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Summer break is almost here - my 3 kids have only 9 days left of school, and many schools are already out for summer! That means it's time for our kids' backpacks to come home stuffed with artwork and schoolwork from the entire school year…
I’ve been a mom for over 11 years, and have 3 kids, and the amount of completed work the kids bring home at the end of the school year can be overwhelming… and figuring out what to do with all that stuff is a lot of work! This organizing task is also emotionally draining - marking the end of a school year is both exciting and sad because while it’s fun to experience our kids maturing, it’s also bittersweet to see how much they’ve grown and how fast time is passing…
So, knowing that these backpacks and bags filled with schoolwork is something we’re all facing (or about to be faced with) I thought that as your Type A Mom friend now would be a good time to share some options for how to store/file away/display kid artwork and schoolwork.
I hope this list of options helps you efficiently figure out what will work best for your family, and therefore gives you space to process the emotions of the end of the year❤️
First, you need to decide when to tackle organizing the items. Personally, I like to organize the school year items in the week or two following the end of the year - while it’s all still fresh in my mind. That way I can easily remember what projects were important to my kids, I can process the end of that school year and focus on summer break with my kids, and I can also clear that school clutter before summer clutter takes over🤪
Second, you need to think about what you want out of organizing the items. This is very personal to you and your family. Things to consider are:
- How often you want to access the artwork and schoolwork - do you want to see them often and therefore have easy access to them, or is this organizing being done so the items can be stored as keepsakes?
- How much space do you want to dedicate to these items?
- In what area of your home will you be storing these items - for example, do you need the items to be in utilitarian stackable/waterproof containers so they can be in the garage or attic, or do you want them in pretty containers so they can be a bookshelf in the living room?
After you’ve considered those points, and whatever else is important to you and your family regarding keepsakes and the space you have, check out the following ideas for what could work best for your storage goals!
File Box for Storage - Premade
A file box to store items is a great option for long term storage. A premade file box is the easiest way to make this - they usually come with a custom name decal on the front of the box, files labeled by grade, and milestone sheets to fill out with memories from that year (click here for a “legal size” file option).
File Box for Storage - DIY
A make your own option for the file storage box requires a few items (that can all be easily personalized to your needs!):
- A file box (click here for a portable waterproof option and click here for a stackable waterproof option)
- Hanging files (click here)
- Personalize the files however you need to for your kids
- click here for a file box storage making kit that has options for labels, milestone cards, and name decals for the front of the file box
- click here to print different milestone cards to fill out for each year
File Box for Easy Access
An idea for storing a lot of kid artwork and schoolwork in an easy to access format is a nice cloth covered file box. You can personalize the files however you’d like (try these milestone cards to summarize the memories of the year), and then either store in on a shelf or in a cabinet in your home since if it’s a cloth covered file box it will be nice to display!
Upright File Box for Bookshelf
If you’d like to keep the actual artwork and schoolwork documents for the kids and you to look at when you’d like to see them (as opposed to uploading them and working with it digitally), then this file box is a good option. It’s nice to look at and easy to grab and show it to your kids when they want to see it!
Art Portfolio
Some artwork is huge! Figuring out how to store those items long term can be a challenge. This portfolio is great because it fully seals and is waterproof - plus it’s easy to carry and stack/slide between other items to store.
Book of Artwork - Done for You
A book filled with the images of your kids’ artwork is a great way to enjoy their work whenever you or they would like to see it. This company will save you so much time and effort by doing it all for you - they send you an empty box (and a bag to keep items safe inside) which you fill up with your kids' artwork and send back. Then they scan it all and make the book for you (plus you get access to the digital images of the artwork)!
Book of Artwork - DIY
Another option for having access to your kids’ artwork all the time in an easy to view format is for you to take pictures of your kids’ artwork and then upload those pictures to make the book yourself.
Framed Mosaic of their Artwork
You can also have your kids’ artwork be scanned and then made into a mosaic in a large frame to hang on your wall. This is a great way to be able to see all that they’ve done in one place but not have it take over and entire wall (or walls!) of your home!
Frame their Most Recent Artwork
Another idea is to store their most recent artwork on your walls. You can hang these changeable frames and as they bring home new artwork you can easily switch out what was previously in the frame for their new art!
School Pictures
School pictures are such a sweet reminder of your kid’s school year. You can store them in an album with a page for each school year, or you can choose a wall in your house that will be the school picture wall and you can frame each year and hang it up and add to it every year!
Yearbooks
Yearbooks are so fun to look at! My kids look at theirs all the time - they love having access to them, and I often see them looking at different grades just kind of reliving that time in their lives. I have a shelf set aside for yearbooks and that works great for us because the kids can look through them as often as they want.
Textbooks
When kids get older, they also bring home their textbooks and workbooks. What to do with these books is a real personal choice, and one that I usually make with my kids. I do keep the morning writing prompt journals (these are usually from their younger years) and then I go through the other books with them to see what they think. Most of the time they want to keep them! I have a couple of shelves for old textbooks and I do see my kids look at them once in a while.
I hope that these ideas for what to do with your kids’ schoolwork are helpful as you wrap up this school year. Please know that I know how emotionally taxing this time of year is, and especially how emotional the work of sorting through all that was completed this year is. The passage of time carries many feelings at the same time, and though that’s a constant in parenting, it is no less exhausting each time you experience it. I just want you to know that I see you as you do this work, which is much deeper than simply sorting and storing artwork for the future🩷
❤️, Amanda, your Type A Mom friend
(Some of the above links are affiliate links which means I earn a small commission (at no cost to you) if you click and then purchase. Thank you for supporting my work!)
