Kid Stuff
12 years of sifting through papers and artwork.
Develop a strategy now before you are buried alive!
Their dresser draws are busting at the seams, piles of shoes and toys spill from the closet floor. When our little one turned 3 or 4 you decided then that they had enough stuff. Now your school aged tot is lugging home mounds of papers, slips, order forms, invitations and precious pieces of art from school each week. As if your own piles of papers didn’t already cause hives to develop around your neck, but now we add to that stack with what our beloved little one has just heaped onto the pile…”mom, you need to look at that stuff“
Let’s break it down. No more hives. Let’s simplify.
Kids Paperwork
- Reserve a special hanging folder drawer for those forms and documents that you may need to reference later. For example…
- Label the hanging folder “report cards”, “list of students”, “list of teachers”, “notes from the nurse” etc…
- Label 1 hanging folder for “summer camp” and community reference material.
- Label a larger folder in the back of the drawer to collect their report cards if you prefer to keep those year after year.
- Clean out the front files after the school year ends.
- Write that check for the book order forms and sign those permission slips right away. Slip them back into your students backpack and back to school they go.
Kids Artwork
The precious collage, clay statue, watercolor painting and items that your child has put heart and soul into take a bit more consideration.You must decide what to keep and what to toss and, after delicately explaining to your little one that you just can’t keep everything, let him or her be part of the selection process.
This is a great selection strategy.
- Lay all of the artwork out on the floor or table.
- Class projects are likely not as special as individual projects. They can go.
- Individual projects that make the cut and are truly special to you and your child can be stored, displayed or shared.
- Consider a more creative option for the art work…see below.
Storing artwork
- An art portfolio can hold a great deal of flat paper art and are easy to store.
- Frame the artwork with an open front frame that will allow you to easily switch the art throughout the year.
- An acid free box with tissue paper is a great option for breakable art and, like the portfolio, is easy to store.
Share the love. Surprise grandparents, a favorite aunt or uncle, Godparents or other special family member with a special package of art.
Consider the following creative solutions to sharing and preserving a few of those very special pieces of art.
- Hang it – Tie a string across the room you wish to display the artwork and use clothes pins to hang them.
- Your child can be the first to publish in the family. What a special Christmas gift for a parent or grandparent.
- Include art in your photo memory album
- For less that $20 you can frame your little one’s art work and switch it out every few months.
- Let your child pick 10 of his/her favorite pieces and create a collage
- Make a postage stamp.
Share with us your system for selecting, storing and sharing your little ones art and special school items. We love to hear from you.
The SOCS Crew
It is hard to storage kid’s art stuff, since it is all different materials and sizes. How do you preserve them? We have three dimensional stuff wich is hard to storage.