One of the bonuses of my son attending preschool is that he has a new appreciation for art. One major downside to this newfound love of drawing, painting, doodling and crafting is that I now have art littering decorating the house. What to do with all of the art projects we’re debating throwing away collecting is clearly beyond me.
Case(s) in point:
Go fish. Lots of crumpled paper, a little glue, and loads of ”don’t throw that paper on the floor, please” can get you this masterpiece. It sure adds a lot of ambience to our ottoman, don’t you think?
At one point I tried to be organized and put all reject memorable art projects into a folder. Result? New meaning to junk drawer.
In theory, a bulletin board is a great place to showcase a child’s scribbles artwork.
Somehow the art projects migrated to my nightstand by mandate that I have artwork by my bed.
And when you just don’t know what to do with that paper bag costume your kid insists on bringing home, it ends up in a most unusual place. The floor, of course.
If you have any bright ideas of what I can do with at least the mildly appealing artwork, I’m all ears.
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Oh gosh this is one of my pet peeves.
I’ve started just saving the “extra special” art work. So hard to choose but I always save things made with their hand prints. Someone at work was tossing a large portfolio and I snagged it and put the girls’ art in it but now it’s full. We have artwork stashed under a trunk in our bedroom. I just don’t have the heart to toss it and GOD help me if the 4-year-old catches me ‘recycling” one of her 8.2 million crayon drawings from daycare.
I take digital photo of all art projects, upload to flickr and toss with impunity. I’ll make a photo album at the end of the school year to showcase her progress and best pieces.
I make my husband go through it and take the “rejects” directly to bins outside. He’s less likely to get all weepy and semtimental like yours truly…
The digital photo/album sounds like a brillant idea!
I put everything in a folder and at the end of the month, I go through and pull out the “important” pieces and put them in a box. At the end of the year I’ll probably keep only the super important pieces and toss the rest. You might also want to check out ArtimusArt.com (I think that’s the site) they do a great photo book of all the artwork.
These are great suggestions- thanks!!
We have two plexigalss frames that proudly display the girls artwork. Whenever a new piece comes into the house, we toss the old piece. We do save three or four things per year in their memory boxes.
I also find that leaving stuff on the breakfast bar is a sure way for it to get destroyed by some spilled juice or water.
A big Rubbermaid bin in each of my kids’ closets. If they want to keep it after a week or so on the fridge, then they can put it in there. This is also where I put other “keepsakes” – a special shirt outgrown, sports pictures, etc.
Count yourself lucky that your son does art, though. I can hardly convince my son to pick up a crayon. The things he brings home from his Montessori school that maintains an attitude that if the kid doesn’t want to do an art project, they don’t have to, are few and far between. I am sure I won’t have this issue with my daughter. Thankfully so far with her, half the time she opts to put it in an envelope and mail it to grandma.
We’re saving for a similar photobook idea at the end of the year…but peanut is currently obsessed with water colors. So I’ve been taking his water color creations and using the back to write thank you notes and other messages we can send to family members – this way, if they toss it, we don’t know and he thinks it’s cool to send his art work to Grandma.
No shame – I throw them away. I keep one or two on the wall by his play table, and we rotate those every few weeks. I have two or three seasonal things on my wall at work. The vast, vast majority get tossed. I leave them on the counter to show Daddy and then they “disapear” when he goes to bed. He has never once asked about one in the morning. I tell myself that the point is the making of them, which might or might not be true but it helps me justify my need to keep the clutter at bay.
Christie- my greatest fear come true is that he’ll find out I pitched that watercolor. You’re giving me good confidence to do it!
Try as I may, I really can’t part with any of my daughters’ artwork. I’ll admit that it’s getting more than a bit ridiculous. There are “artistically-enhanced” torn envelopes that were formerly stuffed with junkmail in the stack, for Pete’s sake! Right or wrong, I’m operating under the assumption that a few short years from now, my munchkins handing over scribbled bits of paper with pride along with a big sloppy kiss and an “I love you Mommy” will be all but a distant memory. So, I stockpile with zest. I also frame the ones we deem unforgettable, and rotate “the week’s best” on the refrigerator before filing them in a large portfolio that is hidden away. (Once it’s filed, it’s filed.) My favorite thing to do is to recycle the larger pieces of art as wrapping paper. The relatives (especially grandma and sentimental great aunts) love this!
THROW IT OUT! I know it sounds awful but you’ve got to do it. Sometimes the kids see the work in the garbage (although I do try to hide it under dirty paper plates…) and I tell them that something spilled on it so we had to throw it. I only keep something with their picture or hand print on it. Good luck!
Like the others, I keep the pieces that I feel are most exemplary. Anything with handprints, photos, or really “good” artwork showing progress gets kept. Others get sent to the recycling bin. The ones I keep, I date on the back. I have heard of doing the digital thing and creating books with the art. Very cute idea if you can be organized enough to keep all of the art in one place to digitize eventually. My friend has these frames which she purchased at Target (hers have white borders I think) : http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product/118326.do