Taming the Paper Monster

[knitgrl]

How do you do it? I have three children who produce prodigious amounts of artwork. Some of it is worth keeping. Most of it isn't anything I want to keep because there is so much of it and it is produced on a daily basis. Ds draws Godzilla and various kaiju over and over and over again. (Which is fine, he wouldn't willingly come near a pencil last year, so this is progress I don't want to discourage.) We don't have a system for doing something with it all, and when I ask them to clean up, they come to me with their creations and say, "It's for you!" mostly so they don't have to put it away. Lol. I know I can't be the only one who has to deal with this problem.

[sweet2ndchance]

We scan or take pictures of the very best or favorites and keep them on the computer. They have a notebook for keeping the ones they want to keep and a limited area to display their favorites. When the art display area is full, they have to pick which picture to replace if they want to hang another. Same with the notebook, when it's full, they have to start culling. Pictures from the display area that come down can be put in their notebook if they want and have room in their notebook. Pictures "for mom" go in the display area so they are eventually culled. They learn pretty quick to only keep their best work.

[LauraClark]

We have the paper problem too. I'm very honest sometimes: "Thank you so much! I'm afraid I can't keep everything, but I do keep lots of your drawings in your special box". And sometimes I just tell them thank you and dispose of it later.

I'm working right now on having them store their special papers in a paper tray (1 per kid) and if it gets full they need to go through it and save what they want.

[Brittany1116]

Mine go in spurts. They can produce 2 pieces this week, and 47 next. I give them each a folder, then 2-3 times a year we purge. First I recycle anything that would be pointless to keep, and then I allow them to go through the stacks. They part with more than I expect each time, especially if months have passed. This is strictly for art and random work. Their necessary portfolio pieces are kept separately. 

[Farrar]

When we were in that stage, we had a time set aside periodically (when they were little, once a month, but later it became once a "quarter") to sit down and sort through the paper. I would pick a few pieces to save and they would pick a few pieces to save. The saved stuff went in a portfolio (or up into a set of frames meant for pinning artwork) and the rest went in the trash. Then we'd start over.

[Emily ZL]

I have this problem too, with 6 kids. I have two systems: one for school-related papers, and one for artwork/doodles.

For school stuff, I have a very large bin (drona from Ikea) and everything goes in there. At the end of the year, I pull out only the best to save in my files and toss the rest. But the advantage of this is that I can easily go back and figure out where we left off if we haven't gotten to something recently. 

For artwork/doodles: this may not sound like much of a "system" but I use a three-stage process. In the first stage, I say "thank you!" and gather up all the pictures, without prejudice and without throwing any away, and put them all in a big running pile. This pile usually holds about 2 weeks' worth until it gets too big. By that time, if no one has asked for those pictures or shows any interest in them, we move to the second stage, where I very heavily cull it and only save the very best, usually putting their name and month/year on the back. The vast majority (98%) then get thrown away. The keepers go in a big pile in one of my cabinets and then periodically (only about 2x per year I'm afraid!) I go through and sort them by person into their art bins (that's the third and last stage). They each have a large sterilite bin in their closets with keeper art. This fills up most when young and really tapers off as they get older. It holds a lot but you have to be intentional about what you save. The benefit of this method is that the first "time delay" of about 1-2 weeks prevents those times the kids come to me and say "where's my bear picture?? You threw it away? But I worked so hard on that!!" *tears* If no one has said that about a picture for several days/weeks they probably don't care and it can be thrown away with confidence unless particularly worth saving. The other benefit is that I only need to do any real work (filing away the items) a couple times per year.

 

I know lots of people like the method where you scan the artwork and make it into photo books. I personally don't because I think the kids don't feel the same about a real picture they made when little, that they can hold in their hands and say "I remember this!!" vs seeing a picture and saying "oh, I remember that, I wish I still had that." It's like seeing a picture of an outfit you used to have, or a place you used to go - it's not the same. You have a photo of the art but you don't have the art. That's my two cents.

[knitgrl]

Hmmmm. Giving dd11 control over her drawings makes sense, as in giving her a binder to put things in, and letting her cull it when it gets full. Training her to put things there is something I need to be diligent about, hopefully a month of reminders will be all it takes.

For the younger two, it is tempting to do it all myself because it will be easier, but it seems like they might benefit from having to make decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of. Ds6 hates to get rid of anything.

1 hour ago, Emily ZL said:

I know lots of people like the method where you scan the artwork and make it into photo books. I personally don't because I think the kids don't feel the same about a real picture they made when little, that they can hold in their hands and say "I remember this!!" vs seeing a picture and saying "oh, I remember that, I wish I still had that." It's like seeing a picture of an outfit you used to have, or a place you used to go - it's not the same. You have a photo of the art but you don't have the art. That's my two cents.

I kind of agree with this. Plus, at our house, scanning things is not exactly convenient. I can see the pile of "things to be scanned" growing into its own monster.

[LauraClark]

3 hours ago, Farrar said:

When we were in that stage, we had a time set aside periodically (when they were little, once a month, but later it became once a "quarter") to sit down and sort through the paper. I would pick a few pieces to save and they would pick a few pieces to save. The saved stuff went in a portfolio (or up into a set of frames meant for pinning artwork) and the rest went in the trash. Then we'd start over.

That reminds me that several years ago we did this too. I think we went through weekly and they could save 2 pieces of paper. This gives me hope because we don't have to do that nearly as often anymore.

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, LauraClark said:

That reminds me that several years ago we did this too. I think we went through weekly and they could save 2 pieces of paper. This gives me hope because we don't have to do that nearly as often anymore.

Mine are high school juniors. I haven't done it all year. 

[AnneGG]

We have an “art line” in his room where he can display and keep what he sees fit. He also has a plastic scrapbook case from Michael’s and he can fill that up as he likes. When it’s too full to close he has to sort through it. 
 

Our biggest hurdle is managing all the art made out of the recycling bin. We’ve had a tp roll skyline up since New Year’s. The Avengers currently live in a milk carton village nestled between the shoe bench and coat rack. 

[Momof3]

I keep an art binder with a divider for each year...the very best samples of artwork go into the binder during the year (I choose these). The rest I toss myself, or give back to the kids to keep if they like.

Each child then has a working "paper drawer" (I have this from IKEA) where they can keep any papers they are currently working on...random sketches and doodles and stories, etc. When we clean up at the end of the day, this is where most of the mess goes. Periodically, these drawers get full and the kids have to clean them out. 

Each child also has a small plastic tub with a lid (maybe 16 qt?) that they keep in their room. This is for special papers...not school art necessarily, but things they've made or worked on that they just can't bear to part with. When we clean out their paper drawers, they can transfer anything they want to keep to their tub.  None of mine have filled up their tub yet (and we've been doing this for 7 or 8 years now) but in principle when they fill the tub, they'll have to go through it all and make room for more.