From tiny tots to towering teens, kids love collecting just about anything. To you it might look like a messy pile of junk; to them it is a fabulous treasure. The problem is that collections seem to take over your home and clutter up your kids' rooms. How many of you have stepped on a jack or a plastic toy soldier with bare feet?

Understanding why children love collecting will help you come to grips with the muddle and mess. Putting like objects together is a learning process that teaches kids to identify, classify and organize. They gain mastery over the collection and feel a sense of accomplishment. So the next time your youngster brings home a brimming bag of dirty rocks, help her clean them and exclaim over the pretty colors instead of tossing them. 

Collections don't have to clutter up your house. Providing ways to organize and control collections keeps kids happy and saves your sanity. First of all, evaluate your child's collection. Is it just a few items or is it taking over your family room? Is it something small, like pop can rings, or large items like giant stuffed animals?

Get your kids to help. They will enjoy gathering their collections and you can assess them together. Perhaps they are tired of the set of 60 Winnie the Poohs or their baby-doll collection. Suggest they donate it to a second-hand store. Explain that someone else will get to enjoy their things and you will appeal to their good-hearted generosity.

Help your child sort and choose the collections they enjoy most. Maybe he really doesn't care much for the shell collection he started back in preschool. Or maybe she'll rediscover her passion for stamps. Either way, you will both know where you stand.

Encourage the collections that your child finds most fascinating. Is your daughter wild about dolls? Find special or unusual ones at garage sales, thrift stores or clearance sales. You can delight your daughter on birthdays, holidays or just because without spending much. If you participate in her doll collection, you can subtly limit the size and expense.

Maybe your son loves trading cards, but you hate forking over five bucks for a small pack every time you go shopping. Make a one-time gift of ten packs. Explain that now that he has so many, he won't need any more for a while. Set a specific date.

Provide clear plastic pages and an inexpensive binder to keep the cards in good condition and all together. These are available at any discount store, hobby shop or wherever the cards are sold. You will eliminate lost or damaged cards and the mess of scattered piles.

Another excellent way to control collections is by using them as decorations. Buy or make sturdy shelves to house your children's favorite collections. Place them within easy reach. They will be able to see everything at a glance and you won't have to fuss over untidiness.

Wouldn't a collection of multicolored marbles look stunning in plastic jars? Or toy tractors lined up, ready to add color and interest to your child's walls? The whole room could reflect the collection in the choice of paint color and bedcovering designs.

You can make a border using a much-loved collection. Put up a six-inch wide shelf about 2/3 of the way up the wall. Continue all around the room, skipping walls with closets, doors and windows or going around them. Then space the objects all around the room for instant decoration. To add visual appeal, you could paint the top and bottom parts of the wall different colors or wallpaper in a coordinating design.

Your child's tastes in collectinig will undoubtedly change over the years. A beloved Barney collection might morph into a desire for Dominoes. Bratz may crowd out Barbie and crew. One year Teletubbies could be totally terrific, the next they are embarrassing.
 
Kids take a lot of clues from the media and advertising. From the time they are impressionable toddlers, they learn they should ask for the newest thing, the brightest, shiniest, most expensive toy on the market. Even as they grow, their wants and desires are fed to them with their morning cereal, their after-school specials and evening programs.

As parents, it is our responsibility to show kids that they don't always need the latest cool toy. That sometimes it is okay and even desirable to like old-fashioned things like stamp collecting or shells from your summer vacation.

When Yu-Gi-Oh cards hit the stores, I let my Pokemon-card-collecting kids know that we weren't going to throw out our old cards just because something new came out. Now they are proud to own an extensive collection. Pokemon cards are also cheaper and easier to find because not as many kids collect them now.

Someday those collections could be worth cash. Look at the craze over vintage toys from the fifties and sixties. Coin  collections will always be valuable and grow more so with time. Stamp collections, rare sports cards or certain toys from different eras could all make a mint in the future. 

Try not to make the mistake of forcing kids into collections. Even though you might think Beanie Babies would be a good investment, don't collect them and then forbid your children to play with them to preserve the condition. Then it becomes your collection.

You can encourage different collections, however. Steer your son away from a collection of bugs and towards a bundle of Boxcar Children books. Hint to your daughter that a collection of pretty shells might be nicer than a tangled mess of costume jewelry.

Organize and display collections to de-clutter your children's rooms. Learn to work with your children's collections, not against them, and you'll end up with contented, collecting kids.