I throw away my 5 year old’s art and craft projects.
The coloring pages, the random scribbles, the watercolors, and now with Pre-K, the tracing pages, the lessons, the patterns! Yup, I junk it! Okay, not really all of it, but the unfinished, the random, the not-even-close-to-a-Picasso–those don’t last long round’ these parts.
Let me explain…
You see, we happen to be a fairly crafty family. Tons of supplies are always at the ready–there are crayons, markers, coloring pages, glue, gems, feathers, paint, googly eyes and just about every other item in the “Best Art and Crafts Kit Ever” somewhere in our house. Which means we tend to find ourselves in the middle of some sort of creation. Whether it is set of Frozen paper dolls or some far off land filled with blue dragons and sparkly princesses, my kiddo has a mind for the imaginary and we put it down on paper.
And I encourage it. We thrive on it.
So you must be wondering why would I even consider trashing these works of art.
Am I unsentimental? No. Am I a clutter-adverse person? Yes.
So yeah, this means lots of stuff. Lots of paper products piling up. First it would be just on my desk, then it would find it’s way to the bar, then under the coffee table, then in back to the kiddo’s room. I used to make a pretty good dent in the growing piles by selecting a choice few for the fridge and the care packages headed to Mimi and the Aunties in California. Then I started giving away some other fine selections to family here in Dallas, along with friends, both mine and hers.
But the piles just kept growing!
And I LOVE it. Really I do. But we can’t keep it all. If I even relax for a minute, that’s when I’ll be drowning in the result of arts and craft time. So I’ve been slowly, secretly, filtering out the best of the best and just recycling the rest. Now, I know this seems a little heartless but M’s Pre-K is all about creating, imagining and exploring. She brings home amazing stuff–every single week. And I do keep a lot of it. But the tracing pages, the random colorings? I’m sorry, they have to go.
Organization is the key.
My daughter is a lot like my husband, a saver. In fact, if he reads this post, he might start wondering what it is I’ve actually thrown out…and go looking for any recent tosses. So whenever I ask her, can we get rid of this and this, of course, the answer is “NO!” I get it–this is her hard work, her creations. But we can’t keep it all. So in hopes of making everyone at home happy in the New Year regarding our crafty creations, I went searching for amazing ways to display or keep the best-of-the-best when it comes to kiddie art. I’m certainly inspired and I hope maybe some mamas out there will be too.
Create a Wall Display – If you’ve got the wall space, scouring the thrift stores for frames is such a clever way to display the most current (and awesome!) art projects. The Artful Parent has a fab tutorial on creating your own, check it out here.
Hang It On a Wire – I personally love this idea. It’s like you’ve hung the artwork out to dry. Check out the way mama Kelli at Random Thought of a Supermom gets it done.
Put it on a Ledge – DIY Master Mama Ana White will give you step-by-step instructions on how to construct some killer ledge shelving perfect for all the wonderful creations your kiddos complete.
Put it in an Art Cabinet – If you limited space and want to rotate the masterpieces, check out a Lil Davinci--you can store up to 50 pieces of art in just one unit.
Make a Photo Book – Umm, this is just way cool. Designed by Paislee Press for Shutterfly–collect every single scribble and create an amazing book of art. Perfect for parents who really want to toss the scraps but just can’t quite bear to do so.
Make Art Binders – For the rest of the stuff you can’t have out and about but can’t quite seem to toss, check out super tutorials on getting kids’s artwork and creations organized. I really love these binders creative over at Make Life Lovely because you can pull them out and flip through anytime. Clear storage boxes or even file folders work great too.
Do you throw away your kid’s art? How do you organize and keep the best? Share with us in the comments!
I have a canvass valise that I stick the art I really like in (I toss the not-so-great stuff) after I’ve written their name, age, and the date on the back. When I go to add more things, I add it in order, from left to right. You could do this with a hanging file in a file cabinet, too, one for each kid. The nice thing about the valise is when it starts to get full, I pull out the whole pile and starting from the top look to see what I can get rid of so I can get everything back into the valise. A lot of times as I start through the pile I see things I wondered why I saved. It was great at the time, but 18-24 months later, not so much. The valise makes it easy to pull out the old stuff and look through it and it also gives me a “boundary” that I’d like the art to fit into. A limit. Of course, I could always go buy another valise…