OP - man that really does suck, change locks. : my mom loves trying to clean up my room, but most of the time when she goes in there, she throws away projects i've been working on or other random, yet important, things. I tried making it clear that its my room, my space, but she says i dont get privacy cause its her house.

Throw away her shit then. You'll feel better.

Aw, that really sucks for you. But I think you should at least say thanks for trying, then explain that although you appreciate her gesture, you'd rather her not throw out anything without asking you. To all you who say the mom's a bitch or whatever, at least she was TRYING to be nice. And a lot of you say your moms do the same thing or would do the same thing. Stop complaining and think about how LUCKY you are to have moms that care about you and try to do helpful things for you. Yes it sucks that sometimes they'll accidentally throw things out, but give them some credit for trying to be nice. Your mom is only human and makes mistakes too. Probably each one of you ruined something of your mom's when you were little, or have accidentally thrown something out you shouldn't have, but she forgave you. As an adult, forgive your mom. She raised you. She obviously loves you. And she'll probably understand your wishes if you don't freak out on her. (P.S I am an artist, of various types; drawing and writing, musician too, and have nearly had some things i wanted thrown out by my mom, but we managed to save it)

I would've seriously chewed my mom out violently for doing something like that.

theres only one thing to do. kill her. if not for you, for me. :(

That happened to me once. My dad decided to go through my computer and permanently delete all the documents that he thought were infected or something. One of those was the 50,000-word novel I'd been working on for five years. His response? "Shit happens. Sucks for you."

My parents decide to do that ALL THE TIME. They constantly tell me to rearange my bookbag and throw random stuff out, which always includes something important which I need a week or two later. I know I should "pay attention to what I'm throwing out," but it wouldn't happen if I'm left alone to use my own "filing system."

Wow, that really sucks. I also have tons of stuff lying around, but my mom is an artist herself. I feel quite lucky about that after reading this. :/

Erm, does your Mum not know that you're an artist? o.o

This one can't be real! What type of work do you do that she would think it can be thrown out? This could lead to years of therapy for anyone! augh