In an attempt to not be featured on the A&E show Hoarders, I'm making an effort to weed through the kids' numerous art projects they create at school on a weekly to bi-weekly basis. In the process, I hope that I'm also teaching them that it's okay to throw things away. I used to do this at night when they were asleep, but then realized that they weren't really benefiting from that. For one, they didn't see me weigh my decision on what to keep and what to let go of, plus, there was a lot of explaining on my part when they discovered some treasure missing. So, now I try to involve them in some of this. This past week, we talked about letting go of two items that I knew would be a struggle. Sam recently came home with a dinosaur "fossil" that he made at school that smelled strongly of coffee. Red flag: art projects made out of wet food products...definitely not meant to be kept to show the grandkids someday. That same week, Grace came home with a giant Cat in the Hat hat that she had painted and sculpted herself out of paper. It was enormous and already starting to rip apart at the seam. We discussed why we couldn't keep these items and, finally, they gave their consent to toss them...on one condition:
that I take a picture and put it on my computer. I guess I'll work on the digital hoarding some other week. 
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