What To Keep?

I am collecting my 6 year old son's all drawings and coloring books, school notes, records and everything from his preschool onwards (for about 3 years). We (myself and wife) do not through away any of his materials. Actually if we show some of his past records, he interestingly go through and get excitement of past days. We normally keep everything in a safe place. He himself interested in keeping all of his things.

You know what i did, i made a scrapbook to give them when they moved out. They can show their kids when they have them of what they did when they were young. Or you could just do a scrapbook for them all and keep them in the living room for someday when grandkids come to see you. Another idea is ask your kids if they want any of the things they did. Lots of things you can do with it. Hope that helps you.

I know exactly what you are talking about! What I do is keep things for at least a year, then when the kids are at school I take things that I think aren't as important. Things like pictures they drew for my birthday or other special days I keep and things that they talked about for awhile after. I keep everything sorted so that I know what to keep and what to throw out. I have to admit though that I hate throwing out things they drew, but I know that you can't keep everything. I always make sure the kids are at school or at their nannie's house before I throw anything out, that way they don't know.

What to keep, in this instance first what if any of it means something to you? With four kids no doubt it can take up a lot of space, I had kept a tote container of the work from niece when I was raising her, I finally had to sort it out, I tried to keep one or two special things from each year ie report card, or special picture or project, or like for me what was kept was a spelling test that was particularlly tough one and yet I passed it. Now when I think of one of the words from that list, it brings back a lot of memmories of the time mom and I spent together trying to drill it in my head, of how once in a while we even laughed over it as years went by. So pick one or two even 4 or 5 things that are special for each year, that might have good memories to it, or strong memories. As for throwing things out with out the kids knowing, easy. Do it slowly over time so they don't catch you, do that when the kids are not around or in bed, then the night before pick up make sure it is in a trash bag, can / bin like you usually use, put it out after kids go to bed for the morning pick up odds are they won't notice it at all.

I keep the best ones. At the moment they are sitting in a cupboard - I plan on getting something to put them in. I throw some things out when the kids are at school, that way they don't know. Though they are now old enough to understand that I can't keep everything. Of course, I keep things made for special occasions (mothers day, birthday, etc). A good way to keep a record of what they have done is to hang them all on a wall & take a photo of them. Or take photos of individual pieces. Have some favourite pics laminated & use them as place mats. Make place mats like this for family members as gifts. Use some paintings as wrapping paper for gifts.