How do you find places for all the crafts that children make?!
submitted by Joanie
I am clutter-phobic to a fault. I regularly go through my house and find things to weed out and I can rarely open the back to my van without finding stuff I've bagged up for the Goodwill. So how do I handle all the art work and craft projects that accumulate in a house of five children?
When we do seasonal crafts like when we made cherry blossom trees in the spring or fall Q-tip trees a few weeks ago, I hang them on a wall where our family and our guests can see the beauty and enjoy it. When the season is over, I remove the artwork and throw it away.
When a child colors a lovely picture that he is proud of, I hang it on the refrigerator along with the four or five other masterpieces, but when I'm given another work of art, I quietly remove the oldest work and throw it away. If I think it may be missed, I'll lay it on top of the refrigerator for a few days in case one of the children asks for it. (They rarely do.)
When we do an art project for school, I punch holes in it and put it in the child's year-end portfolio.
When we do an art project for school, I punch holes in it and put it in the child's year-end portfolio.
If we do an art project that is not flat, we keep it for awhile, but when we need to make room for another project, I take a picture of the child with it...and then throw it away.
My children are not as clutter-phobic as I am so my three oldest child have a portfolio similar to this one
sold by Amazon. They are allowed to keep whatever papers, coloring sheets, drawings, paintings, or popsicle stick puppets will fit in it. I try to keep my mouth shut about what goes into the portfolios and the children will often go through them on their own to make room for their most valued creations.
My children are not as clutter-phobic as I am so my three oldest child have a portfolio similar to this one
sold by Amazon. They are allowed to keep whatever papers, coloring sheets, drawings, paintings, or popsicle stick puppets will fit in it. I try to keep my mouth shut about what goes into the portfolios and the children will often go through them on their own to make room for their most valued creations. How do you find places for the artwork that is created in your home? Let us know in the comments.
Also, if you have a question for a future "How Do You...?" post, share that in the comments, too, or send me an e-mail! I'd love to hear from you.
We do similarly to you. Though we don't do much in the way of crafting, I'll display it a while (or let them play with it, depending what it is), they it goes. Pictures for the fridge are replaced when a new one is made. The kids know that the old comes down to make room for the new. And, like you, if I worry that it will be asked about, I tuck it away somewhere just in case and throw it away later.
ReplyDeleteWe embrace the beauty of our creations for the season, take photos, then toss...
ReplyDeletetook my dd awhile to get past "all that hard work", but to continue to create helps her move on... =)
~Sheri
Encouraging them to draw in a sketchbook is a help too... then lots of drawings are saved in one spot, and you can see their progress over a long period of time!
ReplyDeleteWe also tried to do as much as possible on "regular" sized paper that would fit in their yearly portfolio. I weeded out on a regular basis, and when the girls were older, they helped weed out and keep only their favorite pieces. Big projects are hard... the most difficult one to dispose of was our giant replica of the Hebrew Tabernacle! We ended up donating it to church... they may still be wondering what to do with it! :-D
And we still have artwork on our fridge! :-D The grandboys are keeping me supplied!