My son is 4 and in preschool 3 days a week. He comes home with an art project nearly every day he goes to school, plus he's constantly drawing at home. He is quite talented and I am proud of him. I don't want to be a bad mommy and toss it, but saving/displaying it is taking up so much space and driving me insane. I'm trying to de-clutter to clear my mind, but this is an obstacle that I'm stuck on. Do you have any suggestions?
:help:

My son is 4 and in preschool 3 days a week. He comes home with an art project nearly every day he goes to school, plus he's constantly drawing at home. He is quite talented and I am proud of him. I don't want to be a bad mommy and toss it, but saving/displaying it is taking up so much space and driving me insane. I'm trying to de-clutter to clear my mind, but this is an obstacle that I'm stuck on. Do you have any suggestions?
:help:.

How about saving to a scrapbook or rubbermaid bin?

i hear ya! and those rubbermaid bins fill up WAY to fast...one thing i have started to do is send some art work and drawings to grandma and grandpa on a regular basis--they love it...i've read about taking photos of your child with as much of the art as you can fit in a photo--save the photos, recycle the art...also, whenever i'm in a mood to get rid of stuff, i make sure i hit the bins of artwork--i still save too much, but it helps...its hard, i know!

that is a problem here as well. when they are not around i go thru and recycle stuff and they never ever notice. i also make them go thru and recycle some of the old stuff and tell them that we cannot keep everything forever. i tell them i am sooo proud of all of their work and that theys hould be too but that we do not have space for it all and when they clear some stuff out they are making room for new projects. now that the year is nearly over they know that they can keep a couple of special things of their choice but that the rest has to go so they will have room for first grade projects in the fall. they are fine with that. and i never ever toss stuff like the special thing they made me for mothers day. but yeah---clutter kills me. and they get a small rectangular happy face every day in school if they have had a good day--they are all over and most definitely do not make me smile!!!lol

I have folders to save artwork but they are filling up fast!! i have taken some pieces to be laminated then we use them as placemats,
another idea i read of is to scan the artwork in and then print it out as a photo for the memory album/photo album scrap book whatever you want to call it.
i save everything, i cant let go of any of it!!

We do art everyday here (7 days) so we end up with a lot too.
We do two different things. One, we send some out to extended family. They decide who gets what and we write a nice little note and send the artwork to the family member.
The other thing we do is we have an "artwork" wall. When it fills up, they have to decide which picture comes down when they want to put a new one up. So we take down that picture and recycle it and they put the new one up in it's place.
We also laminate some of the best ones and use them as placemats. When the mats get too ratty, we replace them with a new picture of honor. It's not an option for those with kids in regular school but we switched to MagnaDoodles not so long ago so they can make as many pictures as they want without running through too much paper.
At least if the kid decides which picture to recycle you don't have to deal with any real guilt about rotating them. I think, for the most part, parents put more worth in each individual drawing than the kids do. Mine like ones they work extra hard on but they're not attached to all of them. Some have been on the art wall for months, others stay just a day or two.
Mary

mary we have the magna doodles too, my 2 yo loves it........i also got him the aquadoodle pad too and thats great, just refill water in the pen! and they can make picture after picture,

My friend has 2/3rd of one of her kitchen walls done with corkboard. Stuff gets hung up there. Don't know what she's does with it when it comes down. She can put a ton on the wall though. Hasn't filled it up yet. It's been since February since she moved there.

I have corkboard on one wall of my 6 year old's room. It's plastered with artwork, she manages to take some down when she runs out of room and wants to put something else up...

We do send some stuff to reletives too, but my best tip?

For the really special ones, we put pieces of artwork on the tabletop and cover with a clear plastic tablecloth - this is usually reserved for the seasonal stuff - Valentine's cards, Baby Jesus pictures, Mother's day, shamrocks, etc... we enjoy it until the next holiday comes around and then decorate the table again...

We started saveing the real "important" works of art the ones that the kids deemed very important , we still have boxes and boxes full!

mary we have the magna doodles too, my 2 yo loves it........i also got him the aquadoodle pad too and thats great, just refill water in the pen! and they can make picture after picture,

My kids had one of those. Well, technically two. The first one they left on their playroom floor and the cats peed on it. It was ruined, I'm guessing from the ammonia. The second one I was real careful about putting away but the cat actually jumped up on their bookshelf and peed on it! It seems irresistable to them. They never go outside their litter box either. I just stopped buying them and told the boys we'd stick with the etch a sketchs. lol
Mary

some really good ideas here! our walls are filled too......my 6 yo hangs her pics up, i really need to get a few frames so we can actually frame things, and then hang, then we can switch around,
she will hang things and sometimes her 2 yo brother finds it too irresistable and rips it down :(

My kids had one of those. Well, technically two. The first one they left on their playroom floor and the cats peed on it. It was ruined, I'm guessing from the ammonia. The second one I was real careful about putting away but the cat actually jumped up on their bookshelf and peed on it! It seems irresistable to them. They never go outside their litter box either. I just stopped buying them and told the boys we'd stick with the etch a sketchs. lol
Mary


There has to be something with how they smell, that is crazy!

I was reading Mission: Organization: Strategies and Solutions to Clear Clutter last night and it suggests:


If you can't bring yourself to throw away your child's art projects, ask him or her which three are most important. Frame these and turn the rest into gift wrap or birthday cards. Laminate large paintings to make place mats and give them as gifts.

First, take a picture of the child and the masterpiece du jour. Then store the artwork somewhere out of sight (and out of mind). Next year, go through and save anything that you can't bear to discard - toss everything else in the trash. The digital photos will be around forever, and don't take any room in the house.

A few suggestions. I've always saved the very special ones and encouraged her to do that...then after a few years I'll ask her if she still wants this one. One thing I'm going to start doing because her artwork has really progressed so much, is to frame it. One idea I got about framing from mom was to keep changing out artwork. She usually keeps a bunch of pictures behind the one on top. But also you could frame it for a while on the wall and then again, remove it and either toss it (explaining why it is not practical to save everything), or store it somewhere. That way he gets the idea that his artwork is important enough to be part of the decor in your home....and framing it makes it really special.

B