Is this an Aspie thing? or just something designed to drive me crazy?

Euan (11, Asperger's Syndrome) has a bit of a problem throwing things out. We went through his room last week trying to clear it out and tidy it for the new school term, and he had several complete meltdowns. He just could not throw anything out, including tiny scraps of torn paper that were once part of a number counting game that was his homework in the third grade...

I don't really get this, as he is generally an ordered person who really likes things to be tidy and organised (not least so he can find them again) and now that we have prised some of the truly disgusting mounds of crap away from him he loves his new clean, tidy room (he even folds his laundry now, hurrah!). But we still have a whole cupboard full of stuff, including soft toys, games, old artwork folders etc, than he cannot bear to chuck - even though I *know* I will be able to draw dust bunnies in the cupboard door before long and I will bet any amount of money when it comes to the next big 'clear up' in a few month's time he won't even have opened the darned cupboard, let alone looked at or played with anything inside.

Is this an Aspie thing or just a Euan thing? anyone else encountered it, how did you deal with it? My house is already overwhelmed with 'precious' things (shells, feathers, bits of leaf stuck to egg cups, half finished models of star trek spaceships) that no-one is allowed to throw out, if I give in to this none of us will be able to actually get out of the house for the junk mountain!

Kirsty, mum to Euan (11, Aspergers Syndrome) Rohan (7, NT, no excuse apart from chronic hoarding and being too lazy to tidy up) and Maeve (4, NT, also no excuse apart from ongoing craft-mania)