Saving all that artwork

Sharing my latest post on Mom's Diaries.

Many kids bring a lot of artistic creations home from school. And if your kids are like mine, they would generate a whole lot of art and craft work at home as well. Doodles and scribblings on paper, cardboard-box and thermocole cut-outs, and assorted keepsakes and birthday cards can require a sizeable amount of storage space! What do you do with all that stuff?? Over the years, I have devised a system that works quite well for us and saves space and sanity!

1. Differentiate between what’s precious and what’s junk. Even the fondest mother knows that a lot of what kids scribble is – ok, call me hard-hearted – just garbage. Many a time, my son has been trying out an idea and it takes him several reams of paper before he gets it right. Or my daughter has been scribbling the alphabet on a scrap of paper, over and over again. Do a quick scan at a designated time every day (I do mine last thing at night) and mercilessly throw out what’s not worth keeping.

2. Create a temporary storage space for artwork. Each of my kids gets a large transparent folder and a box to put their artwork in. Ensure all the artwork that you want to keep goes into one of these.

3. Every month, set aside a day to review what’s been stored. I usually approach this task with a calendar in my mind. Are there any birthdays approaching in the next month? Any festivals? Special occasions like Teacher’s day? I review the artwork with each of my kids and if we need to make cards or momentos, we reuse what’s already been created by them. So for Teacher’s day, they may just pick up some drawing, paste it on card stock, decorate with markers and glitter and voila!  We’ve even used artwork as personalised gift-wrapping paper instead of buying fresh paper; there are tons of such ideas for creative recycling!

4. Every couple of months (I do this every quarter) should be archival day. I do one of two things - either click pics of all the artwork or scan them. The digital files go into a special folder on my laptop and are immediately transferred into my external hard disk as well. If you are running out of temporary storage space, transfer all the artwork to a larger box and leave it in the loft/store-room.

5. Use artwork as room decor. My kid’s work is displayed in my living room, on the fridge, in our bedroom and of course up on the walls in their own room. One year, I pasted my son’s artwork all over the living room for his birthday party. It made for a lot of interesting conversation! I’ve known parents who laminated drawings to make lovely place-mats  create collages to frame and display on the wall, and even hung drawings on clotheslines string across their child’s room. The possibilities are endless!

 

It’s a real pleasure to look back years or even months later and smile over the products of those grubby little hands. I’d love to know how you save the fruits of your child’s creativity.