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[loobyoxlip]

...with the loads upon loads of artwork the kids are bringing home at the end of the year?

I usually pick out the best of the best and trash the rest but I got caught by Jalen once for doing this and it was like the world had come to an end! So for now it's all in this big huge container.

[wheatenwalker]

Tina, I STILL have their art work! Someday, I may figure out what to do with it besides put it in a big tote- Sheila

[lauren-roxy]

That happened to me once too Tina so now i go through it after they are asleep and throw it away in the trash can in the garage. I stuff I kkep, I keep in a Rubbermaid container, one for each child so far!

[DrDolphin]

My grandmother kept all my mother's art work...

[OffKilter_Lynn]

If it's a really BIG piece of artwork, I take a picture of them with it. (Then it quietly disappears... except for the really great stuff, of course!)

Now if you ever come into the digital age, this is a really easy way to manage the infamous art work. The pictures all get downloaded into the 'artwork' folder and there we have a record of all their projects - plus it's a neat record of how they've changed over the school year (and always take the picture in the same spot so you can watch them grow! )

[Cam22]

I've kept a lot of the really good stuff, but when she's away from home or asleep, I take all the rest to the garbage toter outside.

[snoozy]

My DD is very much into art. So she is the one who goes through all her stuff and then she puts it in a portfolio. She wants to go to art school after high school.

[Teresa]

Advise from someone who cleaned out a mother that keeps everything's house.....
Pitch it!!

Neither my sister nor I were interested in the multitude of artwork and papers that mom kept. We threw it all away without a backwards glance.

[boosmom96]

Tina,
Thanks for the post. I've always felt like a horrible mother for throwing out DD's artwork, but if I kept it all we'd have several bins already and she's only 8 1/2! The pictures aren't bad, it's the "art projects" that take up so much room! The bags for Halloween and Valentines, the tissue paper flowers for Mother's Day etc. We went to Open House last week and I have a huge mountain of homework and tests on my dinningroom table!
I do make sure and wait until she's in bed before I toss stuff. She's going through a phase of wanting to save everything!! It drives me crazy.

[luvnwdwgal]

Our DS is 22 and I still have a huge under-the-bed container with his school stuff in it!

[Colexis Mom]

I have the kids stuff in a really big container as well. But I do pick the best of the best, and throw out the rest when they aren't looking. I too have been caught, but I take it out of the trash, and throw it away again after they have gone to bed

[poohbear.u.k.]

I keep everything in the loft. I haven't got the heart to through it away.

[disneymom9092]

I ask the boys to pick out their favorites and put them on the fridge. The rest are in bins in the attic! (Yup-hate to say it but I have them all )

[amanda31599]

I've got mostly all of DDs "stuff" in a tote in the basement. I just can't seem to throw it out yet.

[barries5199]

DS hasn't come home with too many projects this year (3rd grade), but I had stacks of things he created in the previous years. Sadly, the box they were in in our shed got wet this past winter and ruined some of his papers. I probably needed to weed them out anyway.

We process his projects a little differently here. First, we go thru them together and I pull out the ones I want to keep for posterity's sake, then DS gets to decide what he wants to keep. He has one paper grocery bag that he keeps his "keepers" in. When the bag gets full, he dumps it all out on his bedroom floor and weeds thru it to make room for the new things. This way, I don't feel guilty about what to keep and what can be tossed, and he learns not to be a total packrat!