Make Mine Home: Spatial Modification With Physical and Social Implications in Older Adulthood

The process of moving in older adulthood, intertwined with loss and anticipation, is grounded in material commodities that include one's residence and its contents. This article emphasizes the role of material culture in housing transitions. Based on an ethnographic study (January 2009-May 2012) of older Americans (n = 81) relocating, this study utilized interviews, participant observation, and review of documents. Personalization is both a reflection of a previous self as a homeowner and a projection of a future self as extensions of temporality intertwine with commodification processes. Through creative appropriations of their housing, residences are personalized to promote physical or social functionality or because of preference. Given the findings, the transitions involved in relocation must be supported by greater understanding and facilitation of key issues of personalization and its importance to older adults' decisions to relocate.