My husband can’t throw anything away.
I say that with love, mostly. After forty years of marriage, I’ve made my peace with it. But it took me a long time to get here, and a lot of arguing I wish I could have back.
You probably know the type. He keeps the broken toaster because he’ll fix it someday (someday has not come). He keeps three tangles of old cords for gadgets we no longer own. The garage has a whole shelf of “might need it” that we have never once needed.
“We might need it.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that, I could buy a bigger house to store it all in.
For years, this drove me up the wall. I’d nag. He’d dig in. I’d toss something when he wasn’t looking, and he’d notice, and we’d have the same tired fight all over again. Nobody won those fights. We just both ended up cranky.
If you’re married to a man who won’t throw anything away, you already know exactly what I mean. The frustration is real, and so is the love, and living with both at once is its own special challenge.
So let me tell you how I finally stopped fighting a battle I was never going to win, and found real peace in my own home anyway. Not by changing him. I gave up on that. By changing what I did about it.
It’s been the best decision I’ve made in years.
Forty Years of “We Might Need It”
Let me paint you the picture, in case you don’t have your own version at home.
There’s the drawer in the kitchen that won’t close because it’