It’s that time of year… the bags and bags of artwork coming home from school. Looking at all the beautiful creations your kiddos have made over the years, how do you know what to keep? Or, more importantly, how do you know what to trash??
When it comes to displaying, organizing, and storing kids artwork, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to keep things tidy within your home, but never discourage your child from creating art!
Some links may contain affiliates.
Organize
The best place to start when it comes to kids artwork is deciding what to keep and what to trash. Start with asking the kids what they want to keep.
I always do is to let the kiddos decide if they want to keep the artwork or if we can reuse the paper for another project. This has greatly reduced the amount of paper we have in the house. If the artist decides that they want to keep the artwork, we keep it. If they say we can use it for another project, I will let it dry on the floor near our art station, and then put the paper back into the paper drawer once it has dried.
I love this idea because it is encouraging the kids to decide if this piece of artwork is worth saving, reusing paper by not being wasteful, and promoting independence. It was a tough thing to teach in the beginning, because they wanted to save everything, but once they saw their artwork displayed, they only wanted their best pieces to hang.
Display
Clipboard Wall
Clipboard walls are an easy way to display and store artwork. It is really helpful to have a drying/display area super close to where you paint and color.
Once a project is finished, the kids decide if they want to keep the artwork or reuse the paper. If the kids decide to keep the artwork, hang it up to dry on one of the clipboards. Some of the clipboards have many pieces of artwork underneath them because you can keep hanging pieces over the older ones. The kids love to look at their old artwork on the clipboards as well.
The only down side to this, is that sometimes the paint drips to the floor or the papers will all fall off of the clipboard if we are trying to put a new piece of artwork on that particular clipboard.
Display With Clothespins
Another way to display artwork is by using a string or ribbon attached to a wall, and clipping up the children’s artwork with clothespins. I have done this by using either nails or Command 3M hooks to hold a long piece of ribbon and lots and lots of clothespins. You can have so many clothespins on one piece of ribbon, that every single creation your child makes can easily be displayed. It can be a perfect solution to the artwork problem!
You can also purchase wall hangers from Ikea or find one similar to this on Amazon!
Fridge Decoration
Another easy way to display your child’s artwork is to showcase it on the fridge. The problem with using a magnet to hang on the fridge is that things start to look cluttered and messy. There are many ways you can organize artwork on the fridge in an easy way. I have suggested to clients to try StoreSMART Fridge Art Magnetic Frames, or magnetic picture frames to store their children’s artwork. It keeps your fridge looking organized, while displaying artwork created by your child.
Frame It
These Kid Artwork Frames are another amazing alternative to a clipboard wall or clothespins and ribbon. You can stack your child’s artwork over the next, just as you would with the clipboard wall, but you can easy keep the artwork framed because the frame itself opens and closes without having to be taken off the wall every time you want to swap out a piece of artwork.
Store
Bins
All those random pictures you just can’t part with and want to save can get stored in a giant bin. My favorite bins are the clear bins you can find at Costco or Home Depot. Another great option is to get the file folder plastic bins to hang file folders from to store the artwork. You can create an art bin for each child and have them store their artwork in the bin. They can sort their artwork based on month, year, or type of artwork (painting, drawing, etc.). This is an easy alternative to showcasing every piece of artwork your child creates!
Art Kive
I randomly found this app called Art Kive when I was searching for art storage ideas for a client. I absolutely fell in love with the entire concept of this app. You take a picture of the artwork. The app collects all the pictures, then you can buy books or other items based on your child’s artwork!! (I have no affiliation with this app, I just really love it and am currently using it with my kiddos!)
Photos
Another idea for storing kids artwork is to just snap a picture of the artwork and save it to a file in your library. You can easily create a book or print pictures of the artwork to share! I have found that the best way to photograph kids’ artwork is to use a piece of white foam board as the background. I lay the foam board near a window or open door. I stand directly over the foam board and the artwork to get the full picture.
I think I have covered practically every option for organizing, displaying, and storing kids artwork! Do you do something that I missed?? Share in the comments, because I am always looking for new ways to store, organize, and display art!!
Comments are closed.