Keeping Track of Library Books and "Stuff"

When you have young kids, doesn't it seem like their "stuff" just sort of accumulates before your eyes?  Now I'm not talking about books or puzzles or games or actual toys...just stuff.  You know, the fast food toy they can't part with, birthday party trinkets, the treat box toy from school...stuff that doesn't have a particular place.  Stuff you'd like to throw out but can't because, although it's total crap, it's valuable crap to that certain  little person (or people) that lives in your house.

Here's my solution to the problem of "stuff."  When my boys moved into their shared room and I was combining their furniture,  I found a spot for a very old, very cheap, small Ikea chest that my husband used in college (that was actually a hand-me-down even waaay back then.  I painted it white when our oldest was a baby and seven years later it had taken a beating.  Since it wasn't in good enough condition to refinish or really even to repaint, I slapped some leftover chalkboard paint (a light sanding, no primer and 2 coats) on it and called it a day.  I decided it would be the perfect place to stow and keep track of library books.

I wrote on the chest with a paint pen so it wouldn't get erased.  The inspired part?  The two drawers at the top became a home for stuff!  The stuff drawers have worked out great and make cleaning up so much easier.  Is it small and doesn't seem to belong anywhere?  Into the drawer!  Now the top of their dresser and their underwear drawers aren't cluttered up with stuff that doesn't belong.  Yes, the stuff drawers become, well, junk drawers after awhile, but we I clean them out occasionally and the stuff I eventually toss out doesn't seem to be missed.

What do you do with the "stuff" that follows your kids around?  Is "stuff" a boy phenomenon or do girls have lots of "stuff," too?