I'm slowly going crazy

place than she'd be with us, I'm sure.

despite all the sentiment around them. The proof of that is that when Social Security came in, everybody moved out, much happier to be independent for as long as possible.

I had that conversation with my mother about ten years before she died. She said she'd give us a week in the house and she'd keep me up all night while she rummaged for the meat cleaver. I said she wouldn't have the energy after eating soup seasoned with arsenic.

That is a big attention getter and you will get a better asking price.

painting every wall in the house and installing new carpet throughout. We still have a new counter in the kitchen coming. We've corrected all flaws we've been able to find.

I think it is wonderful that you are helping them.

shortly after we moved here to help out. She won't miss that townhome. It doesn't have a lot of good memories for her.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/OdoBan-32-oz-Pet-Oxy-Stain-Remover-961561-Q/203276902

This is the product I used. I have no ties to it or Home Depot. It does a great job. I applied it by spraying it on the stain, waiting a few minutes, then absorbing it with paper towels. No rubbing...just blotting. It took half a dozen applications, but completely removed the old yellow stain. That left a clean area on the accordion blinds, so I cleaned the entire thing with the same product. That evened everything up and it looks brand new.

I was pleasantly surprised. A $4 product saved us over $1000, which would have been the cost of replacement. I found it after half an hour of Internet research and reading reviews of several products.

This will be useful.

So glad I found it.

I recommend the eucalyptus scent.

Mopping floors, cleaning carpet, mattress freshener.

It is an amazing product and replaces several other more chemically products.

but it has a place in my cleaning closet now. Good stuff, and affordable, too. I'm glad to have found it, and happy to recommend it.

I've tested a number of cat-pee-removal products, and Odo-Ban seems to be one of the best.

residents struggle with cleaning out the apartment I have been getting rid of my own things. I am now down to one small bedroom that contains all of my things. I cannot say that I really miss most of what I got rid of.

While I agree that the young should help us older ones - I also think it is the responsibility of the elders to be reasonable about it. We cannot expect you all to give up your lives so that you are there all the time. Sounds like you have a good agreement.

time caring for us when we were children. I don't mind spending time helping them as an adult. It's a debt to repay. My wife and I have no children, so we'll try to take care of this for ourselves. If not, well...who knows? I turn 70 this summer.

She doesn't want that job to fall to her kids. I appreciate it, but there's also something so sad about it. As she said, "most of my life is in the trash now." (Not technically true -- she is donating, selling, and recycling as much as possible.)

My wife's mother is an accumulator. That's her nature, and she could tell you why she saved each item. Much of it is gone now, with her permission, but there's a 10' X 10' storage space full of the most important things to her. That was important.

She went through the Depression, and held onto almost everything, as did her husband. There was a hell of a clean-out job when she moved out of her home.

Clearing that stuff away is a difficult, sometimes sad, job. The initial sorting became my responsibility, simply because I'm an in-law, and not emotionally attached to the accumulated stuff. I took the job seriously. I found many, many things that had gone missing, buried in the boxes and other places. I actually looked into each box, searching for items that were significant in some way, before deciding which pile that box went in. I made three piles: Trash, Storage, and Donate. That division was used in every room of the house and in the garage.

My wife, her sisters and her mom checked my work at first, but didn't find anything I missed. That was the test. After that, they trusted me to separate everything into those three divisions. Tough job, but someone had to do it. I don't think I missed anything important. I've been in the family for almost 25 years, so I'm pretty aware of everyone's priorities.

carefully before you pitch them.My aunt had a book i was ready to pitch and i had a hunch/premonition go thru it.It contained my great grandfathers enlistment dated 1863"

MCCLURE, Grundy , C, , Army, , , Rural Cemetery Shaws Point Twp Carlinville IL"

The C stands for the civil war.Needless to say its now inclosed in plastic.

I'm having nightmares every once in a while thinking about my in-law's basement. Huge house. They never got rid of a stick of furniture. Never donated clothes anywhere that I could tell. Lots of unfinished projects.
Still in shock seeing that. None of the children live locally, so it's going to be horrible to try to settle an estate in bits and spurts.
This topic really got my attention when a friend of mine died. Very small house, but her son literally only had one week to bury her and dispose of her stuff.
We're paring down; I don't want my kids using every scrap of vacation time for the next 5 years to deal with our stuff.

I'm trying to "purge as I go" in middle age, but it's reeeeeally hard to get rid of things from my kids' young childhood (they're teens now).

Sometimes a person is just as happy with a photo of the item as with the actual item.
I try to cull Pinterest for ideas on saving keepsakes...my latest favorite is taking a picture of all the trophies and then taking all the flat engraved bits off of them and arranging them in a nice frame. I think there were plain ribbons in red, white, and blue on the edges, making a border. Looked really neat.

I should also scan some of their old drawings and so forth and throw away the originals.

It's one of those "one of those days I'm going to do X" things that I never seem to do.

My kids are grown. Right now I have about 2 months of free time with no appts so I'm tackling some of this stuff.

finished up their work. They did an outstanding job, and the colors I selected to work with the paint turned out to be exactly right. The house now looks brand new inside and even smells like a new house. All of this didn't come cheap, but it was all necessary.

I'm very pleased, and when my wife takes her mom to see what we've done, she'll be pleased as well, I'm sure. They're meeting with the real estate agent tomorrow to sign the representation agreement and decide on an ideal asking price. I still have to go through the house, checking light bulbs and touching up a few items, like replacing one window shade that has a little damage. But that's about it. On Monday, the new kitchen countertop will be installed, and that's the last thing.

I'll be glad when there's an offer to accept. In this particular development, though, every listing in the past three months has had multiple offers within the first week, so I'm not concerned.

I have already spent much time and it seems like I barely make a dent. It's time consuming to go through each box, each drawer, each picture and determine what to do with it. Good news is that a family member will move in with my elderly Mom

They all went into storage. My wife's mother takes days to go through a single box, and usually just puts all of the stuff back in it "to go through again later." So, as I sorted through the house, all boxes containing stuff she might want to look at again went into storage.

Once the closet in her assisted living apartment was full, she agreed that the rest could be donated to charities. We did that almost immediately. She picked out far more clothing than she will wear, but that's OK. It all fit into her new closet and dresser. The rest was bagged up and donated. If we found something we thought she'd like we took it to her, but mostly she didn't want any of it.

The storage thing was my idea. We have a 10' X 10" unit, which is now pretty full. Everything she has asked about is in storage. That seems to satisfy her, and she always says "no" if we ask if she wants us to bring it to her. It's the idea that is important to her. A few pieces of furniture have gone to relatives. Her piano, which she hasn't played for years, went to an organization that provides pianos for kids who don't have one but who are taking lessons. There was a family heirloom buffet that will be picked up by the South Dakota Historical Society, since it was made there long ago by an SD furniture manufacturer. It's in storage, just in case they ever get around to actually getting it.

MiL is 87, and has some minor memory problems, but not Alzheimers. My wife pays her bills for her, makes up her medication box, and handles other such things, because she sometimes forgets to do them. She visits her mom every day and helps her with whatever she needs. She's a nice MiL, with never a bad word for anyone. It would be hard not to like her.

Lost my dad when I was 23, lost my mom when I was 46. Mom was in assisted living up until the end. I finally feel free - - no aging parents, no kids.

My wife still has her mom, who is almost 87. I doubt I'll feel free when they're gone. I talk to my parents on the phone every day, and we enjoy those visits. I can only go to California once a year, so that will have to do. My wife's mom is a nice person, and we both enjoy the time we spend with her.

I'm not looking forward to the "freedom" of them not being around, I must say. Not one bit.

but not my mom. Not one bit. She was mentally ill and I cared for her my entire life. This is why I'm loving my 50s now.

equipment, don't get me started.

parents. In my case and my wife's case, they are still much-loved family members. We were their young children once, and I can't imagine how much time and trouble that must have been, since I have no children. So, I'm not too bothered with the inconvenience of their end of life issues. Not at all. I owe them.

we tried to move my in-laws and dad wouldn't hear of it. He had plenty of money for the home health aides/nurses but it would've been so nice to move them closer & likely would have prolonged their lives to be in a more stimulating environment. Definitely something a lot of us are dealing with - stretched thin taking care of both our parents & our own kids. Hope the house sells fast!