Well knowing that you guys take almost or as many pills as I do makes me feel better. Sometimes I do get depressed because it seems like I'm taking pills all day long. I, too, inherited problems from my folks like diabetes & heart disease & the high BP, so it's not ALL my fault. I do walk every day & watch what I eat & I feel good 95% of the time so I can't ask for more than that.

Were previous owners smokers? We redid a rental house & got new screens, 2 coats paint on each room, completely redid the kitchen, new cabinets, countertops, new appliances, light fixtures, etc. New floors & new carpet throughout. As we worked of course it was fall & had windows open. Right after realtor started showing the house to renters it got cold & we had to turn on heat, wow, did the house stink, we opened up that furnace door & it was dark dingy yellowed smoke, stale stink. so hours more of bleach water & cleaners before the place was pretty good. We added bowls of vinegar at night & hid them in the morning. by the time renters moved in it was pretty good. So try vinegar bowls where kids & critters can't get at them Open box of soda in closed in areas might help. Take a vent cover off & wipe out area of vent & rinse rag out in clean bowl of water, is it all brownish? Then it's probably the vents, if it is just dirty water with no smell that might not be it. I took a long skinny broom to couple of my vents a few times, got almost nothing out but I had gotten a high quality duck tape for attics & seams & so I guess nothing get in them to speak of. I have allergies big time, also clean out the area under furnace where air goes into to it from hall. I put a heavy piece of carpet pad that is covered with plastic on the floor under there & then wipe out couple of times a year by taking vent cover off. Of course no 1 smokes in my house but that area does get some dust. Yes fridge, freezers & humidifiers have drip pans that need cleaning or they can make you sick. Also if you have any drains that don't have water in the elbow sewer gas can come up & make you very sick, is there drain in center of basement floor- be sure to put gallon of water down it often or keep it covered, upstairs bathroom not used, get water in all the drains including tub or shower. Good Luck, Hope you find the problem soon.

"Well, the biggest piece is a 20-year-old Ethan Allen sofa. The fabric was navy in a former life, but is faded & torn now. Conceivably, someone might want it to reupholster. Perhaps I could sell it for cheap then give the money to charity." No offense, but it doesn't sound like an item that many people would want or could use. Reupholstering is pretty pricey anyway so that wouldn't be anyone's bargain. I'd suggest paying to have it removed. As you say, that gives someone some money for doing the labor. And before I get jumped on by those who will say 'beggars can't be choosers' etc, I think that in today's world of mass production when there are a lot of decent items being discarded, charities shouldn't be expected to come haul off decades old, faded and torn heavy furniture. That is a service to you, not the charity. I've called Salvation Army and also a homeless assistance agency here in my town, similar to what has already been described. They have a 'showroom' in which families transitioning from shelters to permanent homes can pick out what they need. Then again I tend to be a serial remodeler, unfortunately. So the stuff I've been discarding is relatively new and although not top of the line, still in pretty good condition. I do have a massive tv armoire that was cheap to begin with and now has the back coming apart, the door hanging etc. I'm going to have my son take that to the trash station when I get ready to replace it; I wouldn't donate it because it is junk. Ann

We've had much better luck with Craig's List than free cycle. For appliances, we sold them on Craig's list - we actually got lucky with the frig and oven and found people in the wanted sections and negociated a reasonable price/no hassle and that was it. Sold the dishwasher. Gave away a few cabinets, threw away a few (disassembled/left by the curb/cut up to smaller pieces). We tried Habitat - they first didn't come, then came and didn't take much... never will use them again. Frecycle folks are usually a hassle - want you to deliver, don't have a truck, can't lift themselves, and lots of drama but that's just our experience. We haven't had to rent a dumpster - we just slowly throw stuff away - get good trash bags and load up 2-3 trash cans each week. Sometimes we'll move one over toward the neighbor so they can't tell whose it is... she wouldn't mind if we put it at her end nor would several others as she has the same house we do and loves what we are doing. For windowes (example), we threw out 3-5 sections each week for how ever many weeks and it worked out fine. Saved dumspter fees and a trip to the dump - neighbor was going to try to get rid of them too but why bother him.