The best decluttering in our house this fall wasn’t mine.
It was my husband’s.
One Sunday evening in October, he came out of his den with a yellow legal pad. He set it on the kitchen table, next to my coffee, and tapped it with his pen.
“I made a list,” he said. “Things I’m done with.”
I almost dropped my cup. This is the man who keeps coffee cans of screws and fixed a leaky faucet with parts from his “might need it” pile. In forty years of marriage, I had never once seen him make a list of things to give away.
I didn’t say a word about it. (That part took real effort.) I just asked if he wanted help carrying anything.
If you’re married to a keeper, I know what you’re hoping. So let me share what he let go of, in his own order. I’ll also share what I learned about decluttering for men over 60 by staying out of the way.
How It Started
It started in the garage. In September, he asked me to help him clear it, because my car had sat in the driveway all last winter.
We had one rule out there: his things are his call. I d