Organizing Children’s Art Work
By Diane Hatcher, Timesavers Services

One of the most common questions I hear when organizing a home is, “ What do I do with all my child’s artwork?”

The end of the school year is drawing to a close. This is a good time to take stock of all the artwork your child has brought home throughout the year and organize it.

I recently became aware of the fact that some local schools save up all the artwork to send home at the end of the year. As overwhelming as that may seem, I am imagining that they have sorted and purged and are sending home samples of the child’s best works, or pieces that are representative of different styles of art.

The Right Mindset

First we have to let go of the notion that every piece of paper the child produces is valuable and must be held onto. Second is the myth that your child will want to look back on every piece of paper he ever produced.

General Guidelines

With that said, we move onto deciding which papers to keep, and how and where to keep them.
If you have more than one child, keep each child’s work separate from the others.
Purchase a large, flat, air-tight plastic bin for each child.
Sort the art into 4 categories with the “DESK” method: Display, Eliminate, Share, Keep.

Let’s look at each category:

Display

Displaying items is important. It validates the child’s feelings by sending a clear message that you are proud of her, which boosts her self-esteem. A favorite place is the refrigerator where art can be rotated as new ones come in. Even more permanent would be to actually frame a few particularly nice pieces over the years.

An alternative is stringing a clothesline in the child’s room and hanging the art with clothespins. These are easily rotated as the child’s attachment to older pieces wanes. A corkboard in the child’s room instead of a clothesline also lends a nice touch and can be rotated.

Eliminate

This can be the most difficult step for many. Any item that is a duplicate (for instance, they draw 3 pictures of houses every day) should be eliminated.

Let your children share in the saving process. Teach them that everything cannot be kept. Have them choose the ones of which they are most proud. Let them help decide on one important piece
to save each week, then once a month from those. Explain that artists have portfolios saving their favorite works so they are being like “real artists.” Look for the “masterpieces.”

To ease the separation anxiety of eliminating a 3-D project, or something too large for the box, take a photo and save the photos in the box.

Some of the eliminated items will be thrown out and some can be recycled (shared).

Share

Large pieces of artwork can be used for wrapping paper. Otherwise, buy some mailing tubes and send them periodically to grandparents, aunts and uncles, old friends. Have your child write a note on the back. The recipient will get a kick out of it. They also make great gifts.

Keep

For those serious about eliminating or controlling clutter, this can be almost as difficult a task as deciding what to eliminate.

Save only those items that are special and representative of a new accomplishment (such as the first time she ever painted with a brush on an easel, or the best picture of a dinosaur he ever drew).
Put the child’s name, date and where he created the art (pre-school, camp, etc.) on the back of each piece. Place these in the large plastic bin with a lid, labeled with the child’s name. As you continue to place items in this box, they will remain in chronological order. Start with a large flat box that can possibly be stored under a bed. If you outgrow this, move to a larger sized bin, but by being discriminating you may never need a larger one.

This bin can double as a memory box in which you also store awards, certificates, special greeting cards, and other memorabilia over the years. Otherwise, you may choose to use a separate box for these.

Using the DESK method, you can control clutter, and still save those precious memories.

Diane Hatcher is a professional organizer, and owner of Timesavers Services in Cooper City. She can be reached at 954-252-7511, or at diane@timesaversusa.com.