Thank you for considering working with Caring Transitions to help you through whatever transition you or a loved one are facing. I’m Gina Siegel and I own this business with the support of my husband, David, and we are looking forward to learning about your individual needs and putting together a plan to help.
Caring Transitions Cincinnati East helps people through any transition, whether you or a loved one are downsizing, moving into a senior community, moving in with family, or managing an estate. Our plans are customizable, so you can choose the individual solutions that best fit your needs. My specially trained team of compassionate professionals can handle decluttering, organizing, packing, moving, resettling, in-person estate sales, online auctions, and donations and clean outs to prepare homes for market.
I grew up on the East side of Cincinnati and graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School and then DePauw University. After college, I worked in Miami, Chicago and New York, but when my parents’ health started to decline, David and I decided it was time to move home. When we got settled in Cincinnati, I began my journey in caregiving – both for my two parents and for our two children. I ended up quitting my job to care for everyone and then soon realized that my parents needed to relocate.
I had wonderful, loving relationships with my parents, but no one prepares you for the unique challenges of caring for aging parents and, in many cases, you go from zero to crisis in a day. It was as important to me to honor my parents as it was to make sure they were safe and happy. My mom was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s and although she was physically healthy, it was no longer safe for her to live in her home. Meanwhile my dad, who was cognitively strong and living alone, was in stage-four heart failure and could no longer climb the stairs in his home. We realized pretty quickly that my mom needed assisted living and that my dad would thrive in independent living, but it all happened so fast that we ended up moving them on back to back days. It had to be that quick and it was incredibly stressful, both for my parents and for us as a family.
Before the move, my dad was able to go through everything with me and talk about what he wanted to save and what we could sell or donate, but my mom was more of a collector. She had a nicely decorated home in Hyde Park where every drawer and closet was filled with things that were valuable to her, not including the three full storage units she had been renting for more than 30 years! Even after selling items through an online auction, we still had 95 percent of her things left to disburse. We had to delay the closing of her home because we couldn’t get the house cleared out in time. My parents have since passed away and, even after they were gone, we still had the storage units as well as our own garage and basement filled with items from their homes.
When we began these relocations and estate clearings, we thought we could save money doing everything ourselves, but in five years, we had spent more than $20,000 getting everyone moved (six times over three years), managing the estates, paying for storage, dozens of trips to online auction houses, consignment shops, donation facilities and more. That doesn’t account for the lost wages from quitting my job or the incidental costs over the years.
With Caring Transitions, we were able to do in a few weeks what we couldn’t do in years – sort through what to keep and how to thoughtfully distribute the rest. I’m looking forward to bringing our experiences and our team of compassionate professionals to help you or your loved ones with the transition you are facing.
Caring Transitions Cincinnati East is CRTS certified and all of our employees are background checked, insured and bonded. We look forward to learning about your individual needs and building a customized plan designed specifically for your needs.