Managing Your Child’s Art Beautifully

By the time your little one enters preschool, it becomes hard to stem the tide of hand-drawn scribbles coming home. How does one deal with the wave of artwork in a loving yet uncluttered manner? Very very carefully! Here are a few different ideas for displaying (and purging!) these childish masterpieces: Designate a display wall.

This kiddie art gallery can take many forms.Easy. The easiest and most common is probably the refrigerator door. Make space among the magnets to display one current piece and rotate the others out as needed.Medium. Another approach is to designate a wall in your home to be a revolving display space. You can decide if it’s the first thing visitors see or tucked away in a little alcove. I used a wall in my dining room for this purpose, but only because the kid art matched my décor.Hard. Choose a few pieces that are special and mount them onto stiff foam for a semi-permanent display. I’ve done this before at a copy shop and it took a few minutes. Now that I have one objet d’art from each kid and year of school, I’ve dedicated a larger wall to the display.

Advanced.

Brooke created an organized grid of simple white frames to prevent this large collection her daughter Leila’s work from becoming visually overwhelming (shown below). Color me impressed.

Go digital.

Scan or photograph interesting pieces of art for later use. Once digitized, you can use these images to create an annual calendar featuring your child’s favorites. Not only that, you can use them however and whenever you want: use an online photo service to create note cards, coasters, or a special mug. And the walls stay clean!

File away.

Marie has a labeled clear plastic tub for each of her children. She sorts through their papers and decides what is most meaningful or significant. The bins are stored on a high shelf in the closet. Read more about Marie’s system.

Recycle. Recycle. Recycle.

Whitney is unafraid to toss out kid art and crafts. This past summer, she discarded 64 science projects created by her six year-old. While they enjoy their time spent creating, they do not cling too tightly to the end result. This attitude frees them up for more fun expression without drowning in clutter!

Related:

5 ways to organize and display your child’s artwork from Make and Takes (including a digital book and magnetic paint!).