@swimcatsmom, we’re right behind you. I wish we could help with the physical aspects of this! Actually, I hope we’re helping with the emotional aspects of this.
Can you hire someone to help you? The heck with whether your H approves or not.
Also: Finish the island, and don’t worry about anything else tonight. You’ll feel fantastic once the island is clear!!
I’ve pretty much been napping since my last post. I did get the island probably 2/3 cleared (it’s a big island). when I read your post I thought yes, I should finish it up. But gosh I’m tired - I think my energy is done for the day.
At some point in time I will have to hire someone - really physically impossible for me to do it all. Not sure I can while H is around. My daughter and her husband (then fiance) cleared enough space in the 3 car garage so I could get my last car in it as a birthday present one year (I’ve had 2 cars totalled by hail). Kept the space clear for several years till garage door broke (H doesn’t like to pay people to fix stuff). Most of that space was filling up with junk again so I made a start on that today. I’d like to get my current 1 1/2 year old Honda CRV in there.
D and her H are planning to help replace the tub in our spare bathroom this summer. I was thinking today I should hire a dumpster to put the old tub and carpet they will be ripping out in and I can use it to get rid some of the other junk. Easier than hauling it around in trash bags. Getting that garage door fixed would make it easier to haul things out.
I’d like to get the house at least decent enough where I’m not mortified to have people visit. When out of town friends or family float the idea of coming I put them off.
It DOES help so much emotionally being able to come here and get support. It also motivates me. Easy to throw in the towel sometimes but just the existence of this thread gets me back to it.
Glad it is going well. Your son in law sounds like a saint!
You’re doing a great job! It’s so difficult when one person keeps undoing the other person’s progress.
@swimcatsmom - high five and kudos.
You are doing a great job, @swimcatsmom.
What would happen if you just took it upon yourself to call someone?
Purging a bunch of tops I don’t wear. Bought some of them in moments I thought I’d wear something other than black or gray. 
@HouseChatte I have a boring black closet, lol. I’ve gotten into patterns on top, black on the bottom and then a light sweater.
One giant bag of garbage and one giant bag to donate. My home office space looks so much better, I almost won’t mind going in there.
Just returned from a short ski trip which prompted me to drag the two bins of ski items we have into the house. Filled up most of a bag with things none of us will ever wear again. Once things are cleaned and ready to go back in, I will fold them MK style and (hopefully) they’ll be much better organized.
I was looking through my grown up coloring books. There are some that I will not color in again because I didn’t love the pictures. Like a Charles Wysocki book. I did like two of them and that was enough. So, toss them or give them to a thrift store? There are plenty of pages left to color, but two or three have already been colored. I kind of think people who like to color might not care that the book isn’t pristine but I don’t know. So, donate or toss?
Donate.
DH buys “used” crossword puzzle books from eBay for just a couple of bucks. Usually one or two puzzles have been started but the rest of the book is fine.
Well the3 big black bags went to the office dumpster today.
But the great news is H agreed to take cardboard to the recycling center AND the bags of cans to the other recycling center. The cans made it to the back of his truck and all the way to the recycling center - but it had closed at 4 and we got there 4.20 :(. Not open till Monday but hopefully they’ll make it. Hoping we get a load of cardboard to the other place tomorrow. It will take a few trips. But agreeing to it is huge progress.
That is excellent news.
I refer to this as the Tom Sawyer effect. (Remember when Tom started painting the white picket fence and then got everyone else to do it for him?)
Boxed up enough Eileen Fisher pieces that I don’t wear for their Renew program to be worth the postage. My drawers are breathing again.
I tried to change my avatar to show the truck load of cardboard, bags of newspaper and bags of magazines (I actually got rid of the magazine rack load of magazines I’d been meaning to go through WITHOUT going through them!) we took to the recycling place today - but I couldn’t figure out how to change it. Can actually see the far wall of the garage (just ?) & there are some gaps in the piles in the den. H was all gungho but I could tell he was getting tired so we stopped when the bed of the truck was about 2/3 full (it’s a 1 ton truck with a long bed so it was a lot of stuff).
Got a long way to go but it feels so great to have made a start.
And even greater to say “we”.
My daughter is a bit of a slob. And a packrat, not because she likes to hoard things but because she’s a reluctant cleaner-upper. Oh, and she lives in my basement while completing grad school. So you can imagine my joy when she packed up three huge boxes of old clothes (some dating back to middle school!) books, stuff and JUNK… and disposed of it all. Most was donated. Suddenly I can walk through my storage room. The fire hazard is decreased. My house feels lighter. This must be an Easter miracle.
So great to hear about the family member participation!
The friend who’s hosting Passover seder tonight and I were texting and she asked if I had any colored cloth napkins she could borrow. That led me to open up my cabinet with all my table linens…I don’t think I’ve sorted through everything in there since I’ve had an empty next. Definitely don’t need 3 hanukah runners, cloths that no longer match my dining room since we changed the carpet, etc. Already have 1/2 bag to pass along and not even done yet.
@swimcatsmom, huge congrats on getting your h to change his mindset and not only stop hindering but even supporting your efforts!!