if your pre-school daughter is anything like mine, she loves crafts. and coloring. crafts and coloring. not a day goes by, school or no school, when the crayons, coloring books, scissors, and glue don't get pulled out for crafts and coloring.
i love that she gets so excited about making things. i love that she loves when she figures out how to draw something new. i love that she gets joy from drawing a picture for a friend. and i love that her 2 year old brother is now starting to enjoy creating with her. the downside to this hobby is it leaves a looooot of paper in my house. anyone else have this problem?
here are a couple things i do to try to keep the clutter under control (or attempt to do so...):
1. this is the new wall decoration in my kids' room installed by my wonderful husband. i display our most recent home-school creations for the world to see. as you can see, there's not a ton of room, so i'm taking something down at least once a week. (i can't take credit for this idea at all. i've seen it in a couple friends' homes in the past and mentally logged it away for a time such as this.) i've been able to keep our school papers pretty organized so far (but of course, we're only a month into school!), but when the papers comes off the wall i still have to figure out what to do with them...
2. ...and this is what i do with them: i have a special spot in a special cabinet that i can quickly and easily stash beloved crafts and coloring pages. once a year around thanksgiving, i gather up all the papers from throughout the year and start sorting. my most favoritey favorites are kept by me, forever. i keep this stack as small as possible. the papers that are just scribbles, sadly, end up in the trash when no one is looking (unfortunately, we don't have the option of recycling where we live). all the other papers that represent my children's time, interests, and development in the most precious of ways i staple into little books and send them off to the grandparents for christmas. it makes a great present, the grandparents can hold their long-distance grandchildren's creations until their hearts are content, and i get a de-cluttered closet! win win!
do you have any fun tricks to keep down the paper clutter in your house?
and here is an example of one of my favoritey favorite pictures that i will never part with painted by my most favoritey favorite girl...
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1 comment:
Oh my goodness! Papers drive me nuts. We have a lot of paper clutter in our school room and in my girls' room. They are at the ages when they keep a lot of little papers and things that of course mean SO MUCH to them. One other thing you can do is to take a photo of some projects and art work that you need to part with, then you'll always have it in a more compact form!
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