I'm at my wits end

A large shed would be my answer. You need never set foot in it. You won't be paying rent for storage. He will feel that he has somewhere private to keep his stuff and he is not under your feet whenever he goes to deal with it.
I think a busy GP would take a dim view of being consulted on a borderline obsessive compulsive disorder. As the letters on this thread show, it is a comparatively common problem and maybe is a need for control? In an uncontrolled way.

Beware of storage units as a relative started with one and now has four. He has taken some of the equity out of his house to pay the rental of just under £600 per month for storing absolutely worthless rubbish which was mostly purchased from charity shops and is now damp and mouldy. A health hazhard both now and to anyone clearing it in the future.
As he owns his house we are told that it his own business and even the fact that he cannot find his bed to sleep in and even his bath and oven etc etc is full of stuff meaning nothing can be used is nobody's business but his. We just call it 'the money pit'

If your husband removes things to read from the bins and wastepaper baskets, but not the kitchen bins , then why place them there? Why not wrap leftover bits of food in the newspapers etc or run them under the tap and then take them straight to the outside bin. I think in this case recycling can take second place. Also with receipts , refuse them at the till. Lots of shops now ask if you need on e or not.
I agree your husband probably has a mental health issue but you are enabling him to carry on.
You dont say how old you are, but this is your life too and it sounds as if you have tolerated this for years.
I cant imagine he will know what is in the boxes that he has kept for decades so weed some of it out.
Take control of your life for heavens sake. You dont need to put up with it.

What worries me most about our situation is that one poor daughter is going to have to sort all this out after we've both gone. She's the main one of our 4 who takes responsibility.
I remember clearing my parents' house at the end of their lives. It took me months. Only sister still working so she couldn't help.

ps - and my Dad wasn't a hoarder, bless him.

Having moved a couple of times in the last ten years, I've come to the conclusion that there is absolutely NO POINT in paying out good money to transport unnecessary items from one home to another ...................... more so when you're down sizing.

I moved from a 1-bedroom flat to a 3-bedroom house and then proceeded to 'fill it' with furniture. When I retired, I moved to a 2-bedroom flat which induced a panic attack when I saw the reality of all my stuff piled high in the new place !

Fennel I would suggest to her that she holds a one day Open House when anyone (by that I mean family and friends as invited) can come and take what is in the house that they want and then she gets a House Clearer in and lets them deal with the rest.

I suggested this to DD, who greeted the idea with disgust and said that the clearing out was part of the mourning process. Fortunately all though DH is a fixer and mender and does keep things 'just in case', he is not a hoarder. His besetting sin is untidiness, so if he wants an electrical screwdriver, for example, he keeps on going out and buying yet another because he cannot find any of the other five he has already bought.

Good idea M0nica, thanks.

I'm afraid I am brutal with any sign of junk being held onto to. My hubby used to say oh that might come in handy,and it never did. When we moved 11 months ago and he realised how much it was going to cost to get rid of his "junk" he realised how all these unnecessary items wee just that, junk. Even now he will collect leaflets from places we visit and stash them, but when he goes out with the dog it finds it's way to the recycling bin.

A shed of his own (a large one is needed from the sound of it!)to put all his stuff in!

Oh! This post could have been written by me in many ways.My DH is also 79 and has been a hoarder all our married life of 59 years. He collects anything that may vaguely useful, this includes things found in the street such as nails, nuts and bolts,pencils, pens etc etc. Anything left over by workmen which they would “bin” he asks if he can have it. He finds enormous difficulty getting rid of anything. To him it is some kind of sin. However, if we can find someone who needs something he will willingly let them have it although he may worry that it won’t be used! There is one “benefit” however, if you can call it that; one of our grandson’s is in the filming and events business. We sometimes get phone calls saying “I don’t suppose you have.....”. Grandad then disappears into cupboards, loft or shed. Out he comes with something or other. The trouble is that his fear of decluttering extends to my efforts to get rid of things. He could easily retrieve things from bins or question why I would want to be rid of something. I have recently gone through a room I have use for painting and tried to extract loads of old useless brushes, paints and canvases. Even these I have pleaded, threatened him with murder if he removes them from rubbish. However, there are signs of improvement. He has actually got rid of a few things and the pride he has shown in doing so makes me realise what a real effort it is for him. My worry is the loft! What is up there? I too have told him that if he doesn’t declutter then we are going to leave it as a terrible job for our family and it’s not fair. The funny thing is that he has expressed the idea of moving somewhere smaller without a thought about this problem.
I so sympathise with your problem. I no longer look into cupboards belonging to him. I won’t even put his clothes away in case I get worked up about what I find squashed among things or in pockets. I never pack his suitcase. It’s how I keep my sanity. Otherwise he is lovely and it’s all too late other than to keep chipping away at things. I should get him to box everything up and as removal day approaches he may well see the futility of keeping it all will actually dawn on him. I do hope so but whatever happens try not to stress about it as the move itself is difficult enough. When showing buyers around a house that is mostly tidy it is extremely likely that one part of it which is full of clutter is unlikely to put them off as they will picture it as cleared for their needs. Good luck and stay happy.

Hoarding is absolutely considered a type of mental illness. He can't explain to you why he needs all of his things, because he probably doesn't know himself. All he knows, likely, is that if they are taken away he will get very anxious.

The problem with doing a forced clean-out is that while it will get rid of the hoard, it will escalate his anxiety and he will probably just start hoarding again.

I'd see if he is willing to see a therapist who specializes in hoarding. The big risk is that if he continues hoarding, he might well create an environment in your new home that isn't safe for your GC. Hoards can be VERY dangerous.

Hi I have some understanding of this myself and would say it causes great distress if someone gets rid of things surreptitiously
Why not offer to help
I heard that starting small eg sorting things for say 15 minutes then gradually increasing can work
Hoarders suffer anxiety about making the wrong decision about ‘ things ‘ and avoid doing this
There are organisations that can help