I am s-l-o-w-l-y making progress in my office. Talk about a mess! So much to organize. I’ll share progress pics at some point. Today I tackled my kids’ art work. I have shared ways I organize their school work that I want to save for their albums. To be honest, I try not to save a lot! They come home with SO much. I am very selective and only save a handful of things from each school year that really shows their progress and personality. But sometimes they come home with larger projects, reports, or art that they have worked so hard on that I really want to keep.
That is where these bins have come in handy.
Simple bins from Target that are a great size for larger school work.
Each of my kids’ have one and they are perfect for holding larger keepsakes.
Plus they slide right under their beds.
Here is something else each box holds…
I was barely sane enough while my girls were younger to keep a simple journal of their quotes. Funny or sweet things they said when they were little that made me smile. These books are such a treasure! The stuff I wrote isn’t even that funny, but it reminds me of how they used to talk and the amusing things that would come out of their little mouths. Like how yesterday I had my hair up in a bun (not normal for me) and Kole saw me and said “Oh! Mommy! Why do you want to look like a different mommy today!?” Or the time Addison saw a picture of Kenny in front of the Colosseum in Rome on our Italy trip and said “there’s my daddy at his office!” :) Kids are 24/7 entertainment, aren’t they?
You know what was fun today? Showing my girls the stuff I’ve saved in their bins. They had a blast looking through them and giggling at their quote books and how their handwriting looked on school projects, etc.
They also LOVE going through
their Project Life Albums and it made me think
(scary – I know :) about how I save things for them and create albums for them with their future in mind – thinking how fun it will be when they’re my age looking back. But the joy these things bring them has shown me that it’s just as important for them to see albums and past work now – while they’re growing up. I need to involve them more in the memory keeping. More thoughts on that at some point in the future. :)
For now I’m off to bed with fingers crossed I can get Frozen’s “Let It Go” out of my head. It’s a Frozen frenzy! I put this on
Facebook yesterday afternoon and it sounded like many of you were doing the same thing!
Just received word that daddy is coming home at 6:00 tonight (unheard of!) so that we can have a movie party and watch Frozen. Oh the squeals that rang through our house! We’ll see if Kole’s excitement lasts when he is listening to “Let it Go” for the 10,584th time. :)
If you’re in my boat with kids who were counting down to the release date, I hope you all enjoyed the movie as well.
:)
xoxo, Erin
Thank you for this post, it’s brill:) I love it when you do articles on memory keeping, you always motivate me.
I like the containers/bins. It’s strange when you write bins as bins here are things that rubbish (garbage) gets put into & thrown away.
I think it’s so important to keep memory items. Do you also keep greeting cards?
Do you keep talks that your children give in primary? I always keep the programme from the sacrament presentation & also a cd of songs that we learnt that year. (I haven’t got any children, so I include these items for myself)
Please do some more items on memory keeping, I always enjoy them & I’m sure others do too:)
I have these same boxes for each of my kids! They work great for us! I do have some quotes from them on the computer, but love the idea of having them in a little book instead-definitely going to get that switched over!
-Emily
I keep the girls stuff in bins too ~ I think they are actually scrapbook cases but they work very well. I have one for every school year. Now I need to get on it with the scrapbooks!
I love your organization! –Hanna Lei
Oh yes. We had a Frozen movie viewing party at our house last night, too. I think every household in America with a little girl was doing the same!
I use those same bins!
I think we need to check out Frozen. Especially after hearing one of the songs from a facebook link to a couple lip synching it- think my kids would love it.
My kids (ages 4 and 2) love picking stuff “for their scrapbook” and now will say “mommy, take a picture for ours and baby’s scrapbooks”. Ha ha. Drives my husband crazy ;)
I recently started a smash journal, actually on my second one about to go to the third. Maybe a smash journal or wreck journal is something your girls would enjoy doing.
Love reading your blog!
The sisters in Frozen immediately reminded me of your girls. (When the Frozen sisters were friends, of course:)
Yes-my daughter saved her allowance money to buy Frozen on Tuesday! She kept saying “I just can’t believe I earned this!” hahaha
This is actually a great idea to keep children’s works safely and without messing them here and there.
Do you use one bin for each grade level, or one bin and put all grade levels in it(Do you divide some way inside to account for each different grade?)
Hi Lisa! I just use these big bins for my kids’ large art work. I do something different with their smaller papers (yes.. divided by grade and activity). I’m organizing their art work now and will hopefully share it on the blog sometime soon! xo