Parents of the world - I know I am not alone in this - Kid's come home from school with stuff they have made, written, moulded out of clay etc virtually every day. And they expect that you are going to lovingly display and store, each bit of paper that comes through your door (bless their cotton socks)
I had an argument with one of my 8 year olds about him wanting to keep his spelling list! Not spelling he had done... not a spelling test where he got 100%.... we are talking about a list of words he had to learn, written by his teacher! Clearly not a keepsake. But he was devastated when I threw it in the bin. I swear, given even a little bit of opportunity, my kids would be hoarders. You would see them on reality TV in 10 years drowning in a sea of useless crap.
And me, being the least hoardy of all the hoarders, had to put a stop to this, and quick! So with the help of suggestions from friends - I came up with this idea. I went out to the reject shop, invested 30 dollars in rolling tubs, and labelled each with their names. I took the kids with me, so they could choose which colour they wanted, so they felt involved in the process, and viola! Problem solved! They now know that they each have a container that keeps all their precious school momentos, BUT once the container is full, that's it. 12 years will have to fit in that one container. That way, when they move out, they can just pick up the container, and take it with them. No confusion about who's artwork that is, or who made that papier mache duck... Organised. And delicious.
