Over the last couple of days I attacked my pile, which was mostly clustered at the bottom of the stairs. I also reorganized the pantry and camping shelves while I was at it, since those are my responsibility. Today, I headed into the crawl space.
It took several hours, but I imposed a modicum of organization. The coolers and cat carriers are accessible. My ten or so boxes of "stuff" are in one corner. There are some boxes of toys that will be Charlottes at such time as she beats back HER entropy monster to have them in her room. I found the box with my copy of "Charlotte's Web." I brought up a half a dozen boxes of assorted stemware/kitchenware, and determined that 95% of the contents are bound for GoodWill. I steeled myself and decided to throw away my old string art projects (don't judge that it took this long.)
I determined that over 90% of what's in the crawl space is Bob's.
I've decided that I need to come to peace with this. I can get to necessary things. As long as we can also access the trap for the library shower - I'm letting it go. Not my circus, not my monkeys. I did my bit.
Now we just have to get the REST of the basement in shape to install the new hot water heater of my dreams. One step at a time.
I may never straighten up again.