To bin all my ds books from primary school?

[Loopydoop]

Just that really. Ds is 16 (so not really so "darling") and says it's up to me what I do with them? I'm clearing out and want to bin them, I know I should, I'm just wondering if it's an awful thing to do? I've kept some pieces of work and a book school gave them all of samples of his work from each year, any certificates, photos etc.
Soooooo can I bin the HUGE pile of books?

do you mean the work books? It's up to you. You don't have to keep anything.

I kept creative writing books but recycled the rest.

I actually did this just last weekend. I kept the writing book from yrR and yr6, we had a good laugh at some of the yrR work it was so sweet, and a couple of star of the week certificates and binned the rest. Honestly don’t think we’ve ever looked at them in all the years they’ve been there.

Do you mean textbooks? If so could you first investigate whether any charities would like them? Seems so wasteful to throw them away!

I think my mother still has mine, if not she has got rid of them recently, I'm not sure why and I certainly don't want them or to look at them so they will end up in the recycling sooner or later

I wouldn't but them I'm probably a bit of a hoarder

OP I was thinking this the other day! Mine are 18 & 14, and they are just taking up space that I really need! But then I thought does that make me a bad mum???

I mean the books are taking up space I need, not the actual 18 & 14 year olds..... although that can be debated!!

I binned all my boys work books. They didn't want them. Had to hide it from my dh as he still has all his own school books in the loft so would t have let me! His mum kindly bought them over when we moved in together! Thanks for that MIL haha

If you have the space save some of them. After my mum died I found all my old school reports and school diaries (what I did in the holidays etc) from almost 40 years ago, and it was amazing to read them and remember bits of my childhood that had been long forgotten.

At 16 I would have probably told her to bin them but at 40 I was so happy to discover them.

I have a couple of notebooks from Primary, with written stories, diaries of the weekend that sort of thing. Binned the rest. I also have a handful of reports from primary and secondary - the primary ones are refreshingly frank! I'm 43.

DS is 7yo and I recently had a big chuck-out of crap from nursery and school (early years start at 3yo here) and MY GOD the crap there was! Kept a couple of cute drawings, recycled the rest. I'm sure he won't care at 16/18/43. I could chuck his reports now because I do not recognise my son in them, quite honestly; they are very cut 'n' paste bollocks.

Having said all this, I still have a HUGE folder with my GCSE and A-level art in

Sorry, yes I mean work books. And yes recycle not bin.
I do have a slight hoarding tendency too but we've recently moved house and the garage is FULL of boxes I need to sort. Having lost both my parents I know it's important to have things to look back at so I probably keep too much really. I have loads of my parents and grandparents stuff, wedding outfits, 1000s of photos, war time letters, postcards, Birthday, anniversary and new baby cards, etc etc etc

Slothcuddles

I'm 37 and still have all my old school books!

(sorry, that's probably not very helpful!)

I have kept my entire uni coursework, so I am not the best person to advise

You could buy one folder and keep 2 or 3 selected pages of each year - so you can see the improvement in handwriting and so on. Then bin the rest. Sometimes you look more at things when you are not completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it.

I would also get rid of most the birthday/ christmas cards - if there's nothing written on them, they are pointless.

I must add that I have moved house 20+ times (forces child, itchy-footed adult ) so have got decluttering down to a fine art.

A pretty folder with primary school pages of art/stories = lovely.
A crappy box full of random bits of paper, intermingled with exercise books = much less likely to be a joy to flick through on a wet Sunday afternoon in February.

I have a cute box with DS' welcome baby cards. My mother recently gave me a box of my own - it was heartwarming to read my gradparents' handwriting and well as see the whacky designs of some 70s cards

My mother also gave me back all the Mother's Day cards I ever made her so I wouldn't go that far in decluttering.

It needs to be boxes/files big enough to contain some cute things, but also small enough that when you hand it over to your adult child who just moved in with their partner, the partner doesn't wince!

I intend to keep my children's reports, and some select books from primary school. I'm not going to keep maths homework, or secondary school chemistry.

I have school reports and some cute memorable and cute pictures and binned the rest.
If you really want to keep the content but need the space then why not photograph them and download onto your computer or a hard drive.

We are mid way through clearing my dads attic (mum died years ago). My in laws dumped all that sort of stuff on us a few years back.

I’m pregnant.

My gift to this child is going to be binning this assorted life crap as we go, so they never have to spend weeks of their life sorting shite I couldn’t part with.

we have kept birth cards, first birthday, 10th birtthday and a few special ones from grandparents.

school books were going to be sorted and chosen. I thought some english and topic books, then sort through those and pick out the best pages and have those but their dad has decided that he will keep them at his house. which is good for me. I have their folders from nursery and reception which I think are really cute.

I originally kept all my sons. Moved house and realised 3 large storage boxes full was madness to keep.. He was only 9 then.
I kept his first writing and maths... And his best pictures, first pictures.
Then kept his first Yr 7 books of the same. And will keep his gcse coursework.
Will fit lovely in 1 box. If I had kept going as I was I'd prob have 15 boxes.. Not happening.

What would Kondo do?

GemmeFarale. I like your thoughtful gift to your child! 😉

I'm keeping their learning journals from pre-school and Yr R, school reports and any better artwork.

Everything else has been binned/ recycled. I have 3DC and they each come back with 3 literacy, 3 maths and other assorted workbooks each year and just don't have the storage for that.

We keep a couple of things each year that the kids are particularly proud of.

No room and no inclination to keep the lot. Straight into the recycling bin.