T.M.S.S

We are suffering from a new disease. A very first-world disease, but a disease nonetheless.

It is called TMSS: Too Much Stuff Syndrome.

(Or, as I like to call it privately in my head, "Too Much Shit Syndrome.")

We aren't hoarders. We regularly donate bags and boxes of our still usable (but no longer used by us) stuff to local charities. We are cheap and on a tight budget.

And yet we're drowning in a mountain of stuff.

Is it the tiny apartment? Do we actually have a normal amount of stuff but cramming it all into a tiny pad makes it appear like so much more?

Is it that we have no garage? So we can't stash things that normal people would put away? Like, say, those two boxes of Christmas decorations?

Or is it the children?

We were excited about all the stuff that comes along with having a baby: the stroller, the highchair, the Pack n Play, changing table, the Diaper Genie even! Even when Chelsea outgrew all of that stuff, we hung on to it, anticipating having Savannah. So now we have all that baby stuff, plus some toddler stuff, and the big kid stuff.

And lots and lots and lots of toys.

I think the toys are really what drives me the most insane. I have a place for everything, but rarely is everything in its place. This morning, I wanted to vacuum the carpet in Chelsea's room, but her floor was like a collage of LEGOs, puzzle pieces, fake plastic food, and Little Einsteins figurines.

When I get really upset, and Chelsea refuses to help me clean it up, I always threaten to just throw it all away.

My realization that we were suffering from TMSS came into sharp focus recently when we visited a house that was for sale. The owners had two small children, the same age as ours. But they had nowhere near the amount of toys and kids' stuff that we have.

They DID have a garage. (Maybe they shoved it all in there?) And a yard. Two things we are sorely lacking.

And perhaps their kids don't stay home? Since I stay home with the girls, our place needs to do triple duty: home, daycare, and preschool. Make that quintuple duty: it's also our garage and yard.

I'm grateful to have this problem. The problem of having too much.

Now riddle me this: how can I donate a large portion of a four-year-old's toys without said four-year-old losing her ever-loving mind?

That is a true problem.
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