Oooh, oooh, that smell...

So we're doing the triple-switch move here in our family. No, this is not an Olympic event. It's what happens when you move your parents into Assisted Living, move your sister into your parents' house and then move your daughter into her college apartment. Basically, it's a lot of moving...and lifting...and sorting. It's awful. It makes you say to yourself: "Why did I ever buy ANYTHING?" It makes you want to become a reverse hoarder....or a monk.

I feel the worst for my sister. When Mom and Dad moved in with us, we got them and a bunch of their stuff. Yeah, it was challenging, but we managed to keep it to a minimum. My sister ended up with the remnants of 60 years of marriage. Fortunately, my parents had only lived in that house for about 14 years, but don't underestimate the amount of crap that can be collected in that time.

And along with that crap comes the issues of dealing with a house inhabited by old people...and their poor judgments. For instance, a few years ago, Mom and Dad recarpeted the living room. In that living room, they had a large armoire. Well, they must have hired the least reputable carpet company in the Chicagoland area. Here's what my sister found when the carpet cleaners moved the armoire:

That's right, THE FREAKING CARPET COMPANY LAID CARPET AROUND THE ARMOIRE. I still can't believe it. Who does that? Just for fun, I asked my Dad about this. His response was: "No, I don't remember that, but of course you'd carpet around it." I told my sister that we found out when the dementia began.

But honestly, that's not the most daunting thing. The worst, for my sister is the smell. We've been trying to figure out what it is, but it's definitely unique. And apparently very real. (Click here to read about it.) In any case, that's what Sis has been doing - trying to rid the house of the smell so that she and her family can move into a house that doesn't make them feel like 80 year olds are sitting next to them. She's done a great job thus far and I'm certain that once she and her family are in there, everything will freshen up nicely.

In the meantime, I'm making mental plans to start cleaning out my basement...