Children's Artwork

My children produce a TON of artwork daily. I love it all, I really do, but if I don't get rid of some of it, it will take over the house! I've tried having my children help choose which works of art to save and which to "pass along for someone else to enjoy", but that just brought hurt feelings.

What works for me is to stack up all of the artwork in a location that's out of sight with the hopes of out of sight, out of mind. This may sound very un-mommyish, but after a week or so, if I haven't been asked for any of those pieces of art, they go out in the trash. I felt like the world's worst mom the first time I threw away some of my kids' creations. Now, it still isn't fun, but I know that I can't possibly keep it all. I am very careful to date and save any handprints or footprints my children do, though. Those go straight to the kids' memory bins. I also tend to hang onto drawings of the family or self-drawings.

One idea I've heard from other moms involves scanning artwork into the computer to use as a screen saver or to save on disk. I may have to try that sometime.

How do you manage your children's artwork?