Every piece of artwork your child brings home is a treasure and of course you want to keep it. Storing and organizing all that can be quite the challenge. And as they progress through school, you see the bins of paperwork growing you start to think about if you’ll ever really go through all these papers again. Try a few of these tips to help preserve those memories without all the mess.
Snap a picture
It’s so easy to snap a picture these days. Grab your phone and snap a picture of that drawing or story your child wrote (put them in the picture too if you want to!). At the end of the school year (or calendar year-whatever works for you), upload those pictures into your favorite photo site (Walgreens, Shutterfly, Walmart for example) and make a simple photo book of their creations for the year. Now you’ve only got that book to store but still have all the memories.
Weed through it
Grab a three ring binder and know that’s what you’ve got to fit everything you’re going to keep this year in. As the year goes on and space becomes less and less, you can go back through and pull out things that you’re ok with getting rid of to make space for something new. Use a three hole punch or plastic pockets to store things inside the binder. You can even recruit your child to decorate the front and back of the binder too.
Display it
If you want to look at the work right away, you (or your child) choose a few pieces to display in a predetermined location (on the fridge, their bedroom door, ect). Decide how often you’ll rotate new pieces in and what you’ll do with the ones you take down.
Now that you’ve displayed or snapped a picture of the masterpieces, what if you don’t want to throw them out? You could pass them along to family members. I don’t know a grandma who wouldn’t love to get some mail with beautiful artwork. If you don’t have family to share it with, consider a long term care facility or shelter. Not only can you share the artwork but maybe there’s a way for your family to become involved through volunteering or helping in another way.
How do you weed through all the masterpieces your kids create?
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