This is the first time in a while I've had a chance to read through the more recent posts. I have to say my heart goes out to Melissa Stewart, who never did post again, sadly. My first impulse was to suggest putting a lock on the bedroom door! BTW, maifleur01's post of August 28, 2016 wasn't very clear to me. I think what she was saying was that AL facilities might be helpful to early/moderate dementia patients, but not all of them are willing to be moved there. This is very true. My MIL did not want to move. However, we did not give her a choice. She had lived with us for 7 yrs and it was stressing my DH's (her only child) health. The facility we found for her is a world away from the "just sitting in chairs" places. It is a 5-acre secure campus, complete with its own senior center and as mentioned before, a full schedule of activities every day. The regular routines and voluntary activities helped very much in slowing down the progression of her dementia. Her anxiety lessened, and she no longer needed the anti-depressants or BP bills either. She was the ideal candidate for a facility because she was very social but personally awkward at making friends (she felt it was being "pushy" and unladylike to be the instigator). The casual, regular social interactions enabled her to finally make new friends. This non-profit facility is the third-ranked of its type in the state. It has the lowest staff turnover percentage and one of the highest staff-to-resident ratios. The downside is, you need $$$ for this. Without exception we found the better quality full-care facilities did not take Medicaid patients. IF you passed the interview, had a signed evaluation of your mental/physical health from your doctor, and could claim sufficient financial assets for at least 5 yrs of rental expense, you could be accepted as a resident. In such case, as a current resident if you needed care in the future and ran out of funds, the facility can CHOOSE to apply for Medicaid on your behalf so you may continue to be a resident. Most non-profits will do this. Many for-profits, which unfortunately comprise the bulk of the industry and who are rapidly buying up existing non-profits when possible, do NOT do this. No funds = no residency. Always be sure, if you are looking for a facility for an elderly family member, that you make several visits, research their rankings (both federal and state inspections), and ask as many questions about "what if?" as you can. Just FYI, an article last week in the WS Journal on "We're running out of caregivers" said the average cost of a home health aide, full time (8 hr day) is now $49,000/yr. Remember if the aide is hired directly, you are also responsible for Social Security and other taxes, as an employer.

I'm 'anal' about organizing...to the point where I labled the thread in my sewing box so I could find the color I wanted by looking at the top of the spool! My laundry routine is one I've used forever-and I never had to worry about never being able to keep up. My SIL has MOUNTAINS in her laundry room-she hasn't seen the floor in 10 years, I kid you not. Everyone had their own hamper and basket. Every couple days dirty laundry is brought to the LR where I have 6 hampers-one each for whites, towels, sheets/blankets, jeans and grubby work clothes, and two for colored clothes-light & dark. Clothes from the baskets get sorted into the hampers and then anyone can do a load. The routine goes like this-start a load when I get home from work. While dinner is cooking, I can fold up the load that is in the dryer. As the items are folded, they're put into the empty baskets left in the LR. Towels & sheets have their own basket. I also have one big hamper that all the socks go into...I HATE folding socks, so everyone would pick thru the basket for socks, or every once in a while, someone would fold socks while watching TV. Everyone would then be responsible for putting away their basket of clothes so the cycle could begin again. Every night before bed, the washer would be emptied into the dryer and started before bed. If you don't over load the dryer, you won't get wrinkled clothes. This cycle repeats daily. On weekends, I can catch up with towels & sheets. Every night before bed I load the dishwasher and start it. In the morning while coffee is being made, I empty it. Because we have 3 dogs and 4 cats, we sweep daily. Once a week I sweep under the furniture (can get a full dog worth of hair that way) and mop the floors-we don't have carpeting, so it is easier to keep up with the fur. I use the master bathroom-DH uses the main bath-so he is motivated to keep it clean because his customers occasionally need to use the bathroom! My bathroom is neat because I'm so obsessive about organizing-baskets or holders for everything-and I group like for like. I HATE cords hanging around, so I make sure to put appliances away in their baskets when I'm done. I set up a mail station in our garage (where we enter from). DH puts it in a basket, and I sort it right there when I come home from work. There's a recycle bin next to the kitchen door-items I don't need to shred go in there immediately, the rest into my office where they're either shredded right away or put into the bill organizer (also labled action needed, not paid yet, to read, to file). Once paid, they're shredded (I pay on line so I can track it thru my bank). I will admit that I am horrible at filing-so I have a cute picnic basket that I use to hold things that will need to be filed. I keep receipts in another basket and every couple months I sort thru it for filing or tossing. I dust as infrequently as I possibly can-I DETEST dusting. When i see too many cobwebs is when I dust. Lol. Same with window washing-just doesn't get done. Our biggest problem is the kitchen table-it tends to be my dumping ground/staging area. So I bought myself some little handled tubs that I sort thing in to and every couple days I bring the tubs to the appropriate places and put the stuff away. I also keep a basket on the kitchen counter next to the door for things that go outside or that I need to put in my truck. I'd love to say that I live in a model home-but the reality is that I live with a slob husband and a lot of shedding creatures. But I can honestly say that my house is at least presentable. You might trip over a few pairs of shoes or see coats draped over chairs (my pet peeve) but I'm never embarrassed to have drop in guests.

You could actually do a couple different things. You could have one rod and use hangers. You would have to fold them a bit to fit on the hanger and not drag on the floor, but that's usually how they come from the cleaners. For heavy cloths, use two hangers together for added strength. You could also hang multiple rods at slightly different heights and depths. If you have a walk in closet this works great, but will still work with a reach in. Hang the highest rod the farthest back, then one a bit lower and closer and even a third lower and closer than the second. Then you can hang the cloths right on the rod instead of on a hanger. I like the rod because of it's larger diameter it doesn't leave creases in the cloths. You can also overlap them on these rods. For optimum use of space, you'd need to use multiple rods and overlap. Is that totally confusing?!

Alisande, we have a damp basement, too, and, like you said it's a pain to empty it. We have to empty it about twice a day in the wet season. As you might imagine, we're really tired of doing this! We wish we had a floor drain to have it empty into, but we don't since it's an old house. What we're going to try to do--and maybe you can do this, too--is figure out how to get the dehumidifier drain into the laundry sink. In our case, we need to rig some sort of hose for it and figure out a way to raise the dehumidifier to the proper height. But maybe you don't have a sink in your basement... :( Even so, a dehumidifier is worth having. We got ours at Lowes for about $120 and it has been money very well spent. Our basement smells clean and nice, and the items we store down there don't get damp like they did before we were running the dehumidifier. Of course, a dehumidifier can't solve all moisture problems. It definitely sounds like your gutters/etc were causing the problems. You might want to take a look at some books on basement moisture problems. Right now, I have two books out of the library on this subject that are really helping us figure out how to make some simple fixes without calling in the professionals. Home Water and Moisture Problems: Prevention and Solutions by Gary Branson (this one is so good that I'm planning on buying it for friends and family for Christmas!) 5 Steps to a Dry Basement or Crawl Space by Ronald K. Gay I sure hope some of this info is useful. I know how annoying it is to have a wet basement. Good luck!