Even the most sentimental among us will admit that at some point during the school year, all those construction paper turkeys, handmade holiday cards, and painted family portraits can begin to feel more like trash than treasures.
And no matter how organized you are, the sheer volume of colorful masterpieces kids bring home can result in your kitchen table disappearing under an avalanche of paper.
We’ve rounded up some simple storage strategies to help you keep creative clutter under control.
1. Use a binder system.
If you want to keep things low-tech and budget friendly, opt for a simple system involving binders and clear plastic page protectors, as demonstrated by Organize 365.
We like the idea of getting a binder with a clear plastic front so that kids can customize their binder to suit their style. You can create a new binder for each school year and tuck it away on a shelf for easy storage. Perfect!
2. Turn a stack of papers into a book.
We love this simple but effective idea from The R House that quickly turns a stack of messy papers into a sweet spiral-bound memory book. Bonus: after collecting your child’s artwork in one place throughout the year, you’ll have a chance to revisit each little masterpiece before deciding which ones make the final cut.
Visit The R House for full details.
3. Make a school memory box.
Don’t just toss art projects haphazardly into a cardboard box! Take your sorting up a notch with this quick and easy idea from Here Comes the Sun. Like other sorting ideas, this one makes it easy to file papers and projects by age or school year.
You can decorate the boxes yourself, or let kids get in on the fun and customize with paint and stickers.
4. Make a simple portfolio.
For oversized artwork that you don’t want to cut or crease, this $2 DIY solution from Lansdowne Life is just the ticket. Turn the portfolio into a canvas of its own by letting kids add a little colour to the cover.
Looking for something that stacks into a plastic tub? Try this simple DIY keepsake pocket from My Homemade Happiness.
5. Repurpose a mailing tube.
When it comes to home organizing, no one does it better than Martha Stewart. Take a page from her book of good things and store your child’s artwork in a mailing tube.
Not only will this keep paper projects neatly corralled, but it can also double as a sort of time capsule that your kiddos will enjoy years from now.
6. Make a mini filing cabinet.
If you want to keep things ultra-tidy, try this great idea from A Bowl Full of Lemons that uses plastic bins and hanging folders to organize all kinds of special keepsakes, including artwork, birthday cards, school photos, and academic reports.
It’s a super-portable, candy-coloured mini-filing cabinet. Brilliant!
7. Go digital.
For the aspiring minimalist, there’s no better way to organize and store your child’s creative work than by going completely paper-free. Simply scan individual projects or take a photo and save the images to your computer. You can sort photos into folders by year, or even turn the snaps into a beautiful hardcover book.
For another high-tech option, consider using a handy art storage app! Art My Kid Made, Canvsly, and Keepy are all free apps that can help make organizing a little easier.
…Or just let it go!
It can be hard not to get sentimental about your child’s every masterpiece, but let’s be honest: you don’t need 263 sketches of the family cat. Don’t be afraid to let go of artwork when necessary, as it will help to keep clutter from getting out of hand.
PHOTO: MY HOMEMADE HAPPINESS
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I really like your tip for storing your child’s artwork in a digital folder and turning it into a hardcover book later. For my wife, I’m trying to think of ways to store her artwork as well. Quite frankly, we only have so much space in our home.
I like your advice to use a mailing tube in order to store your child’s artwork so that you can keep them safe for if they want to look at them years from now. If you want to use one, you’d probably want to figure out what size you need to store your child’s artwork as well as how many to put in each container. If you do this, you’d probably want to label the mailing tubes, such as by year or class, so that you know what pieces are in which container in order to be able to easily get out any that you want to look at.