Is there something in the water on these forums?

[TxZen]

I forgot who posted, so forgive me, BUT my hubby is FINALLY on board with simplifying and downsizing and moving forward with our dreams!!! WOOT WOOT!!!

We had a lovely discussion last night and we agree to sell this house and find something smaller and also look for a condo/townhouse/small house near the Gulf coast as a vacation/future retirement place. OMG!! It's happening.

I also convinced him to clean out his dresser and sell the bedroom furniture. WOOT WOOT!!!

Life is good!!!

[pinkytoe]

That was me. I have figured out that DH is very externally motivated, not so much internally. When I told him a realtor was coming to look at our house on a particular date, it was like fuel in the tank. Plus I keep showing him houses online that spark the imagination of our next phase in life. His action still confounds and delights me though.

[TxZen]

Awesome Pinkytoe!!! :)

[rodeosweetheart]

Now the Gulf Cottage--I could totally get behind that. My sil is from Houston and she used to take us down to Galveston--I loved it down there.

[freshstart]

my ex-husband was not a good guy by a long shot BUT he was a minimalist. He did think about it or analyze it, choose it as a lifestyle, he just was that way by nature. And he was on the OCD spectrum with his absolute need to have everything in it's exact spot or he would come unglued. None of living with him was fun except it was a pleasure to live with someone who did not have loads of crap and who would push me not to have loads either.

Oddly, he was never a minimalist when it came to the kids, he always gets them the latest iPhone, etc. Which was too bad, lots of lessons to be learned there.

then I dated a hoarder for 7 yrs, did not live together and I put a pin in it finally and hoarding was part of the problem. We planned to live together once the kids went to college. The thought of living with him felt like a noose around my neck, I cannot take on another hoard (my mother). It sucks the life energy right out of me

[Ultralight]

To the OP: Nice!!!! :D

To Freshstart:

In the dating field I have this low-level of fear all the time that I'll partner with someone and they will turn out to be a hoarder. It is low-level, but real as a fear.

[freshstart]

I can see that as being a real fear because to me, some people have so much crap but they are not clinically a hoarder, they are just over the too-much-crap line for me, even if they use it and store it.

"I'll go out with you, sure, but I need to see your basement first."

[kib]

^ LOL!

My DH is a stuff-junkie, and not careful or neat about his clutter. I didn't notice this much when we were dating (long distance) - well maybe I did notice, but I excused it due to circumstances. This has been a struggle at times, but I've found it's in part about having firm divisions and the ability to put my foot down. You can do whatever you want there, but I will not tolerate a mess here. In the places where it becomes too frustrating, like trying to share tools (he's got awesome tools but god only knows where they are), I've settled on duplication so I know where my stuff is and that it will be usable when I want it. I've made a conscious decision to be fascinated by his process rather than angry about it. So even if you do wind up with a hoarder of sorts, all is not necessarily lost as long as you set boundaries at the beginning, I think.

Pinkytoe and TxZen, how great for you both! My clutter-bug is the same, but we've been getting along a lot better lately. maybe there is something in the simplicity water!

[Ultralight]

I just will not live with a hoarder. No way.

[Float On]

Wonderful TxZen, now if your husband and pinkytoe's husband would motivate my husband. I thought I'd made ground 2 years ago, but last year he slipped down the slippery slope of "I'm not leaving this house, ever!"

[Williamsmith]

I vacationed in Corpus Christi this year. It was okay but ranks below the outer banks or some Florida locations I have been to. Hilton Head as well. And Galveston, I have also been to but the beach was covered with sea weed and some questionable characters hanging about.

[Dhiana]

YES! My husband, also! He's been slowly culling more and more items and is now ok with selling his old triathlon bike!!

And is now mentioning our future in a tiny house :0!

[freshstart]

I just will not live with a hoarder. No way.

never again. I didn't think about my mother's hoard too much when we agreed to buy a house together, I certainly placed it way below my desire to be her nurse. Plus, they filled 2 extra large dumpsters before moving so how bad could it be? It could be very, very bad. She rails against how it's ruining her life just in her bedroom. She doesn't think about the hoard everywhere else.

I don't even have to see it and it bothers me. Every time I end up using one of her crappy pans, none of which are the right size for rice, I get mad because I know mine are in the basement and I could've easily gotten them when we first moved. My stuff was all in one place. Now it's a sh**hole and I can't find anything. And I resent it.

If I feel that way about my own mother, it would not bode well in a relationship. I could live across the street from a hoarder and wave from the windows, like Mia and Woody, they never lived together, good thing.

[freshstart]

my friend came over today who has lived in a tiny house way before people spoke of such things. She lives in a very small A-frame at the top of a mountain, one room with a sleeping loft. It was a neglected camp with no utilities, no road for a car to get to it. They laid the electricity and phone lines with help from friends, gutted the rotting inside and made a dirt road with a bridge over a creek that often rises to cover the bridge. They park as close as possible but it's still a mile walk in. She is 69! It was getting rough in the winters, getting stuck for weeks, her sister-in-law winters in Florida so they tend her sheep farm for the winter. She had a brain aneurysm and had to be helicoptered out of there so as they are getting older if just makes sense to come down from the mountain to town for the winter.

they were driving around the small town they live in now and saw a picture of the ramshackle cabin in a realtor's window, saw it the next day and bought it. They were living in high-cost suburb in a 5 BR Colonial, kids were gone and they just up and did this. They gave everything practically to the women's shelter. She quit her high-powered job she hated and came to work for hospice, taking a 75k pay cut. He up and just retired. She retired a few years ago and volunteers more than anyone I know, as does he.

I respect this couple and love the story of their journey minus when she scared me to death with her aneurysm!