Old school books and children's drawings

[Mumteedum]

I'm feeling buried by stuff!

God knows I need to clear out enough if my own old paperwork and clothes and books...but kids seem to generate so much stuff!

What do you do with old exercise books? It feels wrong to bung it in recycling... But then what else do you do? (Shove it in loft....? )

Same with drawings. He draws loads and we've managed to move on to sketchbooks but there's stacks of random drawings floating around. Do people just bin them? Maybe I need to be less soppy 🙈

Take photos of them and then bin them

How old is DC?

With the old loose pictures, pick a couple of the best/your favourite and put them in plastic folder s in a box file. Do that once a term with stuff school send home....keep the best, bin the rest.

With exercise books, keep reception or yr1. Bin the rest. Then each year onwards just keep one exercise book or a couple of pieces of work in the box file.

I'll happily admit I still have Mothers Day and Christmas cards that my DC made (both are adults now) and a couple of exercise books.

If you keep everything you'll end up needing a storage unit 🤣

Get a nice box of a size you're happy to store. Put everything in it that you want to keep.

If it gets full, spend an hour or so going through it. Look at everything and enjoy the memories it gives you. Some of the items you'll look at and realise the emotional attachment has gone and you're willing to part with it to make room for new things. Others will still be meaningful and you can put them back in the box.

Ask yourself "do I want to look back on this in 5/10/15yrs time?" And "When the time comes, will the children themselves want to look back through this?" If the answer is no, it can probably go.

My rule for drawings is that they shouldn't just be nice for me but be meaningful for the child too. If it's a scribble or some colour on a colouring page they did for 2mins in a café, it can go. If the child tells me it's actually a drawing of something, or it's recognisable, or they've spent a particularly long time on it, then it can stay.

I kept for years but recently recycled most of them. Why do you want year3 maths books for example. Nice artwork I kept and special work but not the standard exercise books

I kept them under their beds. My 12 year old put all his in the recycling last month! I meant to double check whether any should be kept but didn’t.

They’ve never been looked at yet though so I think it was right to get rid.

Some people tear the scrap paper out.

Could you scan the pictures onto a memory stick?

DH was recently given all his 30 year old exercise books.

They all went in the bin.

Get rid.

Otherwise you drown in stuff.

Keep a few amazing pieces in a memory folder, you will never have time to go back through it all

Loving these responses. The thoughtful... (Loads of effort and I have mecfs so effort is not good) versus...'GET RID " 😆

I think I was just needing a grip. Bin sounds good. Maybe I'll keep a couple.

Anyone else feel like they need a six month sabbatical from work just to cope with life admin?

A friend came up with a great idea to make book marks out of the small drawings . Stick them to card & laminate . I'm going to do this when I sort through . I'm also going to laminate a collage & put on side of fridge . X

This, pretty much!

I have a few very delightful misspelt bits and pieces from reception/year 1. 'Uh oh, snecs' [snakes] is a favourite, as is the Autumn poem about 'bounding koalas', as so often seen in the British countryside.

Don't keep too much or you'll never find the good bits!

DD rang me from university at the start of last term to say, 'Motherrrrr... we have to go to the freshers thingy dressed as what we wanted to be when we were four. Any idea what I wanted to be, aged four?'

I was able to prove that she'd wanted to be a dandelion. Apparently it made a change, amongst all the earnest doctors, palaeontologists etc.

I kept some art - if she had spent a long time on it.
Each year when they sent her exercise books home we cut the stories out of her english books and put them in a folder. She always liked english and wrote sweet stories as a kid so they were nice to read back
Everything else gets recycled straight away- she hated the maths the 1st time round, no need to reminisce over fractions.

My Mum and Dad's attic is stuffed full of our old school books. It's not like I need them....

I've just found this thread - great advice thank you!