Kid Crap

What is it about kids and their CRAP?! I feel like I throw away broken toys, old crayons, pieces of paper, broken hair ties, parts of games, gross unidentifiable objects, cheap McDonald's toys, etc etc etc all the flippin' time yet it is still EVERYWHERE! I'm not that sentimental with "stuff." I have stuff, I get enjoyment out of it and I don't feel bad about letting it go. I'll keep extra special things, but for the most part I'm a purger. This is apparently NOT genetic (although my mom was a purger too...so there's still hope). I was trying to clean the house this morning and all three kids were pulling things out of the trash saying things like this (I kept my thoughts to myself, but it was painful!):
But MOM, this is my favorite man (aka piece of crap mickey d's toy)
But MOOMMM... I'm going to USE those!! (really, you are going to use the 5,000 tiny holes that came out of the hole puncher? Seriously, can't we use the hole puncher over the trash can?!?) But moMMM... I was reading that magazine (the 2 month old wet, shredded toy catalog.. .um humm).
It was so painful. The kids literally took out every single thing I put in the trash. Ultimately, I had to put on a TV show to distract them, quickly fill my extra large trash bag and put it in the dumpster outside. I always envisioned that my kids would only have a few quality toys. It just doesn't work out that way though. In reality, I need to let them figure out what they love and what's important to them and not judge the things they want or like. I'm hoping I can teach them the virtue of purging one day. Until then, I'm going to toss stealthily and feign ignorance when they ask me if I've seen one of their "special" toys.