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Too Much Clutter!
When our closets began to overflow, we had to make some tough choices. He Said: She won't get rid of anything. She Said: He had too much junk.
By Kelly Butterbaugh | posted 9/12/2008 11:35AM
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Kelly's side: He has too much junk
Living in a small Cape Cod house without an attic or a garage doesn't leave us much storage space. Since the basement serves as a much needed workshop, everything finds its way into our closets upstairs. Every time I open a closet I'm disgusted by the jumbled mess of clothing mixed with odds and ends. But every time Bob and I try to clean them, we wind up arguing over what goes and what stays. In the end, everything stays and we've accomplished nothing.
I've been involved in a lot of activities and have many mementos. Bob insists they're junk and need to go. But when I look at the pile of his things, I can't understand why we should keep them either. He saves even the plastic cups from sporting events!
"Why can't you get rid of these work coats?" I complained one day as we attempted yet again to organize the coat closet. "You don't wear most of them and they take up too much space."
"Look who's talking!" Bob retorted. "Your shoes fill this entire rack. I have to keep mine upstairs."
By the time we finished, the only things we'd lost were our tempers.
There must be a way to organize our house without winding up at each other's throats.
Bob's side: She won't get rid of anything
When it comes to filling the closets, it's not my stuff that takes up the most space. Kelly keeps things for sentimental reasons. Yet when it comes time to clean a closet, she's quick to get rid of my stuff. She forgets I have sentimental attachments too.
Kelly has all her old prom dresses, college notebooks, and childhood stuffed animals. She can't see that just because we get rid of the items doesn't mean she won't keep the memories.
What's worse is that she's claimed the larger of the dresser drawers, so I have to hang most of my clothes in the closets. My shirts are so wrinkled from being crammed in the cramped space, I have to iron them a second time before wearing them.
Trying to clean the coat closet was the last straw. Kelly has nearly 20 pairs of shoes on the rack downstairs, and my 3 pairs are forced to live in the upstairs closet because there's no room. My work coats bother her, but I earned them as service awards by striving to meet safety and quota standards each year. Many of them are brand new, so it would be a waste to give them away.
There must be a way to live with my wife without all her stuff.
What Bob and Kelly did
Bob and Kelly's breakthrough came while watching a home organizational program on television. The couple on the show were cleaning a messy room.
"They put everything on the lawn so they could see as they sorted," Kelly relates. "We laughed at first because the entire lawn was covered with the contents, but then it seemed like a good idea."
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