It seems like every day each of my boys brings home a larger mountain of artwork than the day before. Watercolors, fingerpaints, paper plate pumpkins, glass bead bracelets, egg carton sculptures. I love all of it but don’t want my house to turn into an episode of “Hoarders.” So, the question remains – what to do with all of the artwork?
Option 1: Display it.
While we do frame very special pieces (like one my son painted with his artist grandfather), some artwork that comes home is on unpredictable sized paper, transparency film, or it’s three-dimensional. So, what to do with this? You could spend countless hours and too much money constantly updating frames in your house or let your appliances become overloaded so much that you can’t open the freezer anymore. (Not that I’ve ever been there….) One solution is innovative storage frames that are easy to open and update – similar to this one on Amazon. You can not only change the display often, but store up to 50 works in one case.
…OR for less than $30 you could set up a display like I did in my 4 1/2 year old’s room (photo at left). Using the DIGNITET curtain wire sets from IKEA (link) and RIKTIG curtain hooks, we now have two hearty (and pretty neat looking!) lines to display 3-D artwork (like the mancala pieces glued to the shrinky dink paper) or extra large pages (the 24×36 painting) with flexibility. (Note: the set does not include screws. You will also need wire cutters and a screwdriver/drill). This way my son can change or reorganize the pieces often and he can see the wide variety of works he is proud of. You can also check out Shannon’s DIY children’s art gallery frame.
Option 2: Archive it.
I chose to do this myself last year to save money. I had a pile (okay, fine, it was in the basement) of artwork to be photographed. Every so often I would take pictures of each item, upload it to a file on my computer and… ahem… dispose of it. Sorry. At the end of the school year, I uploaded all of the files onto Snapfish and created a nice hardcover book to join our family photo albums on our bookshelf. My son was SO excited to look through it when it arrived and he enjoys perusing through it before bedtime some evenings.
There are also amazing companies out there like PlumPrint (link), ArtKive app (link) or Artimus Art (link) that do most of the hard work for you. Some involve uploading photos while with others you actually mail art through the USPS.
How do you manage the plethora of artwork that comes home with your children?
Both are great ideas. Much better than the painters tape hung artwork all over my playroom walls!