Hoarders

Today I cleaned out a junk cupboard in my kitchen.  THE junk cupboard in my kitchen.  It took all day long. 

I shouldn't call it the junk cupboard, it is more like the cupboard full of basically everything that my kids have drawn or worked on since...well ever.  Yes, I admit I have a problem throwing things away. But just things that my kids make.

Anyway, I was proud of myself because by 1:30 I had a big cardboard box full of papers ready for the recycling bin.  That's when Gabe came home from school.  He took one look at the box and said, "That is all good stuff, we can still use that stuff, why are you throwing that away? You can't throw that away!".  I had to talk him down.  I had to let him go through what I was keeping and decide that it was ok to get rid of the rest.  He had to emotionally disconnect from every paper that he ever worked on, just like I had to.  Poor kid, it took me over a year to gear myself up enough to go through that cupboard and he had to do it in one moment. Gabe is so much like me it is almost painful for me to see his anxiety. 

The whole thing reminded me of the show Hoarders, I swear his words came right from that show!  (he doesn't watch it in case you were wondering)

Now I have a full recycling bin and a very organized and functional cupboard.  We all feel good about that and hopefully we are all one step further from allowing "stuff" to consume and overwhelm our lives.  Next up...the storage closet!