...in the next few weeks/months, it will only be because he doesn't want to hurt his back!

I haven't done any serious sorting, consolidating and discarding for YEARS! We moved my parents in with us with all of their stuff in 1998, and they saved EVERYthing. Literally. Who had time to sort through stuff, working full time and taking care of them?

Then, soon after they passed away, I started getting sick, though I didn't recognize anything as symptoms. We just thought I was exhausted and stressed from the four or five years of taking care of them long distance, then here. So sorting through newspaper clippings and old utility bills wasn't high on my agenda.

Now that I'm not working, that's my big project. My big, ongoing, sisyphean project. Hoe and Throw.

Bob is happy about the paring down of stuff. What he's not happy about is that I am continually bringing stuff up from the basement, then other stuff from up here TO the basement, then different stuff from the basement up here...

Well, it makes perfectly good sense to me. That's the whole point of my project: sort stuff out, label it, and store certain stuff upstairs where it's safe and within reach, and other stuff in the basement where I can get to it if necessary.

Meanwhile, every day Bob says, "Isn't this the same box I lugged up here yesterday?" And I say, "Yes, but it has different stuff in it. See? I changed the label from 'high school yearbooks' to 'craft supplies'."

And it's driving the cats crazy, which is a bonus.