How to Organise Children’s Artwork … Declutter Challenge

Of all the areas at home that have proven to be the biggest challenge to organise … it has to be my daughter’s artwork. I love looking at wonderful creations Miss E brings home most days. However, as of a week ago I had no idea how to store or organise the seemingly endless outpouring of creativity. As part of the 40 bags in 40 days challenge I decided to get the mountains of artwork under-control. So here’s how to organised children’s artwork … declutter challenge week 4.

1. Decide what to keep

As you can see my storage solution consisted of a variety of bags. The collection of artwork usually started as pile on the kitchen bench … which moved to a bigger pile on the dinning table … and eventually ended up in a bag. These bags were scattered throughout the house as I moved them from room to room in an attempt to disperse the clutter.

This is about 4 years worth of drawings, paintings and pasting.

I started by sorting the artwork into 2 piles – one to keep and one to recycle. Ouch! I found deciding what to recycle a tough decision, particularly the pictures produced last year when Miss E’s drawing skills really took off. I still ended up with a giant pile of artwork to keep as I couldn’t bring myself to be ruthless on this challenge … perhaps a few more years of school will change my mind.

How to Organise Your Child's Art Work ... Declutter Challenge

I managed to group most of the work by year/age.

2. File Artwork in Folders

Once I decided what I was going to keep, I put the artwork into clear plastic sheet protectors and filed them away in a folder.

Artwork on A4 paper fits perfectly into the sheet protectors, however it becomes a bit more tricky for the larger work. Some I have been able to fold in half or cut down to size. For the very large sheets of paper, I have rolled these up together and secured with an elastic band.

Any suggestions on how to store these greatly received!

I used tab dividers to separate the years, and clearly labelled the folders.

4 years of Kindergarten art and craft sorted, labelled and filed … Hooray!

3. Magazine holder for incoming artwork, certificates etc.

Now that I have organised the previous years art, it’s time to set up a system to manage this years incoming art and craft, certificates etc. I have put a pretty little magazine holder in the kitchen as a central place for all the incoming arts, crafts, certificates etc. A perfect place as this is where the school bags gets unloaded every night. While I have used a mazagine holder to store artwork, a storage box or another holder will work just as well.

Once this is full the drawings, certificates, invitations, notes and any other crafts collected can be sorted into “keep” and “recycle”. My next big challenge is it coax Miss E into becoming more discerning with what is kept.

3. frame Favourite artwork

I have 3 white A4 frames that I purchased from KMart, which I have hung in the kitchen to display my favourite drawings. I intend to rotate the art in them every few months. A little bit of fun and colour to look at each morning eating my breakfast.

While I have the majority of artwork now under control and a system set up to manage it ongoing, I still face the challenge of what to do with arts and craft made from shoe-boxes and other bulky material. I tried gently suggesting recycling these, but was faced with an uproar … but mum! that’s Wonder Woman’s plane! … that to do?!