Day 1

Today I'm beginning a vigil to clear my kitchen counter tops of my husband's crap. I've had this blog for a very long time and only used it sporadically. It has merely been a log of my frustrations with my husband's clutter and stacks when I feel them boiling up. But no more.

Keep in mind that most of this has been stacking up over a period of months with my asking nicely every week or so that he PLEASE sort through the junk and put it all away. "Nice" never gets me anywhere.

Starting today I will post pictures every day of his crap for as long as there are pictures to post. At this point I do not plan on posting anything other than pictures and a tally of the days running in the title. But we will see how long I can hold my silence, won't we?







~Sleeping Mommy

Almost there...

I really wish I had a photo of the Garage before. It was BAD.

Here it is now. This is about three weeks after the initial cleaning and organization. Most days the kids can play in here and on the driveway with their bikes, etc.



Now if only I could get the man to clean off this counter in the kitchen. It's almost all his stuff. Stuff he needs to sort through and throw away or file or pay.



My only consolation is that it's not all of the cabinets and when you walk in the door from the garage it isn't the first thing you see.



You can see it from the living room doorway though. See? This was taken yesterday.



So that's a problem. I'll be gone all day tomorrow. It would be a great time for Snoring Daddy to take care of this, wouldn't it?

Hey, a girl can dream can't she?

~Sleeping Mommy

Did you all know?

It's the great mofo delurk day? See, there's a button and everything.



It's as good a day as any to update. I have no pictures to post at the moment. The past several months have been busy but the new house is finally moved into and unpacked. I even got my husband to help me clean up the garage of all his crap a couple of weekends ago! I missed a great posting opportunity. I should have taken a picture so everyone could appreciate the improvement. We can actually park a car in our two car garage now. Notice I said A car. Not cars. We have quite a bit still stored in the garage. There's almost room for a second car but the christmas tree box is huge, dude, and we refuse to haul it and the rest of the Christmas decorations upstairs to the attic.

We finally got a dog fence built and installed an electric fence around the perimeter last weekend courtesy of the wonderful Sherry of If it's not one thing it's your mother, one of our contributors here at My Husband's Crap. Her dog is now "too fat to get under the fence" at her house and when she heard all our troubles keeping our dogs inside of our's she volunteered their electric fence. Bless her. It's working so far! Thank you thank you thank you!

Right now I'm praying for a cold snap to stop the growth of the grass. I had to mow our lawn the week before last using a push lawn mower. It took me five hours over the course of three days that week to get everything mowed. I don't want to have to do that again this year. But if it keeps growing I probably will because I doubt my husband is going to get the shredded tires replaced on the 1979 John Deere lawn tractor--which would probably shorten the length of time it takes to mow the lawn by half of what it took with the push mower. But we need money for that and we just don't have it to spare right now. So push lawn mower it will be. Again--barring a good old fashioned deep freeze real soon.

Well, as Al Roker would say, That's what's happenin' in our neck of the woods. I'll try to get some pictures the next time I'm irritated with the clutter and mess around here. But these days, I have to admit, that's not so much my husband's crap as my kids' being pigs. So I'd better post that over at My Kids are Pigs instead.

~Sleeping Mommy

We've Moved!

Finally, we are moved into our new house. Now the trick is to finish getting all our crap out of the old house's storage building and shop. Why is this a trick? Because neither my husband nor I want to go back to that hellhole AND it's been raining for weeks.

The yards are swamps and it's been nearly impossible to get into the back yard of the old house. Luckily the new owner plans to make it a rent house and is giving us time to make a few improvements to the property as well as get out. For now. I hope the guy's patience holds.

Now, to get unpacked at our new house--not easy when I'm relying on my husband for so much of the moving of the boxes and hanging of shelves and whatnot. It's driving me crazy. I predict future postings soon, regarding my husband's crap--because my patience is rapidly disappearing! But I'm trying to hold on because he has a deadline approaching to turn in the manuscript of his book to his editor.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of the new house!



I really wish the rain would stop and everything would dry out so that we could mow the lawn and get a fence built for our dogs. Then we could enjoy that wonderful front porch. Right now the dogs are tied up on it. And the flies and mosquitos are swarming. It. Sucks. The. Big. One.


~Sleeping Mommy

Anyone Know a Professional Floor Guy?

He thought he could redo the floor in a weekend. Wish me luck.

Catt

PS - Full story on my blog.

Commitment, Counseling, Compromise

Well, it has been several months since I last posted. It seems that counseling has helped. While I cannot speak for my husband, I will assess the situation the way I see it.

At first DH went to counseling because he wanted me to get better (typical). But he soon realized that he was contributing to the unrest as well. I think he finally realized that the clutter was truly affecting me as badly as I claimed. He also realized some hidden anger, and that his anger caused him to ignore my requests for help.

It takes an humble man to admit all this, but he did. That alone got things heading the right direction.

So here is the atmosphere now: DH volunteers to help me hang pictures and clean up. We took a truck load of stuff to the flea market. He has developed a budget and no longer spends money foolishly (which he did when he was angry). He has short-term and long-term goals for getting the house clutter free and organized. Life is pleasant in our home now.

What did I do to bring about change? I packed up MY superfluous items (even things I wanted) and moved them out. I painted the interior of the house, which helped it look clean, and the color on the walls reduced the “look” of clutter. I learned to accept my husband’s limitations. His efforts at change are tremendous, so I’ve let go some of my expectations. In other words, compromise.

Also, my sister loaned me a book called “It’s All Too Much” by Peter Walsh which I highly recommend to all of you and your spouses. I just read it last night, myself. It sure put in words what we have all been trying to say. Here is an excerpt from page 45:

Clutter denies us peace of mind: Time and again, the people I deal with attribute much of the conflict in their relationships or the sense of hopelessness in their lives to the clutter itself. . . . .I constantly see couples whose lives are torn apart from their arguments about disorganization. Many of these people also struggle with anxiety or depression.

Due to fear of copyright infringement, I will stop there, but you get the picture. It is what we already knew: Clutter Causes Chaos.

I Hope the rest of you are Conquering the Clutter problem.

Cyclothymic Cister

A solution in sight?

Could it be? After all this time, and my near complete despair of ever making any progress with the man, there may be a solution in site when it comes to my husband's crap.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. The solution involves moving to a "new" (to us) home, with a lot more space. We have one in mind and are hoping (desperately) that it is meant to be and will work out. However if its not this particular house we will keep looking and working on the finances so we can get the right one when it comes along.

The one we are looking at requires a great deal of work. Some of it cosmetic, some of it a more in depth remodel. However the potential is nearly-endless (to us) with this particular home. It has four bedrooms! Two and half baths! A garage! And drum roll please....a room on the first floor that will serve beautifully as an office--complete with a DOOR!

However, it could be that this one is not meant for us. It could get snatched out from under us--but we are hoping the work the house needs will be a deterrent to anyone looking at it.

So this is an official call for your fingers to be crossed for us. Even though I know I'll be cursing the work we have to put into it, once we get it done it would so be worth it.

And whats even more important, he would have NO excuse at all for leaving his crap lying around where people can see it. We would have an office and a garage and eventually a shop that it could all go to. NO EXCUSE!

~Sleeping Mommy