Feeling stressed

[Wheresmybiscuit3]

I’m feeling very stressed today about the house.

I feel stressed in general around cleaning and tidying as my mum died when I was young and I don’t feel like I really learned how to clean and keep a house. My dad tried bless him but he was too busy working to pay the bills.

I’m now a fully functioning (reasonably) adult with children and a husband.

I could weep today. I feel very fed to up.

We have too much stuff which I am trying my best to shift… but my husband will insist on putting small items on the market place to sell instead of just chucking it away (like 50p items which might go but is really just crap). I would bet that by the end of the week he will be lucky if they’ve gone. Think little kids toys.

I should say that I am reasonably sure he has ADD as he has always struggled to focus on one task and he flits constantly with attention.

He does try to be helpful. He is very obliging.

He has now been tidying and cleaning one room for the past two hours. I can see lots of bags and crates of stuff… not much has changed. He’s says he is organising.

I’ve done two rooms but it does feel like I’m drowning and not getting very far.

He’s just come and told me he’s nearly finished… I don’t think I agree.

I’m sorry I really just need to offload.

Oh I do feel for you! Someone (was it Joshua Becker) said that if you have to organise your stuff, you have too much stuff. And since I started de-cluttering I totally agree with him.

My DH was like yours and our house just bulged more and more at the seams. I felt hopeless because it's impossible to clean rooms where you have to move loads of crap just to reach a surface to try and polish it.

If all the begging and persuasion fails to get him to see the sense of just donating or trashing stuff can you tell him it's affecting your MH and it all just has to go? As quickly as possible - not necessarily by selling it item by item?

Could you encourage your DH to make larger bundles of small toys and sell them for five pounds each or something like that - 20 items in a bundle. He could list them for a week and then if he doesn't sell them they are donated or dumped.
Does he work well with lists? You could create a cleaning list for each room and the items needed in each room. He ticks off each item and see the progress being made.

Do it all yourself and throw it out yourself. It's your house too OP and you don't deserve to be stuck in a clutter infested house.