I have a question for you parents. Do you save any of your child's school work?

Oh I am so ashamed to say this but “Yes”’. We still have them and my “kids” are ~ 30. If we put a date on something we ended up keeping it so we eventually learned to only write a date on something “good.” Fortunately we have a lot of room in the basement so it is not a problem.

Yes, I saved my children’s school work, art work, decorations off their birthday cakes, awards they won, greeting cards, report cards, some articles of clothing, some toys. As far as how I decided what to keep – I just saved the things that I thought were of particular interest. I have a plastic storage tub for each of them. The tubs are only about 10×20 inches, and my kids are all grown, so you can get an idea of how much I saved. The kids still love going through and looking at their stuff. @Luckyguy My kids are in their 30’s, too. Ha-ha.

Yes, I have saved their school work. I have saved entirely too much of their school work. I saved everything from pre-school and almost everything from early elementary school. As they have gotten older (8th, 7th, and 5th grades) I am saving less and less – mostly because I am running out of space! I have no fewer than seven bins in the basement filled with school work. I can’t see holding on to this stuff forever and there is no doubt they aren’t going to want it all when they move out. So in the end most of it will probably be tossed out. Of course it will break my heart to do that, so I guess I probably should have saved a lot less.

We have a big plastic tub for each of the kids, and save only the ‘important’ or ‘really, really good’ stuff now. In the beginning, we saved way too much of it. We had to condition ourselves to be less sentimental about it. None of their bins is completely full, and they are all in high school or college now, so we did manage to cut back!

I have lots of stuff my kids made/wrote. I especially like things like the stories and journals they kept at school. My middle child made me a pottery teapot. I’m no weakling but I can barely lift the thing and she never painted it. It has become a bit of a family joke in that every time I suggest removing it to the bin, she gives me a guilt trip. I should take a photo and share it. All reasonable offers considered.

We used to tape things like that on the refrigerator door. When the tape gave out and the the picture fell on the floor, it was time to throw it out. I kept all the handmade greeting cards. Still have them. I have things they made, but they have the same first initial, so with C. Smith on the bottom, I still don’t know which one of them made it. They don’t remember either.

I’m not a parent, but my Mom did save artistic things from my school years. Also saved report cards, awards, etc. It’s definitely not everything I ever did, but I guess she kept ones she thought were special or more meaningful. For example, there are a good number of Father’s and Mother’s Day cards. I just inherited my “box-o-goodies” and it was fun to look through. I weeded some things out that were falling apart, but I kept a lot.

Yes. Every few years I go through it with my daughter and enjoy reflecting on it.
Some things do get filtered out during those go-throughs.
I am a sentimental slob in this department.

ps. I am thankful that my parents saved some of mine, especially the Report Cards.

Thank you everyone for your great ideas and thoughts. It has been a great help. I just need to weed out their stuff. I probably have way too much. @Sunny2 I also hang things on the refrigerator until it gets too cluttered and then we clean off the old art and put up new artwork. Thank you @blueiiznh for your idea of going through the school things with your daughter. I like that idea because the child can also choose what they want to remember.

I have a friend who scans or photographs everything onto her computer and throws away all the originals except for the very best stuff (good luck choosing!).

That is an excellent idea @jaytkay.

Some yeah, there’d be no house room left if we kept all of their stuff.
I like the artwork from when they first started school, particularly mothers/fathers day cards, so cute.

That’s one thing I am having a hard time eliminating is cards. I just love all of them. @jaytkay I like your idea of scanning or taking photographs and putting them on a computer.

I don’t really save any of my son’s school work. If he makes something special, we’ll save it, but otherwise, it doesn’t get saved. When he was younger, I use to save a lot of his artwork, but over the years, most of that has been thrown out. My parents didn’t save our actual school work either, just the special stuff (like ornaments we made).

Cards are a completely different item. I have those in a container specifically of only cards.
I usually keep all the ones of meaning, from meaningful people.
I am a tactile person, so I don’t think scanning would work for me. There is something to me about holding that same card they did and it being the original.

I have started to weed out the school papers vs. the artwork. I am saving a little bit of the school papers/homework. Some are really cute with stories. I enjoy seeing how the handwriting and cursive looks too. As for the artwork, I thought about the scanning but I don’t think that will work for me. I agree with you @blueiiznh, I like to have the visual the real thing in my hands. I’m now dealing with cards and geez there’s tons and tons! I can’t weed these out for nothing! I am a sentimental person and each one has a special meaning. I’ll have to start a separate box for those. I have my own personal box of cards that have sentimental value that I’ve had for yrs from family and friends. Thanks for all the suggestions.

You could keep the cards in a lovely tin. I have a big chest like tin with things like that in. Not just kids things, but letters from people I love and the like.

Scan the paintings and things like that or extracts from pieces of writing you loved? You could use those as a screensaver on the home computer.

I like the idea of the screensaver or maybe even a wallpaper for the computer! Good thinking @Bellatrix! I have an pretty Victoria Secret’s perfume box that I am currently using for my special cards. But a tin would be nice too.

Yes. School work, artwork, grades, etc! I had to start tossing some of it, I had so much!! Then I felt horrible afterwards!

I keep:
-homework that has 100% and teachers positive feedback
-personal doodles or notes
-personal writings and drawings
-artwork
-assignment reports (grades)

Everything gets named and dated in the lower right-hand corner. I’m just anal that way : )

@Ela that is awesome. You could work in medical billing