and so it begins

AND SO IT BEGINS

DH has taken it upon himself to clear out the garage. This is a bi-annual event that always ends in tears, usually mine. He has, you see, this obsession. Whenever he is off work for any longer than 2 days he feels a ridiculous need to organise us all - his way.

And today is the designated day for his organisational skills.

This is bad news for a variety of reasons, not least the fact that he has to throw huge amounts of stuff away and it breaks my heart. I am something of a hoarder, I admit, but I'm an organised hoarder and I only hoard stuff that is useful. I'm also a recycler. I hate hate hate throwing away perfectly good things, especially if they can be of use to someone else. So in the garage I have bags of things to sell on eBay, bags of things to go to the charity shop, bags of things to go to the Women's Refuge. I don't keep them forever - usually I distribute these things out about once a month. So there's a couple of bags. But not a huge amount.

There's also a box of shoes - it's where the children and I fling our shoes when we come in from school or wherever. So he has decided we have too many shoes.

And there's a box filled with toys. Toys that don't fit in their big toyboxes, but that they still play with. And that is also under threat.

I peeked in the garage a short while ago and at the bottom end is an enormous pile of stuff that he's intending to take to the tip. We had words. I pointed out the recycling bin for clothes and told him he was wasteful and inconsiderate. Then I retreated.

You see, he knows that right now I'm in a position where I can't do anything about the mass cull of our belongings, and he's taking full advantage of that fact.

If he dares to touch any of my craft stuff though, there is likely to be a violent crime committed. I think even he knows better than that.

In other news, I think he's planning to leave me.

Well, I'm not yet certain of this, but the clues are beginning to emerge. Shame that he's unable to disguise them a little better - he must think I'm stupid.

For Christmas, his boss gave him a cash bonus. I don't know how much it is - he wouldn't tell me, just waved the sealed envelope in front of my face and told me he was opening a separate account for just him with it. Then the envelope disappears and nothing more is mentioned.

The children also received money for Christmas - a couple of cheques that I would normally bank in the New Year.

So over the past couple of days he has mentioned, at least half a dozen times, how he is planning to go into town tomorrow to pay in some cheques. Of course I know that his ulterior motive is to open his own bank account, does he think I'm stupid? I haven't told him I know this, of course. Because when he decides to go into town tomorrow I'm going to gently remind him that the childrens' accounts are in my name on their behalf, but they are now old enough to have it put into their own names and I need to be there to sign. So of course I will have to go along, won't I? I wonder if he has the balls to open an account with me there?

This could make for an interesting experience.