What do you do with all your little darling's artwork/school work?!

[ShakeAndVac]

I neeeeeed to declutter. Badly. Over the years, with two small children we've accumulated folders full of school work and pictures.
I've got quite a lot of folders full of drawings and stuff from when they were at their day nursery when little (awww) then some more folders which they've brought back from school at the end of each school year.
Which is all luffly, but what on earth do the teachers think we are going to DO with it all?!
What do you do with it all? Do you chuck it out and keep the best pieces, or what?
I don't think I can bring myself to check ANY!
Although I might have to start!

My plan is to scan them in and then bin! Keeping maybe one or 2 (but we are not at that stage yet!)

I use evernote to take photos, and then throw them away. The great thing about evernote is that you can annotate the photos with any details you want. So I know exactly how old he was when DS painted the pictures.

Love the idea of Evernote!

I keep appx 10 %. Bin the rest, sorry kids, and frame the odd piece.

I have a ring binder with dividers for dcs. The best couple of bits each year go in it. The rest are binned.
Each year I do a cheap photo book with a page devoted to a collage of photos of pieces.

I am about to start a ruthless declutter of children's work and art. So watching with interest. All previous well-intentioned systems have been replaced by ... piles. .

Daddy takes stuff to "work."

Send to Granny/Grandad/Auntie/Uncle! DC loves them so much

I LOVE some of these ideas. Esp sending with Daddy to work and to Nana and Grandad. . Just genius.

Am tackling a huge pile today. Need first.

I have one large scrap book per school year per child, but I've just seen the Evernote comment...hmmm...

You could always use them to wrap birthday presents to Nanny & Grandad/Granny & Grandpa/Auntie/Uncle etc. That way the family member is getting an extra special gift & you are getting the gift of space

I've just packed a medium size box with each of their stuff from age 0 to end of Y1. Will label and stick away. Older child has a new box started and will get one for younger. Lots gets ditched as we go along, tbh, because they just draw and draw and draw.

Nearly done now, it hasn't been as bad as I thought.

I take photos
Interested in Evernote though

What is Evernote?

I'm planning to scan them then have photo books printed.

Just neerd to actuallyget the time to do it

I have them on the inside of my kitchen cabinet doors ! Makes me smile when I open the cupboards ! :-)

Evernote is a computer programme which can be used for all sorts of notes and reminders. You can find it via Google. You can also download an app to your smartphone which will then sync with the programme on your PC. There is a paid version, but the free one suits me just fine!

Keep the most important ones and leave them up for little bit then have a box to keep all the lovely home made cards etc in a box
Will ds1 as only child for 12 years did tend to keep everything but soon realised only so much can keep . I laminate the ones we.put up saves them spoilling..

we're quite ruthless and file stuff in the bin pretty swiftly if it's rubbish not all that. Good stuff goes on the kitchen wall. DD's only 3 so she hasn't quite cottoned on to this, I'm sure once she does we'll be drowning in her 'art' within weeks.

We look through, and choose bit we really want to keep, and recycle the rest.

If you're scanning in, when are you actually ever going to look at them all?

My kids are only 6 and 7 too much work comes home . I keep the best laminate hang in their playroom looks like a classroom ;) when I fancy a change put away old laminates put up new ones.

Never heard of evernote ill have to look into it sounds good. Can it be used on apple devices?

stick the best stuff on the fridge, and smuggle the rest into the recycling under the cover of darkness. one or two items each year go into their memory boxes.

We've kept far too much but even I balked at keeping the model Motte and Bailey Castle from year 7.

Photograph and save in the Cloud.

On display at any time are probably about three or four per child.

When my mum moved house, she failed to clear a shed. Our old next door neighbour called round to visit the new family and found them clearing the shed, and rescued a piece of art I'd done when I was six. I was really touched when she gave it to me, and it's sitting in the middle of my own children's and dnephews/nieces work in the music room.