Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Trash or Treasure? I can't save it all!

Calling all moms! What do you do with all of your kid's art work and school work? Since my daughter started pre-K last fall I am accumulating so many school papers and art projects, doodles, crafts... I could wallpaper her room in the amount of paper I'm saving. Some are masterpieces and others are... well... let's just say I'm saving those because I'm a conservationist. But the inner voice that wants to break the hoarder tendencies that run in my family says, "RECYCLE!" How do you determine what or how much to keep for posterity? I mean, I have to draw the line somewhere, she has another 13 years of school ahead of her. HELP!
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3 comments:

  1. JessicaMay 5, 2012 at 10:37 AM

    I have one child in first and one in fifth grade. This year I am saving some of their work and recycling the rest as it comes home each week. I like to save some of their writing, since it changes as the years go on, and of course artwork. But most everything else gets put in paper recycle. Most of the pre-printed worksheets don't make the "keep it" cut. Keep a few worksheets of each subject, there's no reason to keep 50+ papers of pretty much the same subject, it's redundant.

    One idea I've heard of is to take a photo of the artwork so you can at least keep it digitally, and not have to keep the paper clutter. I haven't done that yet.

    I think of school work like this: Am I going to sit and go through a box of paper for each child and grade level often for memory sake? Nope. Are the kids going to want all these boxes of papers when they grow up? Nope. It's okay not to keep every little piece of paper that comes home. (I used to even save the teacher's weekly newsletters! I do have boxes from previous grades that I need to go through.)

    Another idea I like is to have a notebook for each child (one for each grade or one for elementary school, one for middle, one for HS) and design it however you want, and put the papers you want to keep in it. It's a lot more manageable than a box filled with paper. It also helps you keep the paper you put in from being too much, cuz only so much fits!

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    1. UnknownMay 11, 2012 at 3:09 PM

      Thank you Jessica. My mom suggested scanning them in and then recycling. It sounds time consuming but I think thats the best solution. I feel guilty when I get rid of some but not those worksheets, lol.

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  2. UnknownMay 11, 2012 at 3:10 PM

    I love the idea of showing them at Graduation open house! Thanks for sharing Naddez!

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