Sorting and decluttering our daughters’ rooms has brought back many memories, but an odd find in Laura’s room reminded me of how the Tooth Fairy left more than money at our house. It’s time for another Clutter Tale!

About Clutter Tales

Clutter Tales is a series where we tell the stories of our lives through our clutter. During my decluttering journey, I found a lot of things that took me back to a different place and time. Instead of casually discarding them, I decided to honour them by telling their story. I’ve written Clutter Tales about a high school shorthand textbook, an old airline ticket, a travel diary from my trip to France at age 18, notes from a visit to a fortune teller, and more!

Along with my own reflections, this series has featured posts by some of my favourite bloggers. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

Now, on to today’s Clutter Tale…

Dear Tooth Fairy, Please don’t take my teeth

I’ve discovered some weird things during my decluttering journey, but I can honestly say that the inspiration for this Clutter Tale just might be the strangest ever. Let me tell you the story of Laura and the Tooth Fairy.

Many parents keep their child’s first tooth as a memento. In fact, these little boxes labelled “First Tooth” and “First Curl” were common baby gifts back in the day. I’d be willing to bet, though, that very few parents kept all their child’s teeth!

Sorting through the boxes in Laura’s closet recently, we found not one—but several—boxes of teeth. Most of them were baby teeth, but she had also saved a few adult teeth that she had pulled before she got braces as a teenager.

Why did we keep these teeth? Of course, there’s a story.

Laura and the Tooth Fairy

When Laura lost her first tooth, she decided she wanted to keep it. She wrote a note for the Tooth Fairy and left it under her pillow with the tooth. Naturally, the Tooth Fairy obliged and left the tooth along with a shiny toonie for Laura.

I would have been happy to just have the one baby tooth for the little box, but this became a thing and Laura continued to ask the Tooth Fairy to leave her teeth.

Fifteen years later, when Laura had her wisdom teeth removed, the nurse asked if she wanted to keep her teeth. Laura groggily replied, “Sure. I can put them with all the others.” A few hours later, when the sedation wore off, Laura asked me why I had brought her teeth home. (Trust me, I would have happily left them at the dentist’s office.) Laura had no memory of that conversation with the nurse and did not want those wisdom teeth.  

This discovery ranks close to the top of the ickiness scale. I asked Laura if she still wanted her beautiful collection of teeth. She said no, and the teeth have been decluttered.

Thankfully, Colleen didn’t have a similar obsession so the only tooth we found in her bedroom closet was her first tooth in the souvenir box. Like me, Colleen has no wisdom teeth, yet she was wise enough to know that it’s best to let the Tooth Fairy take and dispose of teeth.

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I hope you enjoyed this installment of Clutter Tales. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

Did you keep any strange mementos in your kids’ memory boxes? Tell me your stories below.