Today....I Shred

No, I'm not pulling fancy tricks on my skate board.

I mean the other kind of shredding. That you run papers through and they get turned into confetti. Let me explain...

I'm continuing my efforts in trying to get rid of 30+ years of junk that has accumulated in this house. I've already attacked the attic and immortalized it here and here.

My current excavation is the room that The Hubs refers to as "The Office" and Darling Daughter and I refer to as "Dad's Junk Room." There's a real sense of urgency to this project. Let me explain...

The Hubs is due to start dialysis immediately. He has chosen Peritoneal Dialysis, which is done at home. This is creating several problems. Let me explain...

Monday of this week he informed me that there will be 60 - yes 60 - boxes being delivered any day now, PLUS equipment, for his home dialysis. We have a VERY small, old farm house. The Hubs is King Pack Rat of All the World. We don't have room for 60 of ANYTHING in this tiny house! Plus, his dialysis should be in a sterile environment.

So this week I am attacking "Dad's Junk Room." The plan is to empty it out completely, then have a very talented carpenter friend of ours tear out the old horsehair plaster, replaster, new floor, new lighting. Create a better environment for his dialysis.

The reason I want EVERYTHING cleared out is because he has not touched any of the stuff in this room for years. It's not even a Man Cave as he never goes in there. It's just a room full of old pre-marriage stuff sitting there taking up space.

I knew this clearing out was going to be extremely painful for The Hubs. He does not willingly part with ANYTHING, and he has a skewed vision of what needs to be saved and what can be tossed. Basically he wants to save everything and toss nothing. Change does not come easy for him. Which is kind of weird since he is an engineer and designs newer and faster computer chips for a living.

I had a friend help me and we hauled out a lot of big stuff. (Two old computers - and I mean OLD - mid 1980's - that were just sitting in a corner.) Notebooks and binders from COLLEGE - the man is 56 years old!!! I left the ham radio he built when he was 12. I intend for it to go eventually but I thought he might like to tell Darling Daughter a bit about it before it does.

I was beginning to think I was married to Howard Hughes in the creepy years. Thank God I didn't come across any jars of his fingernail clippings....or worse. (Remember all that weird $h!t they found after Hughes died? He had saved EVERYTHING.)

Now I'm down to his old files. Which he thinks are all important and need to be saved. PUH-LEEZE! He has every tax return since 1971! (I myself was a mere CHILD at that time but he was working his way through college).

Tonight we had a fight chat. Unbeknownst to me, he actually WENT THROUGH THE DUMPSTER yesterday morning to see what valuable things of his I've thrown away, and he hauled some stuff out. Did I mention it rained all day? The man sorted through junk in a dumpster IN THE RAIN. He has serious problems, this guy.

My plan for today? I'm taking my heavy-duty shredder in and start going through his ancient file cabinet. He'll cringe when he hears about it. But at least he won't be able to pull it all out and piece it back together.