A couple of weekends ago, I had my brother and his family come stay with me. This was great, because, well… I like him and his family. The kids can be a handful, but overall, its nice to have people around the house.

I’ve been living alone for about 2 years now, and have basically accumulated a bunch of stuff. Most of it contains sharp corners and is made of glass, or otherwise fragile materials. And, it seems that the more fragile something is, it tends to be the item that you paid the most for.

I also have basically a “junk” room in my house that has all the stuff I’d usually keep in a garage… if I had a garage. This is basically a room where I keep the boxes of stuff I never unpacked, my old sporting goods, and all the old magazines and trinkets I’ve accumulated over the years. Yes, my name is John, and I’m a pack-rat.

Where do you think the most attractive place in the house is for a little kid? Yes… my “junk” room. And no matter how many times you say, “Don’t go into that room”… you will enevitably walk by, and see a kid in there rummaging through your old Wired magazines, or pulling out some golf club you forgot you had.

So…. basically, I’ve learned that there is no way to protect your stuff from kids. No matter how behaved they are, they will get into your stuff. Even if you hide it or put it up on a high shelf. Those are the items that kids go in search of, its like the hidden ship in The Goonies. Its an adventure for them to find the stuff you don’t want them to find.

Maybe next time when my brother visits, I’ll hide something worthless, high up on a shelf in my junk room, and see how long it takes for the kids to get it. Maybe that will keep them from playing with my one-of-a-kind dragon statue collection from China.