Get Sentimental this Summertime and use these tips for sorting school work and kids memorabilia.
Summer is perfect for getting a handle on all those sentimental school objects, papers and artwork you and your kids are keeping. Maybe you have a designated spot and you just dump things in one place throughout the year? Before you sit down to sort through the sentimental savings, it helps to understand how sentimental you are. Do you want to keep everything, are you totally detached or somewhere in between?
Having an awareness of what we learned from our upbringing will be a great guide to your decision making process moving forward!
Think back to your childhood and how your parents treated your memorabilia. Sometimes how our family “taught” us is how we respond and other times we want to do the direct opposite. Did you parents keep everything and then dump it in your hands after college or when you moved out? Or did they dump it in the trash? What did you do with your sentimental treasures from childhood? Do you still have those things? When is the last time you looked through your memory albums, boxes etc. Beware that what you do today will impact your kids behavior tomorrow and they may already have a strong opinion about what they want to keep or toss (which might differ from your’s).
Once you have a good idea of what you want to keep and why, you can create a system for sorting school work and storing your children’s memories.
Kids Desk Before
Kids Desk After
Assign yourself a number between 1-5 based on the following guidelines
1-Toss it in the trash, the past is the past
2-Only the best, toss the rest
3-I want to keep a nice representation of each stage to help recall memories
4-There’s a lot I want to keep but I get that I can’t keep it all
5-I want to keep it all, it’s a part of life that’s worth remembering and revising
Once you know where you fall on the Sentimental Spectrum you can ask yourself some practical questions.
- What do I have room to keep?
- How/where will I store what I keep-then designate a place.
- Am I willing to let go of everything but the “Best”?
- Can I keep some things on display for awhile then let them go? Where and how will they be displayed?
- Will my kids really want this?
- Is this something our family can use again (baby clothes/toys if your still in the process of raising kids)?
- Is this something we have outgrown that someone else could really use?
- Is there a special way I can commemorate this memory/hobby/event such as a scrapbook/digital book, tee shirt quilt, framed display etc?
Display of Kids Awards
Let these questions become a guide for you as you go through your kids school stuff from the past year (or longer if you’ve been putting it off). You may want to do a quick sort through what you have kept throughout the year on your own and then get older kids involved, especially if you know they are sentimental or older and can do this on their own. You may be able to snap photo’s and just keep digital records of some things.
If you know they (or you) want to keep almost everything then decide if there are some things you can really honor by creating special displays or photo’s of them. Maybe it’s a kids art wall, maybe a photo book of activities through the year or awards display area on a wall in their room. Spending time recognizing your kids accomplishments in the past year can be a super fun way to honor them rather than just let the “stuff” pile up in the corner or closet. Take this time to really treat your kids as the special individuals they are.
Your kids will remember the time you spent together recognizing what they did more than any box of stuff you “save” to give them later.
Do you have a school year ending “ritual” with your kids? Now is the perfect time to start! Need help? Email me, I’d be thrilled to help you put a plan in place for your kids sentimental and childhood legacy.