My Children Are Hoarders

It's not too often that people post about the messy side of their lives. You will most likely be seeing professional selfies with them looking away from the camera (i.e. the photo of me to the right) or closeups of nature or the perfect outfit that's been put together (guilty on all counts!). I will not be showing you any pictures of the ten loads of laundry waiting to be done, my unmade bed or my sink full of dishes. I will, however, gladly show you the mess that is the children's playroom.

We moved into our house a little over a month ago. It has a pretty little sun room that makes a perfect playroom. It's full of windows and natural light and even has a door that conveniently shuts the mess out of sight. I'll be honest... when we moved, we just dumped all of the toys in there and kind of let the kids do the unpacking.

I attempted cleaning and organizing the room one day. The toy boxes and tubs were all emptied into a big pile and I began to sort through it, making three smaller piles; one pile of things to keep, one pile of things to donate and one pile of things that just needed to be discarded. After about 20 minutes I began to realize something: my children are hoarders.

I don't know where they have learned the need to keep everything. My mother is a clean freak and I despise clutter. The only things I keep are ones of extreme sentimental value. So far I have found stacks of Alyssa's old artwork from first grade (she's in fourth now), old happy meal toys, broken crayons, parts from old toys that don't work but they just had to keep the part because it was their favorite part. What I love about all of this is that I can get rid of something that hasn't been touched in months and then two weeks after it's gone, they come asking where it is.

My kids are surely not the only ones who act this way. What do you do to discourage this behavior? They aren't doing anything wrong, but I'd like my kids growing up with the idea that less is more and they only need to keep the things they really love or really need. I guess the biggest hurdle to get past is teaching them to know the difference.

(As I wrote this post, my two year old stood behind my desk and dumped out a box of Rainbow Loom rubber bands and beads. She then proceeded to throw handfuls in the air and shout "Yay!" I just sipped my coffee and said "You mean FriYAY!")