For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 20, 2018

“And loving a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be.” ~Steve Perry of Journey (song “Faithfully”)

Spoiler (on a decades old strip!)

Looking at the stuff in Panel 3 that is supposed to Phil’s stuff which Georgia wants to throw out, you have to be wondering what is going on in her mind. I see a guitar, a stereo component and a box of records. She does know her husband makes his living as musician, doesn’t she?

I hate to break it to you sweetheart, but when you married the man his “junk” was part of the deal.

Many decades ago, my fairly new wife, decided to throw out some of my stuff while I was at work. One item was a “cat house”, a kind of dome shaped woven wicker item enclosed except for the entrance opening for the cat to go in or out. Inside was a pad for the cat to curl up & sleep on. I said nice that you threw away something without asking, that belonged to me & not you, & by the way, did you remove the several hundred dollars cash hidden under the pad inside? When single, I thought it was a pretty safe place to hide money in case my residence got broken into. The shocked look on her face was nearly worth the money thrown out. She never did that ever again. Moral—-Never mess with the property of others!

Really! It looks like she threw out every single thing that was of interest to him in his life. Amazing! She even chose wallpaper over his mandolin? How would Rod Stewart have ever gotten famous if one of his wives had tossed his mandolin?

I think Phil should reevaluate his life!

Her message is fairly clear even though expressed subconsciously. She wants another kind of guy.

LOL- it’s always the way, isn’t it, fellas? All the room in the world for 900 kinds of fabrics, but you wanna keep something that almost works and you might fix in a few years, and suddenly y’all don’t have enough space. WOMEN!

The more Georgia appears in the strip, the more I don’t like her. Phil is only a comic strip character, yet I still find myself feeling sorry for him!

Decluttering before a move is a good idea. The problem here is that they’re not doing it together. One person shouldn’t make all the decisions unless the other simply doesn’t care (which is rarer than proper spelling on the internet). Georgia should instead declutter her own belongings and perhaps their “joint” belongings like kitchen items. Leave Phil to his stuff, even if that means records with no turntable, a guitar with no strings, golf clubs with frayed grips, etc. Messing with your partner’s things is a sure path to a break-up.

I said it when she was pressuring him to get married and I’ll say it again now that she’s tossing his stuff without asking. She’s bad news and run Phil run…lol

Back when we moved every couple of years, we had a “6 months” rule. If you hadn’t used it in the past 6 months, it didn’t move. There were exceptions of course, like canning supplies and Christmas decorations. Also were books, as many of them were not used in the previous 6 months, but certainly would be in the future.

Mom used to like to joke, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine too.”

In this instance we can see that it’s, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is junk.”

Yep, what’s hers is hers and what’s yours…….has got to go! ;o]

Get used to it Phil

Typical. I bet there’s not a single item in the “keep” pile that belongs to him.

Yeah, decluttering is good anytime! My husband and I do typically in the Spring—if we have not used it in a year, and it is not part of a collection that is actively managed—-it goes. But we look to own own stuff first, before we look at the stuff we own together.

Yet another manifestation of “the Universe revolves around ME and what I think and want, buddy”, previously expressed by some on here as “happy wife, happy life”. Every woman I’ve ever lived with has been told in no uncertain terms that NOTHING of mine is EVER to be thrown out without my EXPRESS permission.

I remember a FLINTSTONES episode where Fred & Barney had a sweepstakes ticket they were hiding from Wilma & Betty. Barney hid the ticket in an old jacket hanging in his closet. Then a hobo stops at the house asking for a handout and Betty gives him the jacket, saying “Barney hasn’t worn this in years, he’ll never miss it.” Barney sees the guy walk by with the jacket, and he and Fred accost him to retrieve the ticket. They get the ticket back but get arrested. Betty has to explain to the police captain about giving away the jacket. (They still aren’t aware of the sweepstakes ticket.) Police captain gives her a lecture about respecting her husband’s possessions and how what she thinks is junk may have great sentimental value to her husband.

Georgia, georgia, georgia. These are not yours. You need to let Phil sort out his own stuff or at least ask him if you could put this and that in the ‘out’ pile. You could only solely decide on your own stuff. Marriage does not give you sole authority on everything.

I was brought up never to touch other people’s possessions, without their permission. That lesson has stuck with me, all my life. I would never think of throwing out anything of my wife’s without asking first.

of course

It was easy to pile someone else’s stuff in the “to go out” pile, that’s for sure, since I wasn’t attached to it in any way. As soon as I touched something that was “mine” it was in the “to keep” pile, when we cleaned out our respective parents’s houses….

I hope the stuff is the “Phil has to look through it pile” and then he gets to go through her’s “to keep” pile and do the same…

Speaking from experience, it is so easy to throw out stuff to which one isn’t attached. I helped out my friend clean out her parents’s house when they went to the nursing home, and she let me go through their bedroom’s closets which included accessories, clothes, shoes, bedding, towels, etc…. I threw out most of it since she said that if she touched any of her mother’s “good” clothes she would keep them because they would bring back so many memories. I know about “vintage” etc, so I put them aside and-yes- she kept all of those pieces, including all her fur coats, which still sit in her closet 15 years later….

This is wrong on every level. “I’M going through all of OUR stuff” – Oh, did YOU want an opinion too, dear? Afterwards, do you want to dig through all of MY stuff and toss everything you think is frivolous or you think I’ll never use? I don’t know how long they’ve been married or living together, but this is a terrible start to a fairly young relationship.