To chuck out DCs school books from 'last' year

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

There is a massive pile on my dresser of DS1 (just finished year 3) and DSs 2 & 3 (year 1)'s school exercise books.

There is also a massive pile in spare room of the same for spring term.

AIBU to chuck them now rather than putting in loft and waiting 30 years before demanding they come and sort their stuff out from my loft - and then chucking it all out then...

I am sentimental but I also can't be arsed to go through three lots and choosing any interesting ones ones to keep.

Guilt tripping- what do you do with it all?

[londonrach]

Just thrown mine out after they be sitting in the loft for 20 years plus. If anything good kept but the rest bin.... You thank me in years to come

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

If anyone can provide a lovely story or reason to keep them I will sort the good ones... I chucked my own out from DPs loft recently - but I guilt tripped about that too!

[Salmotrutta]

Aww. Don't bin them!

I still sometimes look back at my DCs "interesting" stories etc.

[unhelpful]

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

But it will be boxes and boxes in a couple of years. What do people do if they don't have a loft to store shit in?

They breed I swear. Same as all the various electrical cables we've accumulated

[lovetoski]

Pick a full one from each child, bin the rest. If you keep every single book from all 3 children for every school year where on earth are you going to keep them. Be strong you will feel much better afterwards.

[partialderivative]

Our issue is not so much exercise books (a lot of work is done on file paper) but Yearbooks.

I'm not sure how many UK schools have this custom, but they can be v. large. And we are running out of shelf space.

But they mean a lot to our dcs as they have the pics and written messages of their friends.

[SlothBear]

I usually chuck things like maths books straight away, keep things like creative writing or ones with interesting / amusing pictures and stories. For now, anyway.

[BlackeyedSusan]

you need a file box per child and the best selection from each child and try to keep it down to one box, or possibly one for primary and one for secondary.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hello OP don't chuck them all, please go through and find just a few little bits to keep, your dc will thank you.
I didn't keep much but I chose wisely and my older dc love looking through their childhood boxes.
They have a box each from birth and everything has to fit in the box or something else has to go.
Its lovely seeing their faces, showing girlfriends and remembering when they actually did the pieces you kept.
Just keep one thing every year and put it with their report in the box.

[LocalVelvet]

YANBU. Chuck them now. It really annoys me how you get all this crap sent home from school which you feel too bloody guilty to chuck bit also that no one will ever look at again.

If you do it, I'll do mine too....?

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

But if I take pages out I will feel bad if I don't label them and that will take bloody ages....

[deakymom]

i keep them for a bit then pull out all the photos then chuck the rest

[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtle]

I went home for the weekend last month and my mum dug out all of my old text books and asked if she could "finally" throw them away...

I'm 35. I left home 17 years ago. I had no idea she had kept them (they've moved house twice since I left!). They are all massively out of date now.

So i would throw them away if I were you!

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

Right, have ripped pages out and done one Snopake folder per child

[IAMACLANGER]

You need to box them up. I have bought huge plastic boxes and am packaging EVERYTHING from each school year in a box (only one DC though). So far got 4 big boxes piled high (one more box and will touch ceiling). I keep everything - including all school letters/reports etc in the boxes (sometimes the artwork gets a bit squashed or chucked out if doesn't fit or if it's complete crap!).
I think I've gone a bit the other way - as my mother chucked absolutely everything out - and I'd love to be able to look at it now.

[whois]

Keep school reports and any particular good bits of work or projects.

[CrohnicallyDepressed]

I think keeping a few pages is a good idea. At my primary school, once a term we chose 2 or 3 pieces of work to go in a scrap book. The book went up through school with us, and when my mum sorted out our old school work a few years ago (about 15 years after I left primary!) we had a ready made keepsake. I plan to do similar with DD when she goes to school.

[marne2]

I don't keep any school books ( bad mum ), we live in a small house and there's no room to keep everything, if there's a good piece of writing or art work then I take a photo of it and store it on my PC ( then chuck the item away ).

[Hannahfftl]

I work in my old primary school and while looking through my old books found a picture I had drawn as a child of my now friend! That was really nice to see for her that she was so special to me as a child and lovely for me to remember, abit of an extreme scenario though!

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

Chronically I think that's a great idea, will tell school Parents' forum!

[wobblyweebles]

I keep reports and the occasional story then chuck everything else.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

I need to do this, I have various heaps of books, only a very few have anything of merit.

Dyslexic DD1's often have next to nothing as she spent years winding up her teachers' never furnishing anything.

[FatherSpodoKomodo]

I've just had to throw away all my old school books that my mum had kept. I left school 22 years ago (wow, now I feel really old!) I did take photos of a couple of bits of work that brought back good/funny memories.

Mine have topic books, I will probably keep those. The rest - handwriting practice, maths books etc will go in the recycling bin. As much as I can be a hoarder I don't want to be like my mum. Especially as I have 5 children!

[ICanSeeTheSun]

Cut out the interesting ones, laminate and make a scrap book each.

If it's not laminated there is a good chance they will be be readable in years to come