Being a good parent?

Avalinette

As for the (original) dresser photo: my natural inclination is to tidy like that so maybe he's a bit like me

My four year old also loves collecting junk and has piles of Very Important Papers and gets very anxious over the thought of me throwing them away. I deal with it in a few ways: She has a cupboard with doors in her room and she can put treasures in there and close the door and then it doesn't visually clutter the room (and every now and then I have a 'throw away all the junk that's not in the cupboard' drive). We have pinboards in the living area and staple her pictures on them and staple new ones on top of old ones which keeps the things on display at a minimum (and nicely framed). Finally, I throw away some artwork/schoolwork/crafts but most of it just goes into a box (and I'll throw it out oneday when she's forgotten about it). She also loves collecting stones and sticks and bits of nature. The rule in our family is that those things aren't allowed in the car so she has to find a special place to leave them before we go home. Anything that still makes it home has to be kept outside in our garden and is not allowed in the house.