I need ideas. Last June, my boyfriend's adult son, talked me into moving into his house with my 3 teenagers. Jr, his wife, and 4 small children were moving to Fla. He wanted his dad to stay in the house, but knew that his dad needed help with bills. So I agreed to move in, not knowing father and son were both hoarders. The son had filled the largest U-haul truck with as much stuff as he could fit, then left. I moved my stuff in on top of my boyfriend's stuff, and his son's stuff. We have been here now for almost a year and I still have been unable to unpack a lot of my stuff. Finally unable to take anymore, I cleaned up 38 bags worth of trash over the past two days. The trash bags are still here just waiting to be hauled off. My problem is that my boyfriend does not want me getting rid of anything. Broken dishes have sentimental value. I cant even throw out any of the 8 nonfunctional televisions because someone "might" be able to fix them. He says his son may come back and want some of the stuff. I know there are at least 20 bags of baby clothes, and more than that number of boxes. My boyfriend has close to 4000 DVD's, (and still burns about 200 a month)He has about 700 VHS cassettes. He wont part with any of them. He says that I don't understand what it is to have a sentimental attachment to things because I have lost everything more than once in my life. He says I am afraid to get attached to things because I have lost so much before and learned to live out of a suitcase. This may be true, but I can't handle this much "stuff".

I dont feel like this is my home. How can I help him let go of this stuff so that this house can become a home for all of us?