Used School Supplies Anyone?

Now that school has been out for a week, I find myself cleaning and sorting all the "treasures" that the kids have brought back from their desks.  I place usable things in a large rubbermaid tub (along with former usable things from past years) to be gotten out when we are in need of them.  Which is.... never.

The kids are not necessarily "colorers."  They never really have been that interested in sitting down for a stretch of time with markers and a picture to fill in.  Those workbooky things - sure, they love those - but you can do a whole workbook or word search with about two pencil sharpenings.

And pencils - holy crap do we have a lot of pencils.  Pencils are the new candy when it comes to birthday treats, holiday give-aways, or good behavior prizes.  They could stop manufacturing pencils TODAY, and we'd still have enough for a lifetime.

We also have tons of glue.  Allison got out 5 bottles of glue yesterday to use as pretend "ingredients" in her cooking.  I just found 4 more in their backpacks from this year.  Glue sticks, on the other hand, we can always use more of.  The kids prefer glue sticks to glue bottles in approximately the same ratio that dentists recommend using toothpaste.

But what bugs me most about unpacking the end-of-year used supplies is the waste.  Jacob had two notebooks that were about 90% unused (I set aside for doodling this summer).  He has 4 folders in perfectly good shape, save the permanent marker that has been used to designate the owner, classroom, teacher, and subject (thus making it difficult to justify their reuse next year).  Allison's crayons, calculator, and one marker set came back home in October because they were "too distracting" for her in her desk.  So, she didn't need them?  If she didn't need them, why were they on the page-long list of school supplies typed in 6 point font that we received at the beginning of the year?

I get that it's easier for kids to bring everything at the beginning and then it's "done."  But the growing pile of useable stuff that returns each year leads me to believe that I send way more than they need.  What if markers one year were donated to the class the next year?  Could we maybe buy one three-subject notebook rather than three single subject notebooks?  And please, loosen your stranglehold on the Ticonderoga pencils.  I know - they probably ARE the best, but I have this backlog of lonely Happy Halloween pencils that are just waiting to be used!