Your kids will create mountains of artwork throughout their childhood. Delightful, adorable, and wonderful artwork. The challenge? How to store it.
Do you need to store everything indefinitely, or can you eventually (gasp!) throw some of it away? The art pieces that children create are super special and we think you should save your favorites for memories to look back on later.
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Children’s artwork can be displayed through art portfolios, in plastic bins, filing cabinets, or on the fridge! Or you can create a beautiful keepsake book with Artkive. Digital storage is another option that can solve the problem of a cluttered home full of many different kinds of artwork.
These options can help parents to feel more organized without feeling the guilt that comes with disposing of some of their child’s artwork. And read all about how we used Artkive to create stunning books from our kids’ artwork.
Storage Ideas for Kids’ Artwork
Art Portfolios
Art portfolios come with so many options. A useful way to store lots of artwork would be in a container or sleeve that’s see-through. This provides slim-fit storage that takes up less space in your home.
Amazon sells a Large Size Art Portfolio Tote. (affiliate link) It has two sizes of handles, is lightweight and durable, holds many pieces of artwork for students or teachers, and has a waterproof zipper closure.
Plastic Bins with Lids
Plastic bins (affiliate link) are an easy and efficient way to store items and slide them underneath a bed or stack them on a closet shelf. It’s simpler to use one box per child if you have two or more children so each child’s artwork is separate and easier to identify and find.
Consider choosing a storage area in your home that has room to add more boxes in the future as the first box gets full. The number of boxes or bins you’ll need depends on the amount of artwork that’s being stored — and the number of children you have.
Digital Storage
Digital art is a fantastic way to store artwork in a way that does not use physical space. Google Photos is a great choice to store and display all of your child’s artwork digitally.
Digital albums can be downloaded online and the artwork can be printed to place in a book. The process of transforming the artwork into photos takes about 30 minutes. But, once printed, Google Photos can create a few slim volumes of books you can place on a bookshelf and pull out anytime you want to enjoy your child’s artwork.
You can find great art storage boxes, bins, and portfolios
in our MomsLA Amazon Shop!
5 Ways to Get Rid of Your Kid’s Artwork Without Guilt
It can be difficult to decide whether your child’s artwork should be kept at home, given away, or disposed of in some manner, but it may depend on the number of artwork piles in the home you have — along with other reasons. At the same time, it’s not easy to simply throw away a child’s artwork. That can be hurtful to the child, especially if they worked really hard on that particular art project.
Fortunately, there are ways to get rid of your children’s artwork without having to feel guilty about it.
Send the Art Pieces to Family Members
One way you cannot go wrong is to send the artwork to other family members. For example, tell your child it would be a great idea to give their artwork to their aunts and uncles, cousins, or others as a “gift”. If your kids are young, this could also be a way to instill the spirit of giving in your children while reducing the clutter in your house at the same time.
You could also send their artwork to grandparents. Grandparents usually love to see children’s artwork on a regular basis, so this shouldn’t be that much of a problem. If your home feels overrun with artwork, grandparents usually keep and cherish the artwork that your child made.
Take Photos of the Artwork
Another way to rid the house of multiple pieces of artwork is to simply take a picture of each thing your child makes before throwing it away. Throwing away a piece of artwork your child made without making a visual record of it means the memory of that particular design could be forgotten. Instead, you can preserve the memory of their special composition by taking a picture of it to view and enjoy later.
After taking photos of your child’s artwork, you can put them in a digital or physical book. Compiling everything into one book or location lets you flip through them one photo at a time and enjoy the memories each photo evokes.
Frame the Compositions
If you choose to keep your child’s artwork, placing it in a frame and hanging it on the wall is another great idea. To do this effectively, you can choose a few of the best pieces of artwork your child has completed, frame them, and hang them up on the wall of your home. This allows the child to feel seen and appreciated because the artwork will be on display for everyone to see when they enter your home.
What if you have limited wall space to hang pictures? One way to solve this and allow all of the artwork to be displayed is to switch up the artwork in the frames from time to time throughout the year.
Donate the Designs
It’s always a safe bet to donate your child’s artwork when the pile begins to grow out of control. Donation centers can choose to chuck the artwork in the trash if they don’t want to keep it — but, as a parent, you won’t have to feel the guilt of throwing the artwork away or hurting your child’s feelings.
Recycle the Materials
A final option on our list is to recycle your child’s artwork. A fun idea is to tape the artwork together to form wrapping paper for gifts. This not only saves money on wrapping paper, but you are also using your child’s artwork in a sparing way that other people can admire.
You could also turn the artwork into placemats at the supper table. This helps you enjoy the art while you eat and keeps the table clean. Once something spills on the placemat, it’s time to toss it in the garbage.
In the end, it’s all about quality over quantity. Choose to keep the best artwork and try to get rid of the not-as-necessary artwork in a creative way so you feel less guilty and don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
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