More in the spirit of spring cleaning…what to do with all the children’s art? School projects? Holiday crafts? Pick the best (a purely subjective matter) and display them…

ART

…this art is displayed in ready-made frames, purchased at a local frame store and assembled for free…also love this idea for storing and framing multiple pieces of art…

…the pottery “gallery” above gets rotated as new art moves in…

…”bath art” on either side of a mirror makes me smile each morning, and provides a constant reminder of how fast they grow – the “handprints” leave for college this fall…

…I love this 18×24 art portfolio by Itoya – its size can handle even the largest art that preschool has to dish out. I have one for each child – this belongs to child number one. Did I mention he leaves for college? After keeping art in a box for awhile or on “fridge” display, we sort through and keep a sampling from each year. For smaller pictures, I paperclip them to the top of the plastic sheet protector and put others at the bottom. This maximizes the amount that goes into each portfolio. There are enough pages for all the school years if you’re ruthless AND you don’t happen to have a kid who is a true visual artist (in which case you’ll probably have volumes!).

SCHOOL PROJECTS

Gush like crazy, celebrate over a family meal, then grab the camera…

…and recycle! It’s gotten to the point that my youngest child (pictured above) enthusiastically reminds me to document each project and he doesn’t flinch when it’s tossed. But he’s also my neat freak child and may have embraced this better than some.

HOLIDAY CRAFTS

Same as school projects – we grab the camera before we toss (some are worthy of storing and bringing out for the holidays)…

I don’t keep the gingerbread houses as I don’t want well-fed mice and cockroaches in my attic. BUT I have kept holiday pictures that I’ve framed, or cut out and made paper ornaments. Other ideas – a decoupaged art collage on a wooden tray? Homemade cards for the grandparents? Teacher gifts? There are many ways to recycle the art you cannot keep. Save the best, toss the rest, declutter the nest.