Decluttering - kids' artwork edition

January 11, 2023 8:25 AM

Apologies if this has been asked before, but given the limited space I have available, what's the best way to deal with artwork and 3D art projects lovingly created for me by various nieces/nephews? They're taking up a lot of space at the moment and creating clutter. But I love them.

I feel like this has been asked before! But I could not find it in my recent searches.

I have on display in my (tiny) apartment, currently:
- Pictures drawn for me
- Weird, adorable 3D art projects created for me
- Birth announcements
- Photographs of niblings/of myself with niblings

This feels excessive, and is creating clutter; but I feel bad about throwing away things that kids/parents felt I would like. I especially feel bad about throwing away the artwork, it's just I have no room, not even to put up pictures anymore.

I know myself well enough to know that committing to taking photos of artwork and pasting them into a scrapbook is just... not a thing I will do. What can I do with the stuff? What can I do with future stuff that gets lovingly given/created for me?

(On a weirdly similar note, I also have a box of stuff that my late aunt left, containing years' worth of my own childhood crap (letters, drawings etc) that she lovingly saved and put away. I have no idea what to do with that either. It's just sitting in a box in a cupboard...)

posted by unicorn chaser to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Here's what I do -- for each niece (I only have nieces!) I have one 11x14 inch framed cork board. Not these ones, but they are a good example and one archival storage box. For each of them, I pin up their latest artwork and their latest school photo (or other printed photos I have) on the bulletin boards. When I get new artwork or new photos, I add them on top of the older ones, or arrange them so various bits peek out if that's appropriate. When the board starts to look messy, I take everything down except the most recent layer and I put the photos and artwork in the box. The boxes get stored on a shelf in a closet. I don't do any special organizing in the boxes, I just chuck the photos and art in there. I enjoy going through them from time to time.

For 3D items, I'll be honest -- I have gently let sibling and their spouse know that I'd prefer to not get these. I get a lot of joy out of the art work and photos, but not out of the 3D items -- they see my joy and they see how much I love their girls, so they were not offended (at least not that I can observe).
posted by OrangeDisk at 8:36 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

if it's not the taking of photos but the actual scrapbooks that are the issue, you could take pictures of them and then just have them in a file to look at (or set up an Instagram if you want to show it off.) Down the road you can always upload them and have a book printed if you really want (I've done this), but in the meantime archiving the digital files works fine.
posted by warriorqueen at 8:46 AM on January 11, 2023

It may not help with current conditions, unless this is already done, but I would put their ages and dates on back of each item. Then at the end of the year, select one each to archive with photos and/or physically and toss the rest without guilt.
posted by gryphonlover at 8:48 AM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Similar to OrangeDisk, I'd recommend that you have one spot for artwork - one spot for each nibling if you have room. If the kiddo is at your place when you get the artwork, ask them to choose what to remove to make room for the new piece. No need to feel bad about throwing away items. The joy from the kiddo was mostly in creating it, not in perpetual saving of it.

Given your ambivalent feelings toward the box that your aunt saved of your own artwork, I don't think you need to save the ephemera from their childhood (unless there's a few small items you really treasure). And you have permission to throw away any and all of the contents from your aunt as well.
posted by hydra77 at 9:14 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I wrote a bunch of stuff about how to easily "scrapbook" this stuff up but honestly I think you should throw most of it out, and be guilt free.

Just get rid of anything that moves from feeling like a "cute gift" to a "burdensome possession". Maybe have a single spot in your house to lovingly display one gift from each nibling, and replace that item with a new one when you're given one and retire (throw away) the previous one?

A few of our aunts and mothers have given me and my husband boxes full of stuff like this in the last few years, like your aunt, and it's all just junk we don't want either! We ended up just getting rid of all of it, and I feel guilty people have been keeping all this stuff I don't even remember for 30 years. Either the kids will be creative and will keep making you stuff your whole life, or they won't, and the crafts they made as children will be meaningless to them.
posted by euphoria066 at 9:18 AM on January 11, 2023

Previously.
posted by spiderbeforesunset at 9:25 AM on January 11, 2023

Why put photos in a scrapbook? Digital photos in a file are just as good - and if you ever want, you can compile literally hundreds of them in a photo book using a service like Blurb. Takes up a fraction of the space on a shelf.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:31 AM on January 11, 2023

I just learned about artkive. You send in the artwork and they make a book of pictures of the artwork. Even if you don't use this service, I wonder if you could do something similarly on your own. Take pics of the artwork and have shutterfly or some such place turn it into a book.
posted by Sassyfras at 10:44 AM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Agree with getting a book printed up. And if you can't bring yourself to throw all of the originals out, then pick the ten best pieces (or one per kid per year or whatever a manageable amount is) and keep them in a space-efficient case like this. But honestly, unless it makes you smile, don't keep the actual stuff.
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:59 AM on January 11, 2023

If it suits you and your style, you could frame one or two pictures or leave some 3-D on display. Maybe one favorite for each kid.

Anything you feel okay about tossing, just toss. Anything you aren’t ready to toss can go into a box.
posted by bunderful at 1:00 PM on January 11, 2023