I've Declared War on Caps and Cups

I’ve noticed that there are two things that constantly seem to accumulate at my house (OK, three if you count dirty laundry): coffee cups and baseball caps.  I swear I haven’t purchased either of these in a long time and yet, I still have to do an occasional purge of both.  It seems like I frequently have a bag with a few hats and a box of coffee cups in the basement waiting to be donated.  
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I at least understand where many of the baseball caps come from.  With three kids playing softball, baseball, soccer, etc. they acquire a hat per team.  The kids wear them for the season and then stuff them in the closet to be forgotten.  Often these hats look practically new when the season is over.  Usually the kids are OK with getting rid of them after a while but if not, we discuss whether or not they might actually wear it again.  I point out to them how many hats they have already and how one or two of them could be donated.  The ones that become a problem are the hats that someone gives them and they love.  They wear it every day until it until that bright red hat is faded to pink, the edges are tattered, and you’re afraid it might just walk away on its own some night.  I’ve taken to hiding those in the garage and convincing them to wear something else, hoping they forget all about them so I can throw them away.

The coffee cups, however, just seem to appear out of nowhere.  At my house, I’m the only one who drinks coffee.  My wife makes one cup of tea each day in her travel mug and she and the kids have the occasional cup of hot chocolate in the winter.  They way I have it worked out, we should only need about 6 - 8 coffee cups at the absolute most.  There are 5 of us and I’m fine with a few spares for guests, although we do have a set of China that never gets used so we really shouldn’t need extras for guests.  Somehow, we accumulate them though.  Recently, I won two large cups in a basket raffle at a coffee tasting event.  I really wanted some of the other things in the basket and fundraiser was for a good cause, but I really didn’t need the extra cups.  I plan on giving them to a friend.

I don’t know if everyone else has encountered the same problem, but I for one have declared war on the cups and caps taking over the house.  First, I should do some laundry though.