Still Stuck With Stuff

So our gig as innkeepers ended, as Elizabeth woke up bright and early yesterday, I made her a strong coffee, and she was off the the Turnpike and back to Orlando.  Wifey awoke later, and we debriefed the guests and the last few days, and later on went to the Palmetto Bay condo for the penultimate clean out.

The job is nearly done -- we gave away just about all of the furniture, and the bedrooms, kitchen, and bathrooms are all empty.  All that's left is a large china cabinet, which her parents bought in NYC around 1968.  It's a huge thing -- dark wood and glass.  It needs to go.

D1 said she might want it, but that would mean having it in MY house for the next year or two -- I took a pass on that.  I told her I was trying to get rid of stuff, not store more of it.

I've really become militantly anti stuff.  I look around my house and always think that if Wifey wasn't here, I'd give away most things, keeping only the furniture needed to sit on and hold clothing and supplies.  Clutter bothers me more than it ever did, and unfortunately Wifey has become a world class clutterer.

Then again, she reminds me that, compared to our friends Mike and Loni, she's positively Scandinavian.  Their rooms are filled with excess furniture and collectibles to the extent that most of their house is, essentially, a storage shed.  Years ago, my friend Allison, also a neat and order person, visited them in their old but still very cluttered house.  After a few minutes there, she told me she had received an emergency call.  Later she admitted that the supreme household disorder was triggering a panic attack.  At the time I didn't get it -- now I do.

So at the condo, Wifey left out several boxes, and told me they were to come to the house.  While she wasn't looking, I took them to the condo dumpster.  She busted me -- asking where a mirrored jewelry box with streaked glass was.  I admitted my crime.  She had bought her mother a very cheap standing lamp -- and wanted it for our house.  As I was putting it into the SUV, the cheap metal snapped.  It joined the other stuff in the dumpster.  I told Wifey, and she didn't believe me that it broke.  I challenged her to visit the dumpster to confirm the truth.  She declined...

Meanwhile, she put the china cabinet on Craig's List.  We have until April 27 to move it out -- that's the scheduled closing date.  It's also the anniversary of my mother's death.

As for my suegra, I hope we're done with moving her.  Wifey and I did it 2 times within the past year -- first from her Pembroke Pines condo, where my father in law's death left her too lonely, and now to the Assisted Living center, where for now she's doing great -- without all her stuff.

Last night, Wifey was combing through her mother's many old photo albums, and harvesting the photos she wanted to keep.  I figure we already have enough D photos -- the only ones I care about.  But Wifey is more sentimental, and only chucks an album after it has been cleared.

All I know is, the stuff bothers me, and I don't see how it will ever be possible to move to a smaller place.  And that's fine with me -- I want to stay here for years to come.  So for now, I have to step over piles of suegra stuff in the garage.  Now when Wifey's not looking...