What do we do with all of the stuff?

Simple ways to hold on and preserve fleeting moments using our systems for saving & storing artwork during the school year.

Shannon’s system

Around this time of year, I start to feel the spring cleaning itch while simultaneously standing paralyzed in disbelief that another school year is quickly winding its way down. When my 2nd child entered Kindergarten, the old adage about the days being long and the years short no longer felt true. Now the days feel short and the years feel like they are passing at absolute warp speed. Rituals and routines seem to fall into and out of place rapidly, and my kids are growing up, still very much needing me but also wrapped up in their own worlds. It is probably no surprise at all that art and artifacts of their learning, imagination, interests, and ideas are how I make sense of their childhood.

Let me be completely truthful here in this public journal. I am not an organized person. I am always the first mom to text the group with “Wait, what were we supposed to bring for that school celebration? We were supposed to send the form yesterday?! What color jersey for the soccer game?” And I am 100% guilty of letting the contents of backpacks on the last day linger a bit too long into the summer. But I have cultivated one practice that helps me savor my children’s creativity and also save what I think they might want to remember without unloading bin after bin upon them when they eventually leave home.