My kids were out of school due to the icy weather yesterday. They sat down and did a little art project, each making a special note for me. One is a tiny little paper heart that says, “I love Daddy”. The other is a bigger note, saying, “I love you, dear Daddy.” When it comes to kids artwork and homework, I often feel I’m keeping too much. But I find it hard to part with such cute memories and really just don’t want to throw much away. Either way, these from yesterday are 100% keepers. They’ve gone to Daddy’s office.
That being said, though, how much DO you keep? We probably ARE keeping too much. We’ve even worked out a system where each kid has a milk crate that they fill up in their room. Once filled, its contents are transferred to a plastic storage container in our basement, and the empty milk crate starts filling up again. Like anyone else, our thought process is we, or they, may want to look through these containers years from now and see the sweet things they made, the early handwriting, the cute little homework and art projects from school, and so on. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But, it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it, right? There’s an episode of Friends in which Monica looks in her parents’ basement only to see all of her childhood keepsakes ruined by a busted water heater flood. Ross’ keepsakes were all safe. I never want to be the one to tell them we don’t have anything of theirs, and I would really hate to say we saved one’s memories and not the other’s, so I’ll continue to keep too much.
What do you think? How much is too much, and how much is not enough?