When we closed on the house I figured I’d start moving more of my stuff out of my parents’ house and into our house. I figured if I tackled the mountain of stuff still in my old bedroom little by little each time I was there, it wouldn’t be such a daunting task to transfer everything.
Monday my mom called me and asked me to come finish cleaning out my closet. She needs the space.
My grandma (Dad’s mom) is 95 years old. She still has all of her faculties about her for the most part. She’s not good with stairs, her vision and hearing are not perfect, but she’s fully capable of living by herself still as long as she has someone to drive her places. Her mind tends to wander when she’s alone for too long though and that solitude tends to distort things she hears on the news and other TV programming, so it’s best that she has someone to keep her company most of the time.
After my grandpa died…eight years ago…my uncle Steve moved back to the farm so Grandma wouldn’t be alone. It worked out for a number of years, but the goal was always to eventually get Grandma to move off the farm and into someplace a little more accessible to everyone else. (Instead of way out in the middle of…well…FARM COUNTRY.) She could either go into an apartment by herself or move in with one of my dad’s siblings. Most likely the ones who handle all of her affairs as it is.
Now Grandma, like my grandpa was, is rather stubborn and resistant to change. She didn’t want to leave the farm. And she certainly didn’t want to move into an apartment by herself. She was presented with a few options and the plan was to get her to move by the time winter rolls around this year.
What she chose to do was to move in with my parents. That wasn’t exactly one of the options presented to her, but she’s 95. They’re not going to tell her no.
She has it all planned out though. They are building some senior housing just down the road from my parents’ house. And when that’s done, Grandma decided she’ll move in there. And she’ll still be close to my parents so my mom can go visit her all the time. (Pretty sure my mom has always been her favorite.) We’ll see how that all pans out, but that’s Grandma’s plan.
She could still change her mind about moving in with my parents too, but in the meantime, they’re starting to prepare for her arrival.
Mainly: cleaning out my stuff from my old bedroom to make room for Grandma’s stuff.
I had a lot of stuff in that 10×11 bedroom. And while the plan was to move it out of there little by little, it’s all moving NOW.
I went to Mom and Dad’s on Tuesday to get started. Mom and I got through roughly half of what was packed in the closet. I threw out a lot of stuff, chose to donate some things, and the rest got packed into my little car and hauled home. Then Mom decided that she’ll finally venture up this way and pack up the rest of the closet (or at least what fits) into her SUV and bring it up here for me. That way we’ll get the work done faster and she’ll finally get to see my house.
That gave me two days to get my house clean to show off and to make room for all that stuff that’s on its way. Sure I needed to clean my house anyway, but this gave me motivation. I could have had it completely done, but…well…this is me so I’ll still probably be cleaning something by the time she gets here tomorrow…or later today as it’s almost 3AM.
It’s a little sad…bittersweet maybe…cleaning out all my stuff from my parents’ house. Before I met Bob I had no intention of moving out. And then I ripped the band-aid off, cut the apron strings (I am EXTREMELY ATTACHED to my mom), and moved out. Now I guess I’m ripping off the next band-aid and moving all my stuff out. Or most of it. There’s still a closet in the basement full of stuffed animals and varied and sundry other things that will get moved eventually. It’s just not on a set time frame at this point.
And if Grandma changes her mind and decides not to move in? Well my mom will finally have more closet space to work with for other things.
And it’s a good thing we have that empty basement.
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