Car Hoarding

I’m not a hoarder, really I’m not, though my husband thinks the tendencies are there.  But recently, I started wondering if I was starting to slide down that slippery slope.  My house still has floor space, I still throw things away… but then, I went to the car to look for something.  I knew the car was a mess.  I knew it was cluttered.  But until I took inventory, I didn’t know just how bad it had gotten.  I decided to take every last thing out of the car and start from scratch.  This is what I found:

8 random toddler shoes (only a few matched up as pairs)

7 mismatched toddler and baby socks

3 sippy cups

2 stainless steel coffee mugs (still with coffee inside)

4 baby blankets

7 jackets (3 baby, 3 toddler, 1 mama)

14 hats (8 baby, 4 toddler, 1 mama, 1 papa)

4 bibs (now, my toddler doesn’t wear them and my baby is exclusively breastfed, so…?)

3 pairs of Babylegs

4 pairs of sunglasses (3 toddler, 1 mama)

1 diaper bag

1 bag to throw bare necessities into when diaper bag gets too heavy

$3.17 in change

11 mismatched gloves

3 board books

2 reusable shopping bags

1 Ziploc bag of Fruit Snacks, pretzels, Cheerios, and granola bars

17 CDs, with and without cases

36 toys

Copies of The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen, PhD

Many, many gas station and drive-thru receipts

I can explain.  See, my priority when I get home is getting both the baby and the toddler from the car into the house.  The “stuff” can wait… and it always does.  Take the hats, for example.  I put the kids in the car and make sure each of them has a hat.  When we return from our adventures, I get the both kids into the house, but the hats are now on the floor of the car and, well, they aren’t needed in the house so they stay there.  When getting ready for our next adventure, I look around the house and wonder where their hats are.  Since we are usually in a hurry, I just go ahead and grab another hat for each child, forgetting that they already have one in the car.  Rinse, repeat.  It’s not my fault.  It’s mommy brain.  Hey, at least I remembered to bring the kids!

And, no, I never found the one thing I was looking for – that remains a mystery!