never changes. It’s full-service, deeply personalized, and never outsourced. “We’re not your typical moving company,” Carl says. “We don’t show up with day laborers you’ve never met. Our people are trained, insured, and experienced. And they care about doing it right.”
Right means everything from hoisting a couch up a narrow stairwell without a scratch, to driving a client’s belongings across state lines in a carefully packed truck, arriving with the same crew that helped load it.
And if something doesn’t fit in the new space? That’s where their third venture—Michigan Move Management—comes in. Launched in 2021, it’s a 10,000-square-foot storage facility tucked just across from GFS in Grand Rapids. But this isn’t self-storage. It’s an extension of their promise to handle the full move. Carl and Liz know every item stored. They track, catalog, and deliver them on demand—whether that’s a favorite recliner headed to a daughter’s home in Traverse City or a rug bound for Florida.
Storage is billed down to the cubic foot and by the day. It’s designed for flexibility and peace of mind. “We’ve had a client ask us to hold an Oriental rug until her daughter came to town two months later,” Carl says. “Of course we said yes.”
Their work doesn’t stop when the last box is unpacked. If a client no longer needs certain items—like a set of bunk beds or an outdated dining room set—Liz and Carl take care of that, too. In fact, they’ve created partnerships with local organizations to responsibly donate items that traditional donation centers won’t touch. Last year alone, they donated over 300 mattresses, saving clients thousands in landfill fees and keeping waste out of West Michigan landfills.
It’s this kind of thoughtfulness that makes their services not just useful, but profoundly moving.
Together, Liz and Carl have built a rare kind of business—one that began in a garage and has grown into a full-service operation that now serves a wide range of clients throughout West Michigan. And they’ve done it by honoring what makes a house a home.
“We help people move on, but not away from who they are,” Liz says.
So when your mother needs to move—when the time comes to let go of the home that shaped your childhood—you’ll want people like Liz and Carl in the room. People who know how to carry not just boxes, but memories, with care.
