Mission Impossible

My husband has a problem. He has a very hard time throwing anything out. He still has clothes and other things from before we were married. You have to understand we are married almost 34 years. One of his many possessions is this poster from when he was a teenager called "Building a Rainbow". This poster is hanging on his side of our walk-in closet. The other things hanging around the poster are drawings that my grandson did over the years.




He's not a junk collector, he doesn't bring home other people's stuff. He just can't see throwing out anything if he thinks there might someday be a use for it somewhere. To top it off, he is also kind of sentimental. Our grandson Jesse and his mom lived with us for the first 3 years of his life, when they left my daughter left behind a toy box full of mostly broken toys or toys that had missing pieces. We were very sad when they moved out because the move took them two states away, so it was a while before I decided to clean out his room. I went through the toy box and found only 3 or 4 toys that I thought were worth keeping for him to play with when he visited. Everything else was unusable, so I threw the rest in the trash. Later, when I went into our garage to do the wash I found all the toys I had thrown out stuffed in a corner near all my husband's stuff.

Also, sitting on top of the car that is stored in our garage is an old air mattress with a hole that he said was too hard to find and fix. So I suggested we throw it out and get a new one. Well, we did get a new one but the old one still sits on top of the car in the garage.


Both of our daughters are grown and out on their own, our youngest daughter being 28years old. Today, while looking for some sandpaper for a project I am starting, I found an old pair of tap shoes from when my girls took dance many years ago, on his tool shelf in the garage. Don't get me wrong, I have baby clothes that I saved from my daughters(one or two outfits each), bronzed baby shoes from each(actually bronzed baby moccassins-it was the 70's), and their first dance costumes. But look at the size of those shoes in the picture. He isn't saving baby things, they must have been 15 or 16 years old when they wore those.


The man has a problem, or should I say I have a problem. I am trying desperately to de-clutter and get rid of things. We are trying to sell a 3 bedroom house with a garage to move into a much smaller 2 bedroom house without a garage and we have too much stuff. Don't get me wrong, if I think something is in good condition or usable, I won't just throw it out either. I will either donate it to a thrift shop or sell it at a yard sale, but it will go. I don't know how to make him let go of this stuff.....