How many of you have a pile (if not boxes full) of our children’s school papers, artwork, scribbles, every little piece of paper that they’ve ever poured their little hearts into?
I do, and I am a professional organizer.
It is hard to part with pieces of your child(ren)’s growth and development. By digging through piles you can track the learning to: spell their own name, coloring inside of the lines, and ability to use scissors. You can also reflect on the fruits of the countless hours they spent doing homework, there creative ability to write, read, complete mathematical equations, and the list goes on and on. We pay for their education not only with our time and money, but with our own intelligence, our ability to parent, so those papers show how much of ourselves that we’ve poured into our children. How can we possibly throw it away? But we can’t keep it forever. Can we?
What is a reasonable amount of papers to keep? And how and where do we keep them?
The key is to sort them regularly. Keep only items that evoke emotion for you or your child; or possibly any “firsts” that may be recorded through art or school work. It will be hard to throw or recycle these items, however it has to be done in order to preserve and cherish those special pieces. Respect your child by not processing their creations in front of them, many children will not understand and may then shy away if they know their hard work will just end up in the garbage.
Here are a number of creative ideas for storing your child’s special creations:
• Display them in a 3-ring binder. Place all pieces in plastic sleeves to protect the item from wear and tear. Create 1 binder for each school year. Separate by subject or by separating art from writing. Allow your child to choose his/her favorite pieces too! Reflect at the end of each school year so that they can see their own progress. As your child ages, you can begin to weed out each binder and condense into one binder divided by grade. Great for showcasing schoolwork at graduations.
• You can keep them framed. Dynamic Frames, producer of Lil’ Davinci Art Cabinet (frame) has come up with a great solution for storing artwork. Each frame, available in various sizes, stores up to 50 projects and range in price.
• You can give as part of a gift. Decoupage gift boxes by having your child cut or tear up their artwork and decorating a gift box with their favorite pieces. Contact your local craft store for more information on decoupage.
No matter which method you choose to showcase your child’s artwork, they are sure to be proud and appreciate your effort to preserve their growth. And you can surely appreciate the lack of paper clutter in your home.
Other options:
• Choose to Share. Share your child’s art and school work with grandparents by scanning each piece and saving to a DVD with pictures of your child and light music. Grandparents can view their grandchildren’s masterpieces at their own convenience!
• Create a Card. Whether you are creative or not, you can create cards by hand; using your child’s artwork or digitally by scanning in the images and creating a card online with popular photo developers. Create Thank You, Get Well, Happy Birthday, or even Christmas cards to share with friends and family.
• Decorate your home. Whether in their bedroom or on display through out your home, you can use each unique piece as wall hangings without framing them. String a clothes line back and forth on their bedroom wall and hang pictures with clothes pins. Or you can add a classic touch to decorating by hanging a curtain rod with a drop line and clip, and then attach the artwork. In this case, whenever hanging pieces that are not mounted to a board, they should first be stored and pressed flat before hanging to reduce curling or wrinkles.
Bergstrom, of Littlefork, is a professional organizer and consultant.
