Plotting for an early retirement - anyone want to join me?

MallyGirl

Indeed - I am the more proactive side of the partnership. I will find a way to get him motivated. Just like when he kept saying he would sort the broken extractor fan - it took me getting out the tools to do it myself for him to jump on it and have it replaced the same day, after months of it being broken. Me and power tools and electricity was a scary enough concept for him to take over

AlanP_2

MallyGirl wrote: »

Indeed - I am the more proactive side of the partnership. I will find a way to get him motivated. Just like when he kept saying he would sort the broken extractor fan - it took me getting out the tools to do it myself for him to jump on it and have it replaced the same day, after months of it being broken. Me and power tools and electricity was a scary enough concept for him to take over

He sounds just like me - If I said I'll fix it I will, I don't need someone to remind me every 6 months

bugslet

cfw1994 wrote: »

Good grief: is one of you my wife?
:rotfl:

At least you didn't say are yu both my wives?;)

AlanP wrote: »

He sounds just like me - If I said I'll fix it I will, I don't need someone to remind me every 6 months

I like that one:rotfl:

enthusiasticsaver

My husband is a hoarder too. Cables, bits of wood or steel or things he says will come in handy one day. He has a lot of creative hobbies and uses our 4th bedroom and has cupboards and worktops all the way round which are cluttered all the time. He is constantly losing things.


Me, I have a tiny study half the size of his hobby room which is uncluttered and the surface is always free except for my laptop, printer and phone. I don't see why he needs to keep things like scraps of paper and pens all over the desk. My pens are in the top drawer and scraps of paper are either transcribed onto notes on my ipad/tablet or pinned to the notice board. We could never share a workspace.

DairyQueen

My 80-something, ex-engineer dad hoards everything that could have a 'practical' use. The shed, garage, and very large attic, are crammed with stuff. Every decade or so one of these items is recycled.

One of his justifications for refusing to move home is the need to declutter his beloved stuff, and the effort required to so do.

"If I stay put I'll never have to do it. I'll leave it for you to do when I'm gone".

Perfect. :eek:

kidmugsy

We've found one secret for de-cluttering. Give stuff to a young relative who can be bothered to ebay it.

That plus two local charities gets us slowly pushing stuff out the door. Whether that outflow outweighs the inflow of new stuff is a different matter. It's particularly books.

What's best done with clothes that might fit again if I lost another stone? Or two? Socks with only a small hole in them? Three bow ties and a cummerbund? A beehive that needs the scale of repairs I can't manage anymore? Tins of motor oil so old that the classification system has changed since then? Keys of unknown provenance?

MallyGirl

Tins of paint, a half restored set of brass stair rods from the previous house (been in this one 12 years) which is one short of the number of stairs we have, 2 full drawers of audio cassettes, I could go on ...

bugslet

I thought I might have a side gig of garden design, when clearly there's a market for professional decluttering. My USP? Brutal and ruthless. Lucky to have a spare hair grip by the time I've finished with you:rotfl:

MallyGirl

I will keep quiet about the 2 full book cases of books on garden design and plants - they don't go out of date

bugslet

MallyGirl wrote: »

I will keep quiet about the 2 full book cases of books on garden design and plants - they don't go out of date

That's (future) work related/ongoing study and therefore exempt. Otherwise I might have to chuck my garden related books!:eek: