Disadvent 12

My 14yo came to me at 9:30 pm and said she needed 8 popsicle sticks, 10 pipecleaners, 10 drinking straws, 6 feet of yarn, and 20 rubber bands for an egg drop tomorrow, and then we needed a shoe box to put it all in, so, uh, clearly we are not quite out of the craft supply phase of life yet. (Some of those numbers may be slightly off, and I think we were actually a few popsicle sticks shy of whatever the number was and she's hoping someone else in her group will also have some. But seriously, I do not see how the satisfaction of having less "clutter" (a term I don't find useful) could ever compare to the satisfaction of being able to answer my kid asking "do we have any popsicle sticks or pipecleaners?" with "yes in this box labeled "popsicle sticks and pipecleaners"". (I should probably restock that box before the 11yo needs to do an egg drop...))

(Also if I was a high school science teacher I might choose to buy such supplies in bulk and provide them rather than assuming that every student has a parent going through life with the thought that an egg drop might break out at any moment - the 14yo later came back to take more pipecleaners, saying that "none of the guys in her class have any" - but perhaps I don't have the whole picture on the situation.)

Anyways. For today's disadvent I finished going through that box of paper. I think in the end I kept about 60% of it - surely more than anyone will ever use - but what if one of the kids suddenly needs a piece of cardboard, or a pretty picture from a calendar? It's happened before.