Sunday, March 28, 2010

Simplifying Roadblock...

 You may remember my quest to simply my home when I wrote about it here back in January. It hasn't gone so well. I hate the overwhelming feeling of clutter and having too much stuff so I took action and cleaned out our office and half of my closet...and that is as far as I've got to date. :: Sigh :: 

I have a hard enough time keeping up with my obsessive compulsive cleaning tendancies to tackle another room since my time is limited to when I'm not working and when Lucy is napping, so that is like a total of 7 hours over the weekends. However, my neighbor had a garage sale yesterday, (yard sale for you East Coasters, I've always thought its funny how in Oregon we call it a "garage sale" and how in Connecticut they call it a "yard sale"), and it made me YEARN, yes YEARN, to get rid of the clutter and stuff we do not use and have a garage/yard sale as soon as possible. Plus I intend on using the proceeds from that garage sale to purchase a garage door opener, because getting rid of our junk would mean a cleaned out garage which in turn would mean I could park my car in the garage for the first time in five and a half years, which is exactly how long we've lived here.

So while Lucy was down for her nap this morning, which on Sundays means that instead of relaxing I am madly cleaning the entire house, I was cleaning underneath out TV stand. I cleaned off the damn old school Nintendo that I bought for Rob three years ago for the millionth time and thought to myself," this is exactly the type of thing that would be perfect to go in the yard sale". Why? Oh maybe because he's turned the thing on approximately four times in the past three years. FOUR TIMES in THREE YEARS! Unless he is sneaking home from work during the day to play it, in that case we may have a whole host of other problems, I don't think it is ridiculous to suggest that maybe this is the exact sort of thing that we think about putting out to sell.

Me: "Hey Rob, so you know how I want to have a garage sale soon, to get rid of all the stuff we don't use? What would you think about selling this Nintendo? I mean you never use it and it just sits here collecting dust.."

Rob: ::HORROR:: "No! NO! I love the Nintendo. I don't want to get rid of it! NO!"

Me: "Really? You've used it like four times in the past three years..."
 
Rob: :: Indignant :: "Not true. I use it all the time. We're totally keeping it" (ps. this is absolutely not true)

::Sigh:: Rob 1. Simplifying 0. This is the thing about my husband. He doesn't buy things very often at all, however, he keeps every.little.thing. He's a total pack-rat. He will not get rid of things. He hangs on to ripped shirts he's had since college until they practically fall off of him. He has calenders from 2003 in his boxes in the garage. He keeps old tools that don't work and that he makes no attempt to fix. He is horrified when I throw out his old underwear that have holes in the crotch ("those were totally still good!")

I think I've found my other major roadblock to my wishful simplifying of our home -- my husband who wants to keep things that he never uses, and will most likely use less than three more times in the next ten years.

Oh well, what can you do? I guess if the Nintendo is fun for him when he plays it once every other year or so, then keeping it's ok with me (begrudgingly), but those calenders from 2003? They are OUT of here...secretly.

“You don't need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.”
- Guy Finley











8 comments:

sadie607 said...

Haha good for you for de-cluttering. I'm a pack-rat by nature and need to get on board with getting rid of things.

(BTW where I live in CT they call them tag sales).

Anonymous said...

I have a husband with the same problem. We have over 500 old vhs movies. We don't even have a vcr hooked up anymore!

Lauren said...

It must be a husband thing. Mine has BOXES of old gaming systems (from Nintendos, to Segas, all the way back to Magnavox Odysseys.) Seriously, he N.E.V.E.R. plays them, but refuses to throw them away, donate them, or sell them. Why? Because they are "collectibles". All they are really "collecting" is dust, in the shed, outside. ::Sigh::

I'm right there with ya!

Unknown said...

LOL @Sadie, I was coming to say the same thing! Northern part? I still know what yard sale, garage sale, rummage sale, junk sale, and estate sale mean though!

AP said...

My husband is not a pack-rat, but he will have/buy something and then NEVER touch it, so I wait a respectable time and then magically it finds a new home :o) He never notices (unless I haven't waited long enough). Have you ever watched Clean House?? You might need to get psychological on Rob in order to clean out that garage! Good luck with your continued de-cluttering!!

PS: I'm from the East Coast and we always called them garage sales while others called them yard sales- I think it just depends on whether or not you have a garage, or maybe what your family called them :o)

julie said...

so funny - my husband is the total opposite! I have to fight with him to keep things like Christmas decorations! He'll wake up in August one day and say "this house is a nightmare!" and start creating piles of give-away, trash, etc. Inevitably, when he gets to the Christmas decor he yells "Jules?! What is all of this? What am I supposed to DO with this junk?! We haven't used this in at LEAST six months!" Um, yeah, because they're CHRISTMAS decorations. We use them 1x per year. Now please come down off your ledge. It has actually become kind of a joke. I'm no pack rat either, but together, we take 'simplifying' to a new extreme!

Cadie said...

Hahaha! I totally have the old calendars, too! Maybe it runs in the family?!? And, that conversation sounds all too familiar. It usually involves the hubby rummaging through any boxes downstairs wondering what beloved clothes have been hidden and marked 'Goodwill'. :)

Anonymous said...

My husband does the same thing so just do what I do and when he is out of town or at work...get rid of a little at a time...He'll never notice! :)

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