How do those of you wanting to declutter deal with MESSIES?

[CerridwenLorelei]

I am married to the worlds biggest self proclaimed packrat. I have decluttered a bunch of mine and the kids stuff but dh has string he had in third grade kwim?
It drives me nuts but its his stuff
He started but never finished a storage shed to move a bunch of his boxes/stuff out of our bedroom
its not finished so not waterproof ( been two years now)
Sometimes I just want to scream
we have 6 people and two dogs in a 950 sq ft house. I know the br would look bigger and airier with a bunch of that stuff out
and if the shed gets done then I can put out my ggmas antique singer which is HUGE
very first electric but still the big iron flip table thing
( I want to sell it because I will never use it and use that money for my kids or to start a house or addition fund)
and sell some other antiques that I was told were mine to do with as I wished and DECLUTTER
( dh said what are you going to leave your kids umm the $$ from the sales or the other antiques that stay lol)

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR SANITY when you want to declutter and your SO/DP keeps stacking and packing?

[opally]

It is so hard, isn't it ? I deal with this too, and some days it drags me down so much. I have been determinedly decluttering my stuff (and the kids') for months now, but pretty much every week dh brings in more junk (thanks to yard sales, estate sales, alley shopping, etc etc), and this is with an enormous collection of crap already clogging the house. I also love saleing, but I'm discriminating about what I will buy/allow into the house - and I've encouraged him to also look at things with a careful eye (need it ? love it ? can't live without it ? okay - but nothing that doesn't meet that criteria). Unfortunately, this is a man that can love any straggly piece of trash, so it all seems to come in.

The only thing that seemed to have any effect is when I took him on a tour of the storage areas of our house, and pointed out that he dominates all of these spaces with his stuff. There are 5 people in this house, and one of them hogs all of the storage. The inequity there seemed to have some effect, and he began packing up a bunch of storage boxes with his stuff and moving it to the garage (which is already jam packed - all his stuff).

Part of me admires that he can see potential/use/function/etc in pretty much anything. But mostly I just feel like all the stuff - the junk & clutter (and did I mention the 40+ chairs in our 1600sq foot house) is driving me batty.

[CerridwenLorelei]

ooh too bad we aren't close I could

take some of those chairs off your hands for you LOL
I need some to replace my kitchen chairs that died ...

Maybe we should start a thread in FYT "mamas married to messies/packrats" :LOL