DT, homework projects, art works.

[user789653241]

What do you do with them when they comes back home?
My home wall is covered by paintings, all those projects and artworks on the shelf, etc. I can't throw them away, knowing how hard my ds worked on it.
But, it's getting too much. So much clutter, it's getting ridiculous.(I got everything from nursery to yr3!)
Once I asked one parent who's home was immaculate. She said, "I just throw away everything when children are not looking."
Can you do that? Or if you keep them, how do you do it? In the box in the attic?

Artwork:
Only the best things go on display. By best I mean things that have had extra time spent on them, or show a step of development. They go on the kitchen door with name and date on the back. When they fall down, or the door is full, things get taken down and stored in a special box.
Anything else they want to keep is piled on shelf in their bedroom and never looked at again. 3 years later it gets chucked in a clear out.

Creations:
Ask after a week or so of them hanging around downstairs if DC wants to keep it. Usually No. If yes then goes on a high shelf in bedroom. When high shelf is full I throw out anything that has disintegrated. This method hasn't failed yet to produce more space.

Thank you both.
I think I might try photo thing, at least I can show ds we are keeping something!

I've got a school folder that you write in every year and can store a few pieces of their work in there. I stick some on the walls.

I gave a friend who makes photo books.

Dancingqueen17 , yes I assumed 84 was A4.

I second the photo thing - and I wouldn't even bother to print much out!

I would keep an ongoing directory on the computer for each dc with new things going in with the date, a name and brief description of the artwork or creation. I'd also keep a word doc that you could put more details into if necessary or if something was extra special, plus close ups of a merit sticker or certificate or whatever shows how extra special something is.

And then once they got to end of primary school, I'd make them a photo book each of their artistic creations, showing development from the first splodges to their final amazing efforts - if they wanted one that is. Not sure that I've ever really thought about the art that I did when I was little - wasn't ever particularly artistic which might be part of it! But I do love photography so I do keep tabs on my photos much more.

Also - if you are keeping things as files on the computer, use a date format of YYYY-MM-DD at the start of the name (so for example a self portrait by Jane done today would be 2016-03-30Janeself portrait.jpg).

That way when you look at them in the directory they'll be in date order - if you do it the other way around (dd-mm-yyyy) it sorts them alphabetically and then it doesn't work. Although the other way is also being sorted alphabetically, it still works in date order.

I've said this before on here but some of the biggest, brightest works, esp if they are 3d, get to go to the office with me/DP. No really, they do.

They don't, obvs, they go in the bin.

Take pictures. Display the really cool stuff (my kids are 11 now, and I still have some of their very early artwork framed and on display because it is, largely accidentally, cool). And throw the rest away - recycling as much as you possibly can. It's really not not rocket science.

(zipzap - you do know that on a pc you can display sorted by date don't you?)

Thank you everyone!

Teenandtween - yup, I know you can sort by date!

Which is great when you first load things on and everything stays exactly as it was... But as soon as you start to make changes the date changes.

So if you include a date within the name for your directories (or indeed photos) with a date that sorts in date order even when sorted alphabetically, then you don't get things thrown into chaos when you can no longer rely on the file date to sort on!

good point!

I keep any really nice artwork and bin the rest. The good stuff is pinned on the wall and when we add a new one we bin an old one.