I Have Too Much Stuff!

Too much stuff in my bedroom

One of the pitfalls of being in the pre-school music business is that you collect all sorts of things to use in your classes.  A myriad of instruments, props, puppets, strange items made of papier mache and other such oddities that you just have to have.  You quickly find your job is taking over your house.  Currently I store items in the loft, in our bedroom, I’ve boxes permanently resident in my car (no room for children, even in a people carrier!) and I have recently begun to spread to a small corner of the living room (soon to get larger I fear).

Now I would say that yes, I am a bit of a hoarder, but not quite as squirrel-like as my husband who keeps defunct computers, old bits of wood, screws, ancient bicycles and random newspaper clippings in the loft, “because it might come in handy one day”.  Oh and don’t forget the 50,000 t-shirts he’s got from running races and never wears.  I’m more a magpie and that if I see something I think might be useful for my classes I’ll buy it and then work out a way of using it later on…. or not.

I must confess to a number of items I’ve purchased and never, ever, used but find it difficult to throw away.  Like, for instance, 30 A4 sized magnetic wipeboards that I bought as a bulk purchase and have never even taken out of their wrappings.  About 4 years later I can’t even remember why I thought they’d be a good idea in the first place.  But I’ve still got them. 

Rak-a-taks are VERY loud!

And then of course there are the mistakes which just didn’t work – gathering drum too big to transport about; these rak-a-taks pictured to your left looked fantastic fun but made such a racket that I’ve used them once and then never again; ditto cymbals – why did I ever think that was going to be a good idea!  Oh and what about the purple monster puppet – it made some children cry… I thought he was friendly looking but he’s sat in a box of other unused puppets in my bedroom ever since.

So I have too much stuff, and no where to store it.  But I can’t possibly get rid of it, can I?  I mean “it might come in handy one day”!