So how do you do it. I have three kids and well I only have one year in storage right now (two kids) ...but it is all in one box and I am not liking it. A little background. Last year periodically through the year I would go through my kids artwork/activities and filter to a keep pile and a throw pile. Both of my two in school by the end of the year had a stack aprox 6 inches tall. Which is way, WAY down from what it could have been!! I know I am probably over thinking this but after going through boxes and boxes of paper from my husband growing up just thrown in I don't want to put my kids through this nor do I want to do this to myself...lol
I personally feel that saving some work/art and grades with comments on them are important so saving is a must. I don't want to safe big art pieces so I take pictures of them...I am not up for picture taking and filing of other work...too time consuming for me. So anyhow what do you do? What box size do you like...Do you just have one year in one box or a couple years in each box. Store kids todether or seperate? Help...
I know! "Wow your a crazy lady it's just paperwork" LOL I am thinking this about myself right now but...it's a question I was thinking!!
Update: I do have a large 5ft by 4 ft board in our dining room that we display artwork on prior to going into intermediate storage before I sneek a finaly filter in :) Love looking at their work!
I love the framing of artwork idea. I think this is something I am going to have to work on doing!
We don't have much yet; however I teach kindergarten and with my students we use pizza boxes!! The local pizza place donates them to us!! :)
I scanned all the artwork from kindergarten and put it in a photobook from Shutterfly.
I haven't started this yet as my son is just three (but already has a huge stack of art!), but I read about a cool idea I plan on doing. Take a picture of everything, print out and put in a photo album, only keeping select favorite pieces. I'm like you I can't throw anything away! This sounds like a great way to be able to preserve forever without the bulk.
Here's what I do with art. It hangs on the bulletin board for a week. At the end of the week, it goes into a paper tray (we home school, so we have a six shelf paper tray that sorts various things we use during the week. One is reserved for artwork that's already been displayed.)
When the paper tray is full, down it goes into a plastic tote in the basement...standard size, whatever that is...bigger than the 18 gallon, but not one of the huge ones. It's pretty much almost full...but she's six, so that's about five years worth of paper art. I imagine as she grows older, the volume won't be as much, and we can eventually transition her to sketchbooks. I don't see more than two totes for her lifetime to store artwork. Oh, and I have a separate one for "crafts"...things that don't lay flat.
Now, with child two, I suppose we'll have to buy a few more totes... :)
We take digital pictures and I use them for my screensaver. We then send the actual paintings and drawings to the grandparents, who put them on their fridges until the next batch arrives. I also created a Picasa web-album for their artwork so we can send it to others who want to see their creations.
I have one big box in the garage. Its a big rubber made box that can slide under a bed. all through the years I have saved special artwork and graded stuff like you said. however I also make a point of displaying my kids artwork in their bedrooms. you can hang almost anything with pushpins. I would encourage you to do that. hang their stuff on their walls. they will love it. and when they are tired of it off it can go into the recycle bin
I mainly store things in an artist's portfolio. It's something like 18x36. Multiple small pieces can go in each clear display page. We just keep adding pages (it has a 500 sheet max, at about 3". So far, we've got 4 years in it (about 50 pieces per year).
I also have a "collage wall". That's where artwork goes FIRST. Pinned to the wall. When the wall fills up, I take everything down and we get them into the portfolio.
My 9yo has just recently started working on canvass. $50 for an "x" stand can get about 30 canvasses in it.
Absolute favorite pieces (1 from preschool, 1 from K, and a couple more recent ones) get framed and hung on the wall permanently.
I save everything from my kids because I can't throw it away! And I have 5 kids. I just have a basket where I put them in my closet. I make sure I put their name and date on everything. I'm terrible about throwing their things away.
I have an acccordian folder for each of my girls - I have a 7 & 13 yr old. There is stuff in there from both of them as far back as them being about a yr old. We have weeded thru things and as they get older they get embarassed by the things I hang up at holiday time. So they pretty much downsize for me! But it does get hard once school starts up so I hang stuff for a while and then file it away & will have my 7 yr old go thru things from there. Good luck!
