My husband has has an affliction.  It’s called “cantthrowshitoutitis“.   The latest thing he cannot part with?  Poles.  Yes, poles.  We spent an entire day cleaning out the garage.   We packed 6 cans with trash and had double that in recyclables.    Understanding he’s not ‘well’ when we are doing a major clean…..I told him to go into the house while I cleared the shelving unit… but he couldn’t move his legs.  He just stood there staring blankly….tiny beads of sweat on his forehead.   “But I need that”…..”I can use that”…..”That’s a perfectly good rusted old (piece of whatever)”.

I stood next to the shelf with a garbage can…not very methodically dumping stuff in.  I gave specific instructions NOT to remove anything once it’s in the can….like he did hours earlier with an old burlap sac containing a few potatoes.   Because you know….he will someday need that burlap sac.  (Perhaps to stuff my body into next time we clean the garage).

When the trembling stopped…I walked into the garage and saw a slender old box with a dozen slim white poles.  This was from a canopy we had EIGHT YEARS ago before we moved in to this house.  And, it was missing the canopy.   We never even used the thing at this house.   I grabbed the box…”Throw these out.”

“What?  What do you mean….throw these out?  I need these.”

“What do you need these for?  When are you ever going to use these, I mean COME ON!”

“But…..but we have enough garbage already!”

I stood there, dumbfounded.  ‘We have enough garbage already?…..Shane, it’s not like we have enough groceries in the cart….it’s not like we have enough dogs….we can have as much garbage as we want!’

“But I need these.  I’ll put them in the attic.  But I need them”

Okay.  So I gave in before his heart thumped out of his chest at the thought of throwing out 12 ‘perfectly good’ metal poles that we’ll never ever  use.   Poor guy.  I wonder if there is some type of treatment for this.

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