When I was a little girl, my favorite Disney movie by far was The Little Mermaid. I watched that VHS cassette more times than I can count - my mom used to say I wore it out. Back then, I didn't realize that Ariel would have been considered a hoarder. For anyone who hasn't seen it (shame on you), the main character is a mermaid who collects items from shipwrecks to learn more about humans and their life on land. She dreams of living with them instead of under the sea because she doesn't feel like she belongs there.
I've always enjoyed collecting little things here and there. It might be something I find interesting, or something that I feel has sentimental value, or something that I think I'll use someday and then never get a chance to do anything with. Nevertheless, things added up. When I moved from my college apartment to my first real apartment on my own, I had a TON of stuff. I just kept accumulating things along the way. I'm a teacher, so anything I feel has value and I can use in the classroom is something that is difficult to get rid of. I've had 3 different classrooms and collected 2 different grade levels (2nd and 6th). Now that I teach preschool, I don't have much use of the other grade levels - BUT YOU NEVER KNOW :/ I hate getting rid of it. It hurts me to get rid of things I've collected for teaching.
