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| Pile of Projects |
Do you have a New Year's resolution to be more organized? Or are you already there? Kids' crafts pose a problem for the organization of homes everywhere. What do you do with all of the many, many crafts your kids make?
Even though you want to, you can't possibly save them all. It really starts to take up quite a lot of space. Here is what I do.
First, I take a picture of each craft as soon as they are done with it or as soon as they bring it home. That way I get the photo when it is fresh. Also, I can save things in a photo and can then easier throw items away.
Next, I put it in a certain place in a closet.
Then about twice a year, I go through the items. I sort them into three piles: keep, maybe, throw away. I throw away the throw away pile, put the keeps in my storage container, and go through my maybe pile again. I don't keep anything that exceeds the size of my storage container. I like giving it some time to think about because with time I become more removed from the item.
By the end of the year, I get the items I want to keep down to what will fit into a pizza box (my storage container). Last year, Brayden's preschool teacher gave us a clean pizza box all decorated. I saved only enough items that could fit in that box with it shut.
I do plan to cut this back more in the future. I will have to keep only a few items from every year.
I know there are lots of good ideas out there, so please share yours!
5 comments:
We mostly do seasonal crafts. Some of the seasonal crafts we send to both grandma's house. The rest, I have a display wall where I clip them to some wire strung up. I take a picture of each one and usually do not keep the original after that season is over unless it is something I want to use as a stencil/example. These I put in a file folder box with files for each holiday and season.
As my daughter gets older (she is only 2 now) and more attached to her artwork I may give her a homemade paper bound book to keep her favorite work in. My grandmother made these for us out of large, construction paper and ribbon and we loved them.
We're stationed overseas so most of the artwork the kids do get sent back to grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I do try to take a picture of the art project by itself and another one with the child. At some point, I'll make a little photobooks on shutterfly for the kids.
We also reuse some projects- random coloring or finger painting artwork can be cut up to make cards or even used as wrapping paper. Some seasonal projects get packed up with decor items and put out the next year. My kids are still on the younger side so this hasn't really added up yet.
My mom kept her favorite things of ours in a suitcase under our beds. She also wrote on everything she kept - our age, the date, and anything else of importance because you do forget over time. She organized the items by year. I had the most fun as an adult going through that suitcase and seeing my "work" through the years. I was then given the task of getting rid of the things I didn't want anymore. :)
We do what others have said: send lots of it to relatives and good friends. My son now finds it hard to agree to throw away much of his work but he will easily agree to give it to someone else. Same with his old toys. At least one grandma has requested artwork, so that works out great. We used his artwork cut into card sizes for our Christmas cards. We then whittle down our "keep" pile to 3 things per year. I have a binder per kid with section dividers for each year and that's where the 3 keepers go. I also find I can't bear to part with some extra items, so I write in small print on the back my memory of what is so special about this one (e.g. "wrote all by himself for the first time!") and then put it into a medium-sized storage bin meant for "family memorabilia".
Thanks everyone for your ideas! Great ideas. It made me think of getting a small, flat rubbermaid tote, too.
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