Advice on DH's clutter -- PLEASE!

[CB_Catholic]

We have a 3 car garage. With no cars in it.

My husband has electronic parts every where!

Books? I never see him read! Books everywhere!

But my pet peeve?

All the receipts he saves then folds into a little square and puts in his wallet then when the wallet gets full he puts them in drawers. Any drawer!

Then I have to unfold them to make sure they are not important ( because he says they might be) and then I have to shred them!
I have bags of “little squares” that he was suppose to shred that he hasn’t!

The “little squares” are mating can you hear them? SSSSH! Listen!! That is the sound of “little squares” multiplying!

I’m not crazy.

I hear them.

I do.

OH, you are not crazy–I’ve seen them, too. They have mysteriously translocated from your drawers to the top of my entertainment center. Secretly, during the night. They were running out of room…that’s what they told me…

 

[mercygate]

I’m not a very nice person. I don’t know if my take on it is good, but I’d tell him that the space occuppied by the offending item is MINE and I want THAT SPACE BACK.

Also, if I were married to a packrat, I would absolutely be sneaking things out of the house. I’d throw away “his” stuff. Because I have a right to an orderly, safe, and peaceful home.

Hmmm. Your philosophy is impeccable.

I have a feeling it would lead to an orderly, safe, and not-so-peaceful divorce!

 

[HOPEFUL_IN_UK]

Hmmm. Your philosophy is impeccable.

I have a feeling it would lead to an orderly, safe, and not-so-peaceful divorce!

My feelings about clutter are strong enough that I would want one. I’m not a neatnik. I have a “normal” amount of clutter. But, everything we own has a home and can be put in its place. There are people who can’t shut a door or reach a light switch because of the clutter piled up in their homes. I’d no sooner live with someone with a hoarding compulsion than I would with someone who had a crack addiction.

 

[Little_Bit_Mary]

Thanks for the tip about FlyLady. I joined up today. God Bless You on your new baby.

 

[mercygate]

Thanks for the tip about FlyLady. I joined up today. God Bless You on your new baby.

We’re in the bedroom zone this week. Ours is now pristine and perfect on the surface. My dresser is half empty. DH’s is full of stuff he’s had in there for 25 years.

 

[KCtheMommy]

We’re in the bedroom zone this week. Ours is now pristine and perfect on the surface. My dresser is half empty. DH’s is full of stuff he’s had in there for 25 years.

I was SO happy to see today’s zone quest of the master bedroom closet! Why? Because I did IT LAST WEEK! LOL

No wait – get this: so did DH!!! :extrahappy:

He got rid of way more clothes than I did, but the purge my closet more often than he does. I am so proud of him.

Today I have decided that I am going to call an emergency family meeting. On clothes, dirty clothes. DH and I already discussed it (he apologized, and while he has done a pretty good job improving his ability to put dirty socks actually in the laundry hamper, he’ll take off the baby’s clothes for a bath – and you guessed it: family room floor. Not even the bathroom, nope family room.) I found a pair of DD’s pajama pants tucked behind hte toy box. DS’s clothes litter my downstairs bathroom today. :banghead:

So I think I’ll make a little chart today with smiley faces or whatever and do some rewards for each family member if by the end of a week they have successfully put their clothes and towels IN THE LAUNDRY and not on any floor or horizontal surface. I’ll spare Dh the condesention, but I’ll reward him at the end of the week if he helps out in this endeavor – if you know what I mean!

I have to order my Home Birth kit today so I think the extra desire for one willr eally push me to finally finish that room with flair. Did I mention I made new curtains for the Master Bedroom the other night! Woot Woot!

 

[mercygate]

I was SO happy to see today’s zone quest of the master bedroom closet! Why? Because I did IT LAST WEEK! LOL

No wait – get this: so did DH!!! :extrahappy:

He got rid of way more clothes than I did, but the purge my closet more often than he does. I am so proud of him.

Today I have decided that I am going to call an emergency family meeting. On clothes, dirty clothes. DH and I already discussed it (he apologized, and while he has done a pretty good job improving his ability to put dirty socks actually in the laundry hamper, he’ll take off the baby’s clothes for a bath – and you guessed it: family room floor. Not even the bathroom, nope family room.) I found a pair of DD’s pajama pants tucked behind hte toy box. DS’s clothes litter my downstairs bathroom today. :banghead:

So I think I’ll make a little chart today with smiley faces or whatever and do some rewards for each family member if by the end of a week they have successfully put their clothes and towels IN THE LAUNDRY and not on any floor or horizontal surface. I’ll spare Dh the condesention, but I’ll reward him at the end of the week if he helps out in this endeavor – if you know what I mean!

I have to order my Home Birth kit today so I think the extra desire for one willr eally push me to finally finish that room with flair. Did I mention I made new curtains for the Master Bedroom the other night! Woot Woot!

Zone 4 is a skate for me, too – not even trying to address the closet (none of MY stuff in it anyway, I use the spare room as a dressing room and all my stuff is in that closet. Last month, in the heavy zone cleaning I temperately remarked that it would be nice if the tacky CD stand parked next to the dresser could find another home – and DH MOVED IT TO THE LANDFILL!!! (aka, cellar). !!! He, too appreciates the serenity and beauty of one of the loveliest rooms in the County.

God love him! He never leaves socks on the floor. He polishes the silver candlestick lamps, and his worst “crime” in the bedroom is not tossing his used tissues into the trash can after he blows his nose. I can live with that!

 

[KCtheMommy]

Here’s a blog I wrote a while ago – I think it sums up a major malfunction in my house!

***“Clothing Hanger’s – One of the World’s Greatest Inventions?”

Well let’s consider this. For one – their design is sublime, and has only been improved upon with niftier substances, for instance wood gave way to wire (Shout out to Joan Crawford. Come on now, you are all thinking it!) which was handier and could keep more clothes hanging in a single closet than the bulkier wood counterpart. Then in came glorious plastic which has as much stability as wood for suits and coats, yet is infinitely cheaper. However, nothing beats those wire hangers for fishing items out of small holes or cracks; not to mention radio and television reception! Ahhh, the hanger, great invention. We do not sing it’s praises enough. We don’t sing the wheel’s praises enough either. Yet we all curse the hanger when it breaks or get’s tangled into other clothing. Just like we curse that damn wheel when it dares go flat.

I apologize that I am not anal enough to provide you all of a literary tour of the history of the hanger, but I would be inclined to read one. Surely, the fact that our clothes can hang wrinkle-free and not be piled in corners of our bedrooms in awesome enough. Well that is, most of our clothes, for if you are Ian and I, those bedroom corner clothing piles seem to reproduce without our knowledge or consent. Uhm, OK without MY knowledge or consent.

So the reason for my hanger commentary is really inspired by my lovely husband. He thinks they are GRAND! Obviously. He thinks they are just so awesome they should never be hidden in a closet, or inside a shirt. Instead he stores them all over the house. He proudly displays them on my banister. They hang from the towel racks in all of our bathrooms. They sometimes hang off my beautiful bed. He doesn’t want the kids to miss out, so they are often shoved into a toy box. Sometimes he leaves them for me to admire on my computer chair. He really wants me to appreciate the hanger when I work in my office, for they are all over my sewing and craft tables. Not to mention the ironing board. The ironing board is morphing into “Ian’s Shrine to the Almighty Hanger.” Some mornings I find an errant hanger trying to crawl on the floor towards the kitchen, it even makes the linoleum. I haven’t figured out if it’s just hungry, or if it took a wrong turn at Alberquerque on the way to it’s closet?

Sigh.

Now my children – they LOVE clothing. They just love for their clothing to be “free” in the same way their dad likes to set his hangers loose: for everyone who passes our threshold to admire. They like to drop their clothes where-so-ever they decide to disrobe – and leave them. No hampers or laundry for them! Oh NOOO, those are apparently special clothes. Even dirty underwear can get a special place on my hallway table! Clean clothes, they don’t want to be in drawers at all – Heaven Forbid they actually hang from hangers. Yet the clothes and the hangers, nary shall they meet, even though they all share the same floor and banister space. It would be unthinkable!

So if you know of any clever cavemen who might invent a simple machine, or even a gadget that helps husband’s place hangers in closets or inspires children to use hampers – do please send it my way. If not I’ll be forced to place hangers in my children’s underwear on the way out the door to school, and children’s dirty underwear in my husband’s pockets on his way to work. Cooperation henceforth?

I’ll let you know.***