These 10 out-of-the-box ideas will help you cherish your kids’ creativity while maintaining a less-cluttered home… finding that elusive balance between sentimentality and simplicity!
As parents (and grandparents), we often find ourselves drowning in a sea of our children’s creative masterpieces. From crayon drawings to intricate crafts, every piece tells a story and holds sentimental value.
Yet, as their collections grow, so does the challenge of maintaining a clutter-free home… I know you can relate!
How do we honor our children’s creativity while keeping our living spaces somewhat organized?
Keep reading for 10 practical strategies to use, display, celebrate, and enjoy your kids’ artwork, without letting it overtake your home.
1. Take a picture and toss the actual art.
If you have a good system for managing digital photos, this option is probably the fastest, simplest, and easiest method to quickly reduce the number of art projects in your home (it’s also great for 3D projects that take up so much space!)
I have a Flickr photo album for each child’s artwork, and can open that folder whenever I want to “find” a piece of their art. I then include several of these art pictures when I make their yearly digital photo albums.
NOTE: I try to take a picture of the child WITH the art as often as possible, so I can remember how old they were when they made the art.
2. Mail or give it to others.
Every child enjoys giving gifts to others — especially homemade gifts.
When our kids were younger (and at home coloring every day) we had a regular routine of mailing and giving several pieces of art away each week — to grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, a friend who went off to college, neighbors, elderly people from church, teachers, etc.
I often wrote a note to go along with the art, explaining how the kids love to create and that we wanted to bless the recipient with this “gift”.
I cannot tell you how many phone calls, emails, and return cards we received thanking the kids for their “beautiful artwork” and thoughtfulness.
Many older folks and shut-ins at church still have their artwork years later!
3. Make stationery.
We often use actual pieces of paper artwork as stationary for writing cards, notes, and letters (we write on the back).
We then fold up another piece of artwork to make our own envelopes (here’s a tutorial) — which means we use up TWO pieces of art in one swoop!
4. Make countdown chains.
I believe I’ve mentioned our love of countdown chains before — basically, my kids are obsessed with them!
We make countdown chains for birthdays, holidays, vacations, the start of something special, someone coming to visit, or just because… and we often use recycled artwork to make the links for the chains (win-win!)
We use a small paper cutter so even the littlest child can help out (no scissors required).
They don’t realize they’re throwing away their own artwork because they are so excited about removing another link.
5. Make wrapping paper or gift tags.
We have a big roll of white craft paper that the kids can color on whenever they want. Then we roll it back up until the next time.
As we need wrapping paper throughout the year, we’ll cut off a couple feet of our roll and use the kid’s hand-made drawings as wrapping paper (mainly for grandparents, teachers, or the kids’ friends).
We also use this Tag Punch to cut various paintings into gift tags throughout the year (this is SUCH a great way to use up artwork and create cool gift tags.
6. Make a calendar.
This might require a bit more planning, but we’ve done some fun calendars (both for ourselves and for grandparents) over the years.
Often, we just use pictures of the artwork in our digital calendars, but one year, I made a handprint / footprint calendar that turned out really cute.
I always wait until I get a BOGO coupon from Shutterfly and then give the calendars to the grandparents and to the kids as Christmas gifts (killing 2 birds with one stone!)
7. Create a book for the child.
As I mentioned above, I create digital photo books for all my children each year — and I do include pictures of their artwork in those books.
BUT, you don’t need to do a digital book — you could use a simple 3-ring binder like I did several years ago for the kids’ preschool artwork.
We only saved select items and put them in a binder with some pictures of their class, friends, special events, etc. We also included special Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s things they made, along with their “report card”.
They still love looking through these books and laughing at how silly their pictures were.
8. Display it.
If you want to frame your kid’s artwork to put on display, these really cool frames allow you to easily swap in new drawings.
Or, a more frugal option is to use poster putty or picture hanging strips to line an entire wall with their artwork (we do this in our upstairs landing area and the kids love it).
I’ve also seen cool artwork displays in garages, laundry rooms, mudrooms, etc… just do a quick Pinterest search and you’ll find lots of inspiration!
NOTE: we change out our art wall each semester, and we often toss everything we take down.
9. Display it as seasonal decor.
We have a handful of holiday artwork items that we store with our holiday decorations.
We display it in different areas of our home during that holiday season, and it makes for great memories and really frugal decor!
It might not be gone for good, but it’s at least out of sight for most of the year!
10. Toss It!
There are only so many uses for kid’s artwork, but if you have really crafty kids, you’ll probably end up with more than you can possibly use, display, gift, or decorate with.
So yes, you’ll just have to throw it away — and life will go on!
By making an effort to use, display, and gift much of their artwork throughout the year, they will likely be less resistant to tossing the rest (my kids rarely put up a stink).
I use this wall-mounted filing system inside our office closet to store a handful of art projects… and when a child’s file gets too full, I selectively recycle.
I’m sure there so many other fabulous ways to USE UP your child’s artwork — but these 10 ideas have worked well for us over the past decade with 4 very crafty kiddos.
What are your best tips to handle kids’ artwork?
Rhonda M says
I love the countdown chain idea – I am going to use that.
My parents and in-laws are both out of town (by several hours). This year for Christmas I bought them a decorative magnetic dry erase board from Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/208499324/free-shipping-magnetic-dry-erase-message?ref=hp_rv
I hope I will make it a habit to mail them the kids artwork – and it can also double as a nice message board. (Let’s face it, I love it so much I will probably buy one for myself too).
JJ says
The fact that you say “pitch” to mean “throw away” is music to my ears! #Michigander #loveit When I worked at an office in FL, I asked my boss if it was okay if I pitched a few things. He said, “Wait a minute. Where are you from?” When I told him I was from Michigan, he said he thought so! I guess a few others from the office were also from MI and said the same thing. Apparently not everyone does! Love, love this post!
Andrea says
Yes! Michigander born and raised 🙂
Although I didn’t know that “pitch” was a Michigan thing! That’s interesting…
Jenny says
I just really, really hope that this paper is getting put into the recycling chain and not into a landfill! If you don’t have home recycling in your area, please investigate how you can make this happen- since your husband works at a school, they should have a container that gets picked up regularly. Kids like the idea of the paper getting made back into paper that they can use for future art or that other kids who need paper can have!
Kelly says
I take photos of most of it and pitch. I like your idea of taking a photo of the child with it, I usually just photograph the artwork itself. I do try to write down their name with age or date (like December 2016) and if they give any explanation I try to write it down, like labeling the parts of the picture, or who it was for or the context of making it. That makes the photo more interesting to me!
Love some of these other ideas!
Andrea says
Good idea to put some text on the photo — I might try that as well!
Karen S. says
Loved this post so much!!! My last one at home is 8 now ~ I wished I had some of these ideas a few years back ;-). I need to make a Flicker account ~ brilliant!!! As for saving artwork ~ one of my girls is 23 and is an artist. She is also very much like yourself and keeps minimal possessions. She could care less what I have saved from her childhood, and recently made me toss out her old report cards,class awards, and baby teeth (lol ~ they crumble anyway). I have saved a few drawings from her childhood that I treasure, but every single thing ~ no way. 🙂
Andrea says
yeah, I’m definitely not an artists, but I definiteliy don’t like paper clutter either! My poor mother saved so much and I literally tossed EVERY SINGLE THING when she gave me the box after Dave and I got married. I felt bad, but I had no desire to keep any of it. Even now, 10 years later, I have no regrets tossing it all. It’s just not my thing. I’m not sentimental, I don’t care about that stuff, and I’d rather enjoy empty space in my home!
ShellyL says
These are great ideas!! I have struggled with this issue a lot over the years. We do use some of these already, such as displaying the artwork or using it for holiday decor. Why did I not think of snapping a pic of the child with his or her work? I just snapped the work sometimes. That’s genius. There is an app called Keepy that I used for a while. They will store the pics for you.
Offir Gutelzon says
Shelly, thank you so much for sharing with Andrea the Keepy app.
Andrea, what a great list of ideas for using our Kids’ artwork, would it be ok for me to share the blog with our app users?
Offir Gutelzon
CEO & Founder
http://www.keepy.me
Andrea says
yes, feel free to share the link to my blog post, but please do not copy and paste my blog post content to your website (or anywhere else on the web). Thanks!
Paula says
I’ve been following your blog for a couple of years now, Andrea, and I love your ideas for saving money, space and decluttering, but I have to disagree with this ones. And I disagree because I was a very artistic child growing up. My parents saved every small piece of paper that I drew on and, yes, it did took too much space, but I’m eternally grateful. I had a plastic box were I would put everything I ever did and after many years of course I filled more than just that box, but As a child I would love to see the amount of drawing I did. My parents always encouraged me, they bought books about drawing, bought art supplies, found painting courses for me and would take me there every week and after I grew up I continued my passion in college. Today I only have two folders of my childhood drawings. One with my favorites and another one with the ones I like but are too big to scan (at least at home). But I decided to keep those drawing, I decided what to toss and purge, what to scan, what to keep and I can not thank my parents enough for giving me the opportunity to do that on my own. If your kids, specially Nora, are half as artitic as they seem, maybe it would be best to give each of them a box to keep their art work. Even making many drawing at week, it will still be a while before the box is full and when it is, they will purge it themselves, that’s what I used to do every since I was a small kid. I love to look back at drawings from when I was 3 years old and I love to look at how I ised to color them, how much paint I used and the textures. Think about how much they would enjoy a few (or many) years from now holding drawing from when they were five at their own hands. You don’t need to save everything, but I least let them decide what they want to keep it or not. They might decide to keep everything now, but that’s ok, they will let go eventually and be grateful that you saved their art.
Andrea says
Thanks Paula! I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but since I get asked about children’s artwork ALLLLLL the time, I wanted to share some ideas that work for us.
We too encourage Nora (and Simon and James) to be artistic, we just don’t feel we need to save everything they’ve ever done in order to encourage their artisticness.
As I mentioned in the post, we do have a few things saved with our seasonal decorations and Nora keeps a few of her favorites displayed in her special places. Also, I’m confident we’ll come up with a good system to save her favorites once she’s in school 🙂
Nancy says
Love the countdown chains. We occasionally used full-sized drawings or paintings as placemats. Use them once, enjoy, then discard.
Andrea says
this is a great idea — thanks for sharing!
Chris says
Oh, I love the idea of mailing her art to others. That’s such a great way to think of older people who can’t get out much. I also love the calendar idea. The handprint calendar they did a while back was absolutely one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
Andrea says
Thanks Chris! The calendar was really fun — and Nora LOVES sending mail 🙂
Lee Winemiller Cockrum says
All of the ideas are good, but I especially like the idea for the rill of paper to make wrapping paper! That is fabulous!
Andrea says
yes, we’ve used our “homemade wrapping paper” often!
Lydia Senn says
If it’s a hand or footprint or something finger painted I keep it. I laminate and put hole punch and keep in a binder. And yes, sometimes I look at it. But the rest I just toss.
Andrea says
we don’t do much finger painting these days — it’s too messy for me with 3 kids! But I love that you have a system that works for you and allows you to toss it guilt-free!
Jen says
I am past the stage of kids’ artwork–and I pitched most of it, honestly. But I know there are several apps that can be used to “save” their “treasures”. Artkive is one of them! I wish there had been something like that when my kiddos were little!
Andrea says
oh good, glad there’s someone else who just tossed the artwork too! So many of my friends and relatives act like I’m throwing away precious jewels when I toss the kids’ artwork. Honestly, I can’t keep it all! I can’t even keep 10% of of it without feeling like we’re drowning in paper clutter!
Miranda says
Love the countdown chain. Awesome idea.