To wonder if anyone elses DHs play this game with their wives?

[2kidsintow]

I think the aim of the game is to see how much random crap he can bring into the house and leave in conspicuous and awkward places before my head starts spinning and I explode.

I may play this game with myself.

Knitting stuff. Sewing stuff. Paper stuff. `Seeds and stuff. Every type of medication know to man (in three boxes). Random electrical stuff. Cake decorating stuff. Toiletries. Old kids toys/clothes. Plastic bags.

Returned from work to find that mahoosive box of train tat has been spirited into the loft (if ever my nearest and dearest start to wonder about my strange disappearence, I will no doubt be found pinned to the bed under the collapsed ceiling of my groaning loft)

It has been replaced however, by large pieces of foam.

Why? What for?

My DP brews beer. TAKE UP LOADS OF ROOM.

I do the IT lead hoarding thing - it drives DH mad, but if anyone needs a long obsolete cable or connector I'm your girl!
I also hoard yarn and crafty stuff.

DH has an impressive stash of wood, maps and tools

lequeen I have threatened divorce if one more time he fucks about plugging stuff into other stuff so that when I press the button to turn the telly on I have to adjust the settings on 12 devices just to watch BBC2. This makes him very sad as apparently we are not getting the maximum resolution or whatever out of the HD.....

I told my DH about this thread, and he said "well, the bits of wood do come in useful sometimes"

BTW I think it starts young - don't all small boys drag home small trees sticks from the park? Maybe it's to do with primeval fire making....

^Also, he gets a bee in his bonnet about tidying a certain cupboard, which consists of taking everything out of it and leaving it on the floor in the hall.

We had a dozen vases in the hall for about a month until I put them back where they came from^

Oh dear, that's me in our house

i grew up with a dad who kept a mini (as in the car) engine in the cellar cos we (my sis and me) might need spare parts at some point. We were about 10 and 11 if i remember right.

currently looking at all the possibly useful in the future stuff crap DH has collected

DP and I moved into our new house in June 2010. Since then, the following 'essentials' (all of which I wasn't allowed to skip becasue they would be used frequently) haven't been touched once:

An exercise bike (currently a perch for the cat in the kitchen)
A full set of weights and lifting bar with frame (dismantled in cupboard understairs)
A box full of his original N65 plus games and joysticks (loft, thankfully)
A foot spa (I kid you not - his not mine, on top of kitchen cupboards)

His most annoying collections however, include:

Worn socks down the side of the sofa
Leaving clothes all over the house except the washing machine, wardrobe or washing basket
Loose change all over the dining room table
Cufflinks wherever he takes them off then wonders why the cat plays with them

Oh, and my recent discovery was a secret dumping ground of Dairy Milk wrappers in a shoe box under the stairs.

Cheeky bugger had been sneaking to the shop whilst I was asleep to gorge on chocolate!!

For knitters there is an expression, SABLE or Stash acquired beyond life expectancy. I have a room full of yarn (but working on it!).

Would also like to share our method of decluttering books (we are all big readers, we have ten bookcases, they are all full and we regularly declutter and still need more). One person takes all the books off a shelf. Then all the members of the household take turns in putting back on the shelf ONLY those books that they actually want to keep. The rules are that you do not have to keep anything because you feel you ought and that if you do want to keep it you do not have to justify it. Then get the leftovers out of the house asap before anyone changes their mind. It can be done in stages, not everyone has to be there for the cull and it stops confusion and recrimination.

btw, my late mother collected postcards. My poor DB is still stuck with them, all 70,000 (seventy thousand) of them. They take up too much space. They are a hazard in damp and are stored partly in scrap books which weigh a collective ton. Cables are not so bad.

We moved house last year and I filled 1.5 large skips with stuff DH had accumluated but we'd never used. While sorting to move I discovered 2 boxes from the previous house we'd never unpacked ..in 15 years
Still managed to take a load of "useful stuff" with us and filled the loft of the new house..
Mine still cuts plugs off broken appliances in case we need them (why? New ones come with plugs now - and have done for years)
Also decides to clear out cupboards - and leaves a pile in the middle of the floor I end up dealing with a week later.

I can totally relate to this thread. Occasionally I put DH's "random crap" in a pile and tell him to sort it out, put it away or get rid.

I have thrown things away only to find that he has retrieved them...he even took something to work once because we didn't need it at home anymore. I found it back in the kitchen last week, and still can't get him to get rid of it!

Now, all my well loved craft stuff...that's not random crap at all

robino

Am loving the fact that your DH going off to the Middle East is totally worth it because of him sorting out the rubbish ......

We have a marvelous collection of chargers which I MUST NOT THROW AWAY

The fact that no one in the house has the first fucking clue what they actually charge is apparently irrelevant

In this house I am the Collector!!

I have just this minute thrown out several magazines from 2006.
I collect twigs and pine cones every time I go to the park
(I go to the park every day)
I might need a leaflet about a theatre that is too far away for me to visit in the evening by public transport, I might keep that leaflet for two years.
I hate this, I would love to throw things away without worrying about wasting money.
I am ancient crone raised by people who were hungry and did without in the depression, I will be found in a nest of paper and twigs and cones and gin bottles!!

There are two cupboards in the loft that have not been opened for 14 years!
I am scared to look, have resolved to Deal With It this year!
I am ashamed of this truly!!

Belfast Sink Hankerers - the previous owner's stash of cracked / stained / impractically-sized Belfast sinks is still in our garden...

He does. That's why I'm divorcing him. Listed under "unreasonable behaviour". Serious.

Ah, the TV "system". We have one of these. There are three other boxes, with blinking lights, connected to it. There are five different remotes, which one you need depends on whether you want to watch TV or DVD. I once counted - five different button presses on three different remotes to get BBC1. Then he comes in and says "why aren't you watching this in HD?" To which I answer "am I not already?" This irritates him massively.

When my dad comes round to babysit we have to leave the TV on before we leave as he has no chance of getting the programme he wants otherwise.