The packrat and the trash queen

On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being emotionally tied to everything/can't throw away anything and 10 being completely unemotional about stuff/throw away everything, I would say I'm a 7. And my husband is a 3 or 4. As you can imagine, this has caused some interesting conversations in our marriage. I'm all for throwing things away, de-cluttering the storage area, and making things look nice and neat. He's all for keeping mementos (and some that aren't really in that category) "just because." A few months ago, he was going through high school photos. I'm fine with keeping a few of those, but come on—the one of him, his high school girlfriend, and his little sister on Halloween?—I don't think that one classifies as a cherished memory. When I brought this up, he said, "Unlike you, some of us actually enjoyed high school." Touché, husband. Touché.

At the other end of the spectrum, I probably throw away too much. I have been caught throwing away some of my kids' art projects possibly minutes after they get home from school (I keep lots of them, believe me. But they bring home so much paper!) It is truly awful when your child wants to show his dad a picture he made at school and you have to fish it out of the trash for him. Yep, mother of the year award, right here!

In preparation for our upcoming move, my husband tackled his boxes in the basement and the bookshelves in his office last weekend. And, he did this de-clutterer proud. He produced seven huge bags of trash and quite a few items for the charity pile. Unfortunately, he's now left with the "I don't know what to do with all this" pile in his office. You know, those things you probably could throw away and there's really no place for them, but what if you do need them someday? I hate that pile. I will always keep those things for a while, and then after a few years of truly never needing them, off they go.
On a happier note, could this little boy be any cuter?