this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

Several months ago, The Tall One came home with an assortment of random construction paper and copy paper that was given to him by a co-worker. The co-worker assumed that our boys would enjoy it.

It all started innocently enough, I put the large stack of paper into an empty under bed storage box thinking I'd just hand it out as needed. Instead, that box turned into the kids' craft box. Slowly, crayons, scissors, and glue found their way into the box. Then came the stickers, cotton balls, ribbon, random paper scraps and magazine scraps (Bug likes to practice his cutting skills using old magazines). Soon the box was overflowing and it was incredibly hard to find anything in there.

This past weekend, I cleaned out the box. Not so we could start again, but so I could put all the necessary supplies into a much smaller box! I picked up a plastic storage box that is about one fourth the size of the other one. Keeping things in the other box would just mean the same mess in a few weeks.

This concept - filling up space with unnecessary things simply because the space is there - can be applied to other situations as well. From buying new things to fill a new house to slowly growing into a new and larger income. Sometimes it doesn't have ill effects, but it's still important to watch out for.