Ways to Force Your Wife to De-Junk

Okay, Ryan's found the secret and I decided that since it was so wise (and has actually felt pretty good to de-junk), that we would share the secret with all of you ...

• Step 1: Move. The further you move, the better the results.
• Step 2: Leave her alone to pack, for three weeks. She'll be overwhelmed & leave many garbage piles like this for the garbage men. She'll also scratch her head wondering where it all came from. (Oh my goodness ... can you imagine how much those guys must have hated me???).
• Step 3: Make comments like ... I don't know how we'll ever fit all the Christmas stuff in ... then she'll be willing to give her friends the 20 boxes of baby clothes she was holding onto (just in case we need them someday) ... just to make sure the tree fits in the truck.

Because seriously ... baby clothes or Christmas tree ... which would you pick???

• Step 4: Move to a larger home, so she'll think it'll be more spacious. Then, pick a larger home with no closets. Seriously, no closets in half the rooms. And no attic space. And a tiny one car garage ... with no cabinets.

**Then, she'll try to come up with new ways to store it ... with no organization budget.**

• Step 5: And make sure the kitchen only has one large drawer to hold every casserole dish she owns. It makes it more fun to mess with her head like that.
• Step 6: Move during the MIDDLE OF THE WINTER (!!!) ... then the kids can help make messes & she won't have anywhere to let them run around & a lot of days it will be too windy/snowy to even leave the house.
• Step 7: This one, I think he threw in just for fun ... make sure your truck breaks down as soon as you arrive. Then she has no choice but to stay at home and LOOK at the mess ... with the kids ...
• Step 8: Take over a month to try and fix the truck yourself (in all honesty ... he really did try to do it himself). Before taking it to a mechanic.

And you know what happens??? Your wife will "magically" get the overwhelming itch to throw things away, to de-junk, to donate to the Goodwill. Worked like a charm for him. LOL. I have lost track of how many boxes of stuff have been trashed & donated. But it's been a lot.
And I've been surprised at how much cleaner the house has been ... how freeing it can be ... I didn't think we had a lot of excess ... but wow-y! When you have no choice but to look at it, it becomes overwhelming.
And you know what is the funniest part? The guys at the local Goodwill have started to recognize me. This was the latest load taken, my personal goal is to de-junk two more loads ... and that should pretty much handle it.