A New Broom Sweeps Clean

I caved in this afternoon and tackled my youngest child's bedroom. I am relatively certain that she never reads my blog, so I can talk about it somewhat freely here.

Oh. My. God. That's pretty much my response every time I decide that enough is enough, and try to make inroads. This is a tiny room, mind you, and a kid who saves everything. She had a small library's-worth of books under her bed, beanie babies, plastic trinkets, craft projects that were started and forgotten about ... but what strikes me most every time I do this, is the amount stuff that is, quite literally, trash.

Of course it begs the question "Why doesn't she just throw it in the waste basket right there at the time?" but there is a larger question about the amount of trash we, as a society, generate. Practically every single thing that we buy generates trash. It is impossible to buy even a pair of socks that doesn't necessitate the throwing away of at least two pieces of garbage, one of them non-degradable plastic.

There is almost no getting away from it. Sometimes I joke that the human race is going to die under a mountain of those obnoxious cellophane straw-wrappers that come with juice boxes. I challenge you to walk through a park where children's soccer games are held and not find a juice box straw-wrapper!

Ah well, I tackled the bed and dresser, next comes the closet. God only knows how many pounds of wrappers from the ghost of Halloweens past I'm going to find.