Do all kids save junk?

[fairejour]

Do your kids all save garbage? My daughter is 7 and her room is FULL of crap. I'm not talking about toys, I mean literally garbage. She got some new shoes and she saved the tags (they had a picture of Hello Kitty on it, but still)!!!

Is this a kid (or age) thing or is my DD the only hoarder?

[lookatreestar]

i think it is personality. i know as a kid some friends rooms looked like that and others looked like mine (pretty clean, minus toys/clothes)

[4evermom]

Yes, lol.  My ds always wants to save the packaging...  I'll admit I tend to throw out trash (that he has not expressed a desire to keep) when he isn't paying attention to minimize his forming an attachment.  I've cut out pictures on boxes before so we can throw out the bulk of the packaging but keep what he cares about.  We save all our lego boxes but that's not actually unusual for lego collectors.  I try to find the happy medium of respecting his wanting to keep these things while minimizing their taking over.  I'm glad he stopped wanting to keep the empty boxes of the foods that he liked.

[mamazee]

I remember at some point telling dd #1 that if she was going to save as much stuff as she wanted to, we'd have to get another house just to hold her stuff, but that was a while ago.  She sometimes jokes about getting a second house just for her stuff, but she does throw things away now, so she wasn't that resistant.  It was more like she'd rather have it if she could than that she had to have it.

[Hey Mama!]

My middle daughter is a hoarding in training.  My other two don't save nearly the amount of trash she does.  The things I have found in her room are mind boggling.  It's so hard for me to respect her need to keep things vs. my obsessive need to declutter. 

[pianojazzgirl]

My dd is totally like that.  She would definitely have kept the Hello Kitty tags!  She also picks up all kinds of crap off the ground (bottle caps, buttons, shiny ribbons, whatever).  This stuff ends up all over the house.  Argh!  I admit to covertly culling the crap on a regular basis.  She never notices.  And it has gotten a bit better as she gets older... a tiny bit better.  Maybe there's hope yet?

[Peony]

Originally Posted by pianojazzgirl 

My dd is totally like that.  She would definitely have kept the Hello Kitty tags!  She also picks up all kinds of crap off the ground (bottle caps, buttons, shiny ribbons, whatever).  This stuff ends up all over the house.  Argh!  I admit to covertly culling the crap on a regular basis.  She never notices.  And it has gotten a bit better as she gets older... a tiny bit better.  Maybe there's hope yet?

Same here. DD1 is 8 now and a somewhat better, but she certainly likes to hoard. She never even opens anything. There are X-Mas gifts in her room still in their original package. Last year, after it had been 6 months and almost every single one of her birthday presents were still unopened, I took them and started regifting! Her drawers are full of little objects, candy that she never eats, rocks are huge with her, pieces of paper, on and on. I sneak in her room every 3 months or so and go through it all, she rarely notices. 

[One_Girl]

My dd loves to save stuff to reuse as art but she doesn't generally just save something to save it.  It really builds up though.  I have started really limiting what the amount of junk she can save to reuse because her room does get cluttered with garbage that she sometimes will use in art, but mostly doesn't.  She was just starting to be fine with this and then we say the reuse exhibit at the art museum on accident and her class is doing a unit on reusing.  I really don't want any more junk or art made out of junk in the house right now though.

[dbsam]

My son does this.  He thinks he can 'make something' out of everything.  He keeps a mental inventory of everything too.  If I throw out a piece of green yarn, two months later he will say "Where is that piece of green yarn?  I need it to make something.'!! 

My daughter doesn't do this too often.

[motherhendoula]

Yes, when my son was that age - he wanted to save the toys he had outgrown for 'his own children someday' !!  Very frustrating!  I do think it passes - now hes 12 and he does a great job cleaning up - doesnt save anything anymore.

[meemee]

ai ai ai mama. you are calling their creative treasures garbage? ai ai ai

hmm with dd each piece means something. likes the shiny picture from her shoes tag. that packaging peanut looks like a dogs face. heart shaped rock. due to lack of space she cant have as big a collection as she would like - but oh boy you should see her backpack which i clean out once a week. all sorts of 'garbage' in there that she saves. yeah even the organic sticker on the avacado. they all have a reason for saving and storing. 

[greenemami]

Originally Posted by Peony 

Originally Posted by pianojazzgirl 

My dd is totally like that.  She would definitely have kept the Hello Kitty tags!  She also picks up all kinds of crap off the ground (bottle caps, buttons, shiny ribbons, whatever).  This stuff ends up all over the house.  Argh!  I admit to covertly culling the crap on a regular basis.  She never notices.  And it has gotten a bit better as she gets older... a tiny bit better.  Maybe there's hope yet?

Same here. DD1 is 8 now and a somewhat better, but she certainly likes to hoard. She never even opens anything. There are X-Mas gifts in her room still in their original package. Last year, after it had been 6 months and almost every single one of her birthday presents were still unopened, I took them and started regifting! Her drawers are full of little objects, candy that she never eats, rocks are huge with her, pieces of paper, on and on. I sneak in her room every 3 months or so and go through it all, she rarely notices. 

That almost exactly!  Dsd is 9 now and is better about organizing her treasures now even though she still saves a lot, but at 7 it was a little out of control.  I had to draw the line at saving old toothbrushes and band-aids (!!!) though, believe me, she did not go down without a fight on that one!

[sunnygir1]

My dd isn't quite 4, and she likes to keep everything associated with her artwork.  She loves to cut paper into tiny pieces, and then when it's time to clean up she gets an empty yogurt container and puts all the scraps in it and puts them on a shelf in the toy room!  She freaks out if I try to throw them away, although she never looks at them or touches them again later.  I started just emptying some of the older containers and washing them -- she's never noticed.  I also sometimes just clean it up myself so I don't have to battle with her or have the stuff around; she also never notices that it's gone when I do the clean-up.  I don't look forward to that aspect of her memory improving as she grows up.  Our home is cluttered enough as it is!

[arb]

Originally Posted by pianojazzgirl 

My dd is totally like that.  She would definitely have kept the Hello Kitty tags!  She also picks up all kinds of crap off the ground (bottle caps, buttons, shiny ribbons, whatever).  This stuff ends up all over the house.  Argh!  I admit to covertly culling the crap on a regular basis.  She never notices.  And it has gotten a bit better as she gets older... a tiny bit better.  Maybe there's hope yet?

My daughter too. She has a new compromise, her idea: she asks me to take pictures of the box or packaging (or whatever) before I toss it. So I do. A related issue is that she is very sentimental (at 5!) and reluctant to part with any toy, which makes decluttering hard. We started a system where I give her "pony bucks" (horses are her fave animal) when she "trades in" a toy (gives it to me for the attic or charity donation). Then when she wants a toy that she has seen at a friend's house I remind her she has some pony bucks and can "buy" it that way. She's young enough that I can keep the value of the pony bucks a trade secret!

[~cassie]

My 5 yr old is like this.  He has been hanging onto a pecan for several weeks now!  He wants to keep every little thing.  Rocks, papers, gift tags, etc, it drives me crazy since I can't stand it.

[pianojazzgirl]

Originally Posted by motherhendoula 

Yes, when my son was that age - he wanted to save the toys he had outgrown for 'his own children someday' !!

My dd does that with her clothes... even old socks with HOLES in them!!!  It makes me crazy.

[Cascadian]

My DDs like to save the shiny, cool and artsy bits of packaging. I hesitate to call it garbage...it really is cool stuff...packaging is so attractive these days, with glitter and sparkles and cool cartoons...ribbons and puffy bar codes...what's not to love? I get the esthetic and I have no issue with it. They're not hoarders...just whimsical :D

[meemee]

Originally Posted by Cascadian 

They're not hoarders...just whimsical :D

so true. so true. i love how you put it. 

[bmhpke96]

Yes! Yes! Yes!  My oldest DD does this.  She saves wrappers, ribbons, tags, rocks.  Her dresser is covered.  I am trying to help her organize her "treasures" and get rid of some.  My ILs are hoarders so this is something I am taking really seriously.  After watching so many Hoarders episodes I realize that it is a condition that really needs therapy.  I'm hoping DD grows out of it but if not when she is older we will get her the resources she needs to deal with it.

[Starflower]

My DD is 7 and she saves trash (like chip bags, broken hair ties, etc.) as well. And she has a huge fear of letting go of clothing - even if it's way too small, uncomfortable and/or full of holes and she never even liked to wear it. I have been planning to make a memory quilt but she wants every piece of clothing she's ever had to be in it. In fact, she wants to keep clothes I've picked up at Goodwill for her to try on but didn't fit. She also wants to save things for her kids someday, things like her potty or baby toys. She gets very emotionally attached to objects. She says she feels like getting rid of things is like getting rid of part of herself.