So, How do I store all these lovely pictures DD keeps drawing for me?

[BlackCatinaWoollyhat]

DD (2yrs) loves scribbleing drawing pictures for me. She does one then brings it to me and says "TA DA", So cute!
The only problem being we are now getting hundreds of her creations lying around. And she keeps getting more paper from cupboard to draw.
I don't want to discourage her but also don't want her using ALL the paper up.

So, do I have to be ruthless and bin some of them?

What do you all do with your DC drawings?

Anything ds (2.5) does gets kept for a few weeks, photographed and chucked. It's all still just squiggles tbh. I might be different when it's more recognisable but for now we have digital versions.

HTH :)

watching with interest - DN aged 4 has mastered making paper aeroplanes so we now get loads with a bit of a drawing on them!

Recycling.

we put them in the recycling too

you can photograph the special ones and keep them safe on your computer

Can you scan them?

use the larger ones as wrapping paper for presents for adoring relatives.

otherwise, keep the first one, the first one ot look like something, and the odd one in between, and recycle the rest. Otherwise you will drown in paper.

Re using up lots of paper - suggest a magnadoodle as a Christmas present - she can scribble to her heart's content, then clear the screen and start again - no waste!

I find that DC's grandparents & great-grandparents are willing recipients of these works of art (works especially well if they live some way away so don't see DC very often)! I also stick some on lounge/cupboard doors & swap when we run out of space.

Re: using up paper - we seem to generate lots of scrap paper & use that: anything from one-sided junk mail to printing gone wrong! Or the back of opened out envelopes works, too.

Until she goes to nursery/playschool/reception you label them with date and store them in a pretty box with her name on it. After she starts school you receive each one with even more enthusiasm and store in same box with a loving smile. After the first term you simply take the offering without comment and keep it in a pile in the kitchen. After a few months when you have enough paper to make a new tree, you half-heartedly sort through them and with poignant regret consign a few to the recycling box and keep the rest. Once she;s in Yr 1 you mutter a few sweet nothings when she gives them to you and they survive a week before getting chucked.

Then she will start with the 'models' - ie cereal boxes with bits stuck on the outside. THose are harder because you can't get rid without it being obvious. You need to keep those about a fortnight.

PS you will know which of these masterpieces to keep because she will tell you about it instead of just handing it wordlessly to you along with her lunchbox and bookbag.

My guilt was eased for a few years because the school held an 'art fair' once a year when all the children painted a picture, the school framed it and the parents paid for it! Job done! One painting per child per year and the rest could go!

Box files - date the picture, put in the box file. I've got some of the dc's pictures and cards they made for me from nursery onwards, they like getting them out every now and again and looking through them. They're 11 and 8.

file 13 once they've gone to bed.
keep a maximum of one drawing per 6 mos of age.

they may seem like they came from the heart and should be kept forever, but really, as long as they've got 4 or 5 to look at when they are 17, they won't care.

you can keep them on the fridge before you bin them, but you could easily save a decent sized forest if you just recycle them asap.

yes, photograph them and chuck them.
(you could probably keep each one for a month or so, depending on frequency)

also, encourage her to send them off to aunties and uncles - we love getting pictures from our niece and nephews!

I keep DS1s in an art folio thing in our wardrobe. I can't bear to chuck anything he's drawn/made/painted. I have trouble letting go of their clothes too.

I bin it all. A few very special master pieces make it to being stuck on the kitchen cupboards for a few months, but it all eventually gets binned. I have six children, can you imagine the piles of stuff I'd have if I kept it all?

I admit to being quite ruthless and not sentimental though. I save nothing which doesn't have a purpose or a use. Probably why lots of people commented recently that my house looks unlived in, but I grew up with a mum who didn't mind mess, filth and piles everywhere. I fear I have gone to the other extreme though and just hope my children grow up balanced and happy.

We have some blank open picture frames up in the kitchen with bulldog clips in them. That way we can clip a few up and rotate them as new ones come in and recycle the rest on the quiet

Be ruthless - finest masterpieces on the fridge/pinboard/appointed space - taken down everytime a new masterpiece is added. Send old masterpieces to adoring grannies/godparents. In the case of the very rare absolute masterpiece (dd and ds have one each) framed for posterity in their room. Throw everything else away.

Keep best, recycle the rest.

At the moment my 5 yr old is sorting through his huge file of pictures and deciding which ones to keep. (Looks like he wants to keep majority, I will have to go through it later.)
I mean to say that it gets worse! he averages 5 or 6 pics a day and some are rather good!

Just came back to look at this thread, Thanks for all the replies.
I think I will have to pick out some of the best and send the rest for recycling otherwise we will drown in paperwork!

This www.coxandcox.co.uk/products/triple-art-frame

seems quite good - you can put up some on display and it is apparently thick enough to store some behind.

I am a terrible hoarder but even I have, very reluctantly, forced myself to put some of my dds' pictures in the recycling, but I always hate doing it. I do still keep a lot of them, but mine are 5 and 3 now and there is so much of it. I keep them in a big plastic box, a big flat one that you can store under a bed, it holds loads.

Thanks halcyondays You have given me a great idea. I also have one of those under bed boxes and at the moment it is full of baby blankets/bedding. I'm sure I don't need half of that now so I could have a sort out/move some of the stuff to else where and use the box for the DC creations..
Just need to encourage toddler to play in her room now while I have a sort out!

Can't add anything to the storing/chucking comments but as for using all the paper why not get some cheap lining paper from a decorating shop and either leave it on the roll or cut it to the required size. It works out alot cheaper then craft paper

A friend of mine laminated favourite pieces and wallpapered her dining room with them when her DCs were younger.

The A4 ones also make good gifts as placemats- used to use glitter etc and laminate them at school fairs for £1 each.