the kids we don't have

my husband has this thing for plastic storage tubs. and when i say thing i really mean obsession.

he is a man that spends his money well and accounts for every last penny. but whenever he passes one of those colorful tubs at the store he just can't control himself. if he could, he would fill up the car and drive home with 20 of them and then proceed to package up our basement items for "safe and dry keeping". don't tell him i know, but he is very proud of himself when he does this.

that is great and all, until i noticed that it isn't really important to him what goes in them, just as long as nothing is outside of them. i discovered this last night when i convinced him to join me in a little basement spring cleaning.

out of boxes i pulled a comforter from his apt - the apt he had right after he graduated college (ahem and that wasn't yesterday!), decorative old pillows, old sheets, an entire tub of towels he has accumulated since leaving home and an assortment of old dorm decor (you know, a rickity clock, cheap wall art we'll never use, etc - pretty much all but a lava lamp). we also came across a tub of all our old kitchen items (pots, pans, dishes, cups that we no longer need once we got married).

so i told him "let's give this to goodwill, where someone can use them". he immediately said "no, our kids will use these when they go to college!"

excuse me? is he saving things for our yet-to-be-born children in hopes that in TWENTY years they will want to take mom and dad's old grubby dishes and lamps?

i promptly told him in twenty years we will be buying new dishes and our kids can have our old ones. we're taking everything to goodwill this weekend.