Organizational Tip Tackle the Kids’ Artwork
Organizational Tip Tackle the Kids’ Artwork. I have a lot of kids. That fact is no secret. My kids like to color, draw, paint, and make sculptures and Sunday School creations. These creations come home every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday.
Tote Overload
If each of my kids has one tote per year of arts and crafts until they turn 18, there would be 126 totes. Remember, I homeschool and have chosen to keep everything from their school years. I would have 126 totes FULL of stuff that I would have to store in my attic, garage, man cave, or storage unit. That does not include all their baby things and toys. What I’m talking about is just artwork.
While going through my nesting phase, I came across about 30 containers with all this stuff. Sentimental things. Things I cherish and want to remember forever. Realistically, it was a bit of a fire hazard. I had Big Daddy breathing down my neck to throw these treasures away, and then I had my kids on the other side crying when they saw something in the throwaway box. They felt I didn’t love their art.
Quite the conundrum.
I had a couple of great ideas. Maybe three. I have a small wood chest my daddy made years ago. I also had a box my mom got me when I was a child. The first thing I did was I went through the attic (and garage) ALONE. Second, I emptied my two chests and cleaned them all out. Third, I got binders. Two per child and put their names on them. I separated every paper and craft. So, each child had a pile.
Binder Help
I used my three-hole puncher for the treasures I would not part with. Then I added them to that particular child’s binder. With the more oversized items, I placed them in my two chests. Honestly, that still left me with A TON of treasures. Once I had the binders and chests full, there was more. I had seven piles of things for each child. These were precious items, but I did not necessarily want to keep them (fire hazard, remember). I took out my camera, and I took pictures of pictures. I downloaded those photos on my computer and gave each child a file. Those pictures are now on a flash drive, disk, and my external hard drive. I can look at them whenever I want.
This simple act cuts down on so much clutter.
I could keep their sweet drawings while keeping my sanity and living the minimalistic life I love. I still have boxes of old toys, but I did part with 98% of them. Some things are worth the clutter. I was able to clean out an entire closet from the garage and free up all that space. It all went into the attic space, labeled and gone through. I hope this is something that can help others.
Good luck and happy organizing.
You must be logged in to post a comment.