We are leaving on vacation tomorrow. Even though I've been off for the past two weeks, I still feel like I could use it. I've spent almost ever day sorting through boxes of stuff in our basement and my husband's old office. I don't think he throws anything away.
Example: A few months ago (May, I think) he found an article online describing how to make a Star Wars light saber using plumbing parts. Of course, he had to make it! No problem. We drop everything to run to Lowe's that night and he spends a half hour and 25 bucks picking out all the right parts. When I cleaned out his office two days ago, guess what I found? All of those pieces, still in the bag, never touched!!! Our basement was literally full of half started, then forgotten about projects. Most of them were relatively expensive. And action figures!! Why a 32 year old man needs 3 or four boxes of action figures is beyond me.
He's been telling me for years that there is this one yellow box down there that is sacred. guess what was in the box?! Wrigley's Spearmint gum, six or seven of the same Gumby figurines, Certs Cool Mint Drops, a condom, the cellophane wrapper from a pack of cigarettes, a couple of justifiably sentimental items, and a whole lot more garbage (literally). After sorting through that box, I realized that sacred is code for "it's not fun to sort through it, and I don't need anything in there right now, so let's just throw it in the basement and forget about it."
Needless to say, I've hauled off 12 bags of garbage, have a massive yard sale pile (when in the hell will we ever need "Authentic German Riot Gear" from berlin before the wall came down??????? and why did he buy it to begin with?????) and a much reduced set of boxed on shelves.
I realized that we both keep to much stuff, but the difference is that I go through my personal stuff every so often and purge what is no longer necessary. Sure I may occasionally regret throwing something away, but I don't pitch anything irreplacable. And I don't use the basement as a dumping ground for stuff I don't want to deal with.
He hasn't been happy with what I've done, but he's tried to hide it and be mature about it. He knows that my logic is sound, it's just difficult for him to let go of some things. And difficult to not know what's been let go of and what hasn't.
Anyway, what I really stopped to write about is my mom.