Sunday, March 28

Pack Rat Barely Covers It

I've talked about my 4 year olds 'treasure' collecting before and I know many others also know the curse of the garbage treasure -- a pirate mystery that sadly neither includes Johnny Depp or me looking like a well-corseted damsel who totally kicks everyone's butt. So far I am winning the battle of keeping nature where it belongs which is not, no matter how much my kid protests, anywhere in or even near our living room.

Behold My Whirling Dervish & Her Art
But a bout of recent insane and pointless stabs at 'Spring Cleaning' has brought on a whole new type of treasure collecting -- G is stockpiling from the clothing bound for the charity boxes or other fates as determined by me.

Yesterday I caught her trying to shove her feet into her tiny knock-off Uggs that she wore when she was two. These boots had made it to the recycle box and destined for another child's feet via a long-overdue cleaning of the front closet. A closet that threatened to avalanche if I ignored it for another weekend.

G did not agree with my assessment of these lightly-worn but too small boot's purpose. Standing on her tippy-toes in order to walk in them, when she caught me looking she yelled 'SEE! I told you they still fit.' This was punctuated with a disgusted huff-like appropriate noise.


And see these roses that we purchased in a fit of 'I feel so pretty' last week? She's trying to convince me to keep all the petals now that they are wilted. All I can see coming from keeping the petals is a huge mess in the near future that will probably involve me picking crushed rose petals out of either the couch, her bed, our bed, or all of the above. I'm going to need to pull a fast one on her and dump them after she's gone to bed. How I'll justify it, I don't know (suggestions in the comment section greatly appreciated).

Though I did draw the line quickly after a recent re-acquisition of her crossed my personal comfort line. Sitting on her bed, I noticed a familiar nude coloured strap peeking out from a pile of her own clothing. After tugged on it, out slipped a bra that had recently been thrown out. It had ripped wide open -- cups separated from the centre -- which I'd like to think was from my heaving damsel bosom bursting forth from it's chains but was more than likely due to the fact that particular bra was way past it's prime. I guess I have a thing for not being able to let things go either. *ahem*

Anyway. This I had to confiscate, despite her protests. Don't need her bringing that in for show and tell at school. I'd like to call that repo: a crisis averted.

6 comments:

mamatulip said...

Oh, you know I've got a treasure-seeker too. I have to go through Oliver's room every few weeks and check corners, pillowcases and drawers for piles of things. Little things, like rocks and paper clips and a bottle cap and a thumbtack.

Anonymous said...

That's too funny. But you're so right to draw that line in the sand. Not sure what it is that gets kids saving stuff. My 4yo hangs on to the most random things sometimes. Kinda sweet sometimes. :)

for a different kind of girl said...

My kids aren't the pack rat type, so I don't think I'm a good one to offer help. My husband, though, owns junk he's had since high school. I know this because every time he goes over to his parent's house, he comes home with another box of random textbooks or games he played when he was 12. I do not love this. I also don't love the assorted toys and figurines he has downstairs of various Looney Tunes characters. Short of setting our house on fire and declaring 'Whoops' I need a plan to get this all out and I need one soon.

Heather said...

::hides::

I'm such a pack rat. I can assign sentimental value to the most random objects. I feel sorry for my children because they'll have to clean all this crap out after I'm gone.

Marilyn (A Lot of Loves) said...

We haven't reached a pack rat stage. Thank goodness. I doubt I'd like little bits of stuff stashed everywhere. Although I suppose it would be interesting to see what types of things appeal to her. It's like seeing into her mind.

Nichole said...

I'm the biggest pack rat ever. Thank goodness my husband keeps my saving tendencies in check. We move around a lot so I have to be willing to lighten the load every other year or so. Eleana leans toward wanting to keep her stuff, even things she played with as a baby, but she will part with them if the price is right.

I recently unloaded a whole trash bag of stuffed animals at Goodwill with Eleana's help. She told me which animals she wanted to keep and which she wanted to give away to children who maybe don't have any. She then decided which imaginary kids would love each animal the best. We still own too many stuffed animals, but we are putting a hold on purchasing any new friends.