Archive for ‘Paper Organizing’ Category

What to Do With Print Photos You Do — and Don’t — Want

Posted on: July 15th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 12 Comments

Let’s talk about photos.

No, not the 4th of July selfies where you look gloriously happy. I’m not even talking about digital photos at all, but prints.

If you’ve only ever taken photos with a phone, did you know that’s only been possible since 1999? Babies born the week the iPhone was invented are about to be seniors in high school. And before then, there were digital cameras, but really only since the 1990s.

For most of photographic history, photos were printed on paper. (And yes, if you’ve got a headache thinking that I even need to explain this, I feel your pain, fellow oldster.) This means that many of our houses are filled with envelopes and boxes and albums of print photos, some of which aren’t very good.

DIGITAL VS. ANALOG PHOTOS: WHY IT’S HARD TO DISCARD ONE AND NOT THE OTHER

You may be wondering what the big deal is. If you’ve only (or mainly) got digital photos, you’re probably happy to let them sit there on your phone or in cloud backup. Maybe you make slide shows to display on a digital photo frame or create photo books, but they probably aren’t bothering you.

People enjoy their digital photos because we’re all used to immediately deleting bad shots.  Mom is squinting into the sun or our midriffs look bulge-y? Hit that trash can icon! We’re generally comfortable with deleting items from our photo stream.

And yet, as I’ve seen time and again with friends and clients, the prospect of throwing out any print photo seems to make people wince.

We're generally comfortable with deleting items from our photo stream, but the prospect of throwing out a print photo seems to make people wince. Share on X

People second-guess themselves when faced with a photo that resembles nothing so much as 99% thumb with a blurry background.

Recently, a client and I flipped through a stack of his late father’s photos from the 1950s. They ranged from high school dance snapshots to Korean-era war era Army training. All were shot in black-and-white, and while several were fairly crisp and well-lit, many were blurry, and either washed out or too dark.

Client’s mystery photo circa 1956

This one was not only impossible to identify (boxes? filing cabinets? Is that Mr. Potato Head?). His father, who’d meticulously noted the participants in most photos, had just written, “Beats me” on the reverse.

The reverse of the mystery photo: “Beats Me”

For six decades, this print stayed in the stack, sandwiched between personally and historically relevant photos. Why do we do this?

Maybe it’s because we’re completists. We have the negatives and we worry that if we throw out the print, the numbers won’t match up, and someone, some day, will be upset by the imbalance. 

Perhaps it’s because we don’t trust our own judgment. Compared to the high quality photography we’re capable of now, old shots are pretty poor. We’ve got thirty-seven identical photos of the lilac bush in the corner of the front yard from 1978. We’re sure they’re useless. But what if we’re wrong? What if these shots are artistic? What if we discard the one that’s actually the best?

Fearing our own taste (or lack thereof) we keep bad prints, even though we wouldn’t  hesitate to prune these from our photo streams right after snapping them.

Or maybe it’s just because analog things feel more real to us than digital things? Thus, the loss of the tangible seems real, whereas the digital even doesn’t seem real in the first place, so letting go doesn’t bother us.

If I make the decision to give away a hardcover because I know I’ll never read it again, I often feel disconcerted, even though this is what I do professionally. When a borrowed library ebook automatically gets returned (unread or even only partially read), I just shrug. There’s no distress. They’re just not real to me. I suspect for some of us, it’s the same with digital photos. But prints?

HOW TO ORGANIZE THE PRINT PHOTOS YOU DO WANT: A CHEAT SHEET

Some print photos are like a warm hug.

Paper Doll and big sister, spring 1968

Handling an embarrassment of print photo riches is a labor of love. You must:

  • Separate the wheat from the chaff and eliminate what you don’t want. (See next section.)
  • Sort photos, whether chronologically or by event types (birthdays, holidays, etc.) or themes.
  • Determine how you’ll store print photos:
    • Photo Albums — Unlike the bulky flip albums of the sixties or the sticky “magnetic” albums of the 1980s, today’s experts recommend albums with acid-free, lignin-free pages to prevent photos from yellowing or deteriorating, and photo corners or sleeves to hold the print photos in place without any adhesive touching them.
    • Photo Boxes — Step up from shoe boxes and seek out acid-free, lignin-free photo boxes that store the photos vertically (and safely), with labeled dividers and indexes to keep prints organized and categorized. 
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    • Archival Storage Envelopes and Sleeves — For safe, long-term storage, select archival-quality polypropylene, polyethylene, or polyester sleeves and archival envelopes to create additional protection within the storage boxes or albums you use.
    • Don’t make the mistake of keeping negatives with prints. If you don’t have a digital backup of your favorite photos, your negatives are your backups. If your photos were damaged by humidity, heat, predation, menacing toddlers, or other dangers, wouldn’t you want the negatives somewhere safe so you could reproduce the pictures?
  • Safeguard print photos — Whichever of the above options you choose, remember to:
    • Choose climate-controlled storage — Storage print photos in a cool, dry environment, and away from potential predation by insects or “critters.” Avoid unfinished garages and basements, the place where, too many people stick their print photo collection: out of sight, out of mind, and out of luck.
    • Think about hidden sources of moisture. — What’s behind the closets or cabinets where you store your photo collections? If pipes to bathrooms, kitchens, or laundry rooms run through those walls, a burst pipe could destroy decades of family photographic history. 
  • Digitize some portion of your photo collection — Whether you decide to keep some or all of your prints, and whether you DIY or use photo organizing software, scan digital copies of the photos that mean the most to you and your family (and maintain backups via some combination of cloud storage, external hard drives, or other external media.) 
  • Display beloved photos. There isn’t enough wall space in your home to display every picture you own. You’ll have to select favorite prints. Whatever single-photo or multi-picture frames, you’ll want:
    • UV-protective glass shields your photos from direct sunlight, which would cause prints to fade
    • Acid-free matting ensures your photos are protected from the damaging effects of acid on prints. 

GET EXPERT HELP DOWNSIZING, ORGANIZING, AND STORING PHOTOS

I’m a Certified Professional Organizer®, and I sometimes work with clients to help them reduce the excess in their analog and digital photo collections, offering an unbiased, discerning eye. 

I also help facilitate digitizing their photos by matchmaking them with my excellent NAPO-Georgia colleagues Jiffy Page of Pixorium and David McDonough of Modern Image Atlanta. (Pixorium focuses on helping preserve family history through digitizing photos and creating story books, while Modern Image Atlanta keys in on digital conversion of personal and business photos and documents.) 

I’ve also helped clients set up digital photo frames. Due to my years-long background with one client’s family photos, I even recently created a 50th anniversary digital slide show spanning almost 75 years of the husband and wife’s time on earth and with one another.

However, I’m not a photo organizing specialist. If I have any sort of complicated photo-related client issue, I’ll seek the assistance of one my specialist colleagues, like:

Andi Willis of Good Life Photo Solutions

Isabelle Dervaux of Isabelle Dervaux Family Photo Curator

Laurie Neumann of The Innovative Organizer

You can find professional organizers who specialize in organizing photos through the search directory at the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) website. 

Additionally, the The Photo Managers (formerly the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO)) is a stellar source for finding professionals who can help you downsize your photo collection, organize the pictures, and best display and share them. Check out their blog.

For those inclined to organize family photos on their own, avail yourself of books like:

Photo Organizing Made Easy: Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed by Cathi Nelson (founder of The Photo Managers)

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What’s a Photo Without the Story: How to Create Your Family Legacy by Hazel Thornton (beloved friend of the blog)

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Declutter Your Photo Life: Curating, Preserving, Organizing, and Sharing Your Photos by Adam Pratt

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What if, after going through all of your photos, you still have too many “beats me” shots or “OK, but I just don’t care” photos?

WHAT TO DO WITH THE PHOTO PRINTS YOU DON’T WANT

The concept of “unwanted” photographs is complex.

After all, there’s a huge difference between a photo requiring you to squint to see whether it’s soup or a clogged drain vs. a picture of you with an abusive former partner. There’s a huge chasm between a blurry shot of the side of your neighbor’s car and a photo of unidentified party revelers.

Let’s start with what to do with print photos you don’t exposed and those you think nobody else would want.

Discard Unwanted Print Photos

I get it if that the idea freaks you out. I’m not saying to toss a good photo of Grandma into the trash along with the potato peels.

But all your blurry prints? The photos where you can’t identify a single human being, or pet, or location? A shot of the carpet you almost bought in 1972 but didn’t? The picture of your house after a blizzard that looks like every picture of every blizzard since you’ve been alive?

Where was this? Who are these people? 

Are you having trouble getting rid of “worthless” photos? Here’s a neat trick. Take the print photo and snap a digital photo of it with your phone. Now, look at the digital shot. If you’d just taken that today, or yesterday, or last week, and were clearing out your photo stream, would you be inclined to keep the digital shot?

If you wouldn’t keep the digital version, let go of the print version. (Sometimes it helps to go through the process with a less sentimental friend, or your professional organizer.)

Photos that represent nothing and are meaningful to nobody can be tossed. Yes, really.

Shred Sensitive Print Photos

This is the go-to if you have a photo you no longer want, but also wouldn’t want strangers to get their hands on it. 

I know what you’re thinking, and that does includes naughty photos. (I suspect that such photos became MUCH more common after the birth of digital photography.) But that’s not the only category you might want to shred.

Some people — and not just celebrities — would shred blurry or unsatisfactory print photos of their children to keep strangers from handling them. 

You might also come across photos where you (or a loved one) doesn’t look great. Maybe it’s weight. Maybe it’s a bad haircut. Perhaps it was during a time or heartache or recovering from a long illness (or treatment of one). It’s perfectly OK to let go of photos that make you (or someone else) feel bad. To keep an insensitive person (or, paparazzi) from “rescuing” such photos from the trash, shred them first.

Discarding and shredding covers photos you don’t want out in the world, but what about photos you just have no need or desire, but you bear no antipathy towards them?

Give The Print Photos To Someone Who Will Value Them

If you don’t want a photo, but there’s nothing inherently “wrong” with it (however you define that), give it away:

  • Send prints to the person in the shots — How delighted someone might be to know you came across a fun photo of them from years ago and wanted to share it! Turn it into a postcard or pop it into an envelope.
  • Share the photo(s) with the family archivist — Does someone in your family serve this role officially? Perhaps you’ve got a distant cousin who would be charmed by shots of other cousins or great-greats? Just because they don’t excite you, future relatives might someday be pleased to have these photos in the family.
  • Stick them on the company bulletin board  — Chances are good that your current or former workplace has an unofficial historian. Even if you barely remember who the people in the print photos may be  — maybe you were a summer intern thirty years ago? — someone at ACME might be thrilled to include shots in a company newsletter, history wall, or annual report. (Know anyone who has worked at the National Institutes of Health? Their NIH Stetten Museum is collecting photo donations!)

Donate Your Print Photos for Posterity

You might be wondering — if you don’t want a photo, why would anyone else?

The answer is, a lot of people, organizations, and projects. The key is the content of photos. 

Years ago, I helped an author organize her book research. One day, we took a “field trip” to look at some items that she’d dug out of storage. We found an envelope filled with photos from the 1940s. The author’s father had fought in WWII and took photos of the liberation of concentration camps. After some discussion, we called a nearby Jewish Cultural Center and set up and appointment for her to meet with the director. Eventually, she donated the photos, which they used in a Holocaust memorial exhibit and then forwarded them to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

In another example, a client had photos, programs, and dance cards from mid-20th-century dances at an all-Black high school. The school no longer exists, but someone pointed us toward the high school sorority that sponsored the dance. The nearest local chapter appreciated the offer of photos, but lacked the space or personnel to handle them. However, they referred us to the national headquarters where the items were archived and displayed.

Photo contents will dictate possibilities. Talk with friends (or a professional organizer) to get ideas as to who may benefit from — and be delighted by — photos in your possession. Here are a handful of ideas, and I welcome you adding more in the comments section:

Libraries

Many library systems have local history or genealogy sections and welcome donations of old photographs, especially if they are geographically relevant. 

Museums and Local Historical Societies

Local, regional, and national museums might be interested in photographs that depict historical events, places, or notable figures. Your local historical society (or one local to where a photo was taken) might be thrilled to preserve local history through your your prints.

Genealogical Societies

These organizations often accept photographs that could be useful to others researching family histories. The Society of American Archivists has an article, Donating Your Personal or Family Records to a Repository, which may help spark your imagination.

Universities and Colleges

Was your grandmother one of the first women to attend a particular college after it went co-ed? Perhaps your great-uncle played on a sports team at his university. If you’ve got photos that have clearly identifiable landmarks from a particular university, particularly if it’s in good condition and from a fairly bygone era, the university’s archivist or college historian might find the pictures useful for an exhibition or collection.

The same goes for anything at a college or university related to an event or organization. Got a photo of the marching band from 1972 performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade or a theater department’s production in 1956? They may love it! When I’m long gone, perhaps the Cornell University International Living Center might enjoy access to a photo of the graduates of the class of 1989 lined up in the Flag Room.

Paper Doll and fellow Class of 1989 Cornell ILC’ers

Content need not be university-specific. If your alma mater or any other institute of higher learning has history or anthropology departments, they may accept photograph donations for research purposes.

Government Archives

Local, regional, state or national archives may be interested in photographs that have historical significance. Obviously it’s best if you have context (diaries, notes on the reverse of the print photo), but if your print looks like it shows a significant event, see if you can share it.

Military and Veteran’s Organizations, VFW Posts, and Military Museums

Starting in the late 1930s, camera equipment became much smaller and more popular. American GIs took a lot of snapshots during World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War. If you’ve got family members who were veterans, you likely have print photos.

If you have any context or clarifying information and from what military division or post they came, don’t hesitate to see if there’s interest from your local VFW post, or check the donations policiesof groups linked below:

Greek Organizations

We tend to think of Greek fraternities and sororities as being college entities, but as my client’s story above noted, there were Greek organizations in high schools from the late 1800s through the mid 1970s. Here’s Paper Mommy and sorority sisters at a dance, circa 1953.

Special Interest Groups

Groups focused on specific themes (e.g., military history, railroads, architecture, Elvis) might find your photographs valuable.  

Don’t assume only big city topics are of interest. Were your parents (or grandparents) or their siblings active in 4H Clubs or local cooperative extension services? Their photos may be perfect for an organization’s website or educational archives.

The National Wildlife Federation

Do you have photos of North American wildlife or wild places? The National Wildlife Federation is eager to accept donations of photos and photo usage rights to help raise funds for conservation.

(This probably isn’t the kind of wild life they’re seeking, but Paper Doll is an organizer and child of concrete, not a wildlife photographer.) 

Online Projects

Websites dedicated to preserving history, such as the Digital Public Library of America (DLPA) (supporting education, scholarly research, and family research) or the Library of Congress’s digital collections, might accept copies of your prints for digital purposes. They probably won’t care about your eighth birthday party unless someone (else) significant attended, but if individuals in your family photos relate to significant events (or lived through significant eras), your contribution might be valuable.

The Photo Vault is an online project with the following mission:

Our ultimate mission is to preserve photographic history around the world for future generations….It is our mission to digitize and record lost, forgotten and otherwise discarded photographs for years to come. Our efforts are focused on preserving old negatives, developing old film, digitizing photos, postcards, journals and old letters, preserving and conserving them, and creating a record of the people, places, events and activities of our human race. After all, it’s our story!

Non-profit Organizations

Non-profits focusing on preservation, history, or culture might be generally interested in your photographs; if family members volunteered for these organizations, they may want them for organizational archives. 

Authors, Bloggers, and Influencers

Do you have photos related to a favorite author or blogger’s sphere of influence? Do you follow a YouTuber or TikTok star who uses interesting photos for the backgrounds of their videos? For instance, an influencer who talks about wedding fashions might find this photo of my great-aunt’s late-1920s wedding intriguing. 

(No, Paper Mommy isn’t tossing the print; this is just an example.)

How to Donate Photos

Obviously, you’re not going to just package up these photos and drop them on the doorstep of an organization.

First, contact a representative through email or by phone to describe the contents and context of the photographs you possess.

Next, ask if they are accepting donations. If they’re at a distance, offer to digitize and send a handful of photos to help them identify what you have.

If they’re unable to use your photos, inquire as to whether their parent or sibling organizations, or some expert they know, might find the photos useful.

Donating your unwanted photos ensures they will be wanted, preserved, appreciated, and accessible for future generations.

Find New Life for Unfinished Needlework Projects and Pre-Loved Stuffed Animals

Posted on: July 8th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 12 Comments

It’s rare that Paper Doll wanders away from the productivity topics of organizing paper, information, and time management, but a few intriguing services were shared with me recently and may be just what some readers need to put a smile on their faces.

When I work with organizing clients to help them downsize or declutter, some things are always easier to let go off than others. Whether we have ample time or are restricted due to an impending move or change in life circumstances, I always try to begin with the areas of a home that have lesser sentimental attachments. It’s just easier to declutter a bathroom cabinet, linen closet, or kitchen than it is to reduce personal memorabilia, photos, or keepsakes.

Today, we’re going to look at some novel ideas for letting go of things you no longer need or can’t use as-is, but are having difficulty parting with because you feel an obligation to the item in question or the person who owned it.

LOOSE ENDS

Some people just have the knack for knitting, crocheting, and needlework projects.

For example, my grandmother (Paper Mommy‘s mother) supplied the family with an inordinate number of multicolored knit afghans (and, admittedly one set of toddler mittens with square, too-short compartments for thumb and fingers). Her sister, my great-aunt, created a sumptuous brocade coat, sewed an inspired wedding gown, and crocheted the loveliest butter-yellow sundress — all for my sister’s Barbies.

The skills, however, did not pass down to later generations. Finding Paper Mommy sewing on a loosened button, my sister squinted and inquired, “Who are you and what have you done with my real mother?!” I, myself, have never stooped to, but have considered, fixing a ripped seam with a stapler.

Of course, my family is not your family, and your mileage may vary. (In which case, could you help me with this hem?)

Public Domain, Library of Congress, circa 1944

When You Are At Loose Ends with Unfinished Knitting/Needlework Projects

Have you ever gone through the closets or drawers of a loved one who has passed away to find that they’ve left behind a number of unfinished needlework projects? So many of my clients have found that their spouses or parents or grandparents have left half-finished sweaters or blankets. These left-behind pieces of handiwork reside in a no-man’s land, neither finished projects nor purely raw materials.  

Or, have you known people who have derived great satisfaction from their needlework projects but are no longer able to complete them due to serious illness or disability? I have clients, for example, who suffer from conditions ranging from macular degeneration to debilitating arthritis to Parkinson’s, and they have had to relinquish their needlework hobbies.

It can be demoralizing for them to have these unfinished projects mocking them, so they may stuff them away in cabinets or closets. Meanwhile, it’s heartbreaking to give up on the idea of them being transformed into enjoyable pieces.

If you’re an accomplished knitter, and the yarn selection appeals to you, and you have the time and energy, you might take up the project yourself and finish it. But if one or more of those circumstances doesn’t apply?

Yes, you could donate the unfinished piece, as is, and leave it for the universe to match the project to the right person, but what if you could help the universe along?

 

 

Enter Loose Ends, a free service for getting your loved one’s needlework projects completed.

The founders, Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan are avid knitters who found that they both had the experience of friends asking them to complete needlework projects originally begun by loved ones who had passed away. They were enthusiastic to do so, but recognizing the joy of wearing or using something a loved one created, they realized that there was an opportunity to create and share more joy.

In doing so, they built an organization that turns the clutter of unfinished projects into beautiful collaborations involving those who started the projects, the loved ones who see a chance for completing them, and volunteers who bring the projects to fruition.

Loose Ends turns the clutter of unfinished projects into beautiful collaborations involving those who started the projects, the loved ones who see a chance for completing them, and volunteers who bring the projects to fruition. Share on X

Simonic and Kaplan see themselves and Loose Ends, now a 501(c)3 nonprofit (as of May 2023), as matchmakers. Their website notes that, “In knitting patterns, this is noted as K2Tog (knitting two together).” Not being a knitter, I’ll take their word for it.

How Loose Ends Works

Imagine you’ve gone through Grandma’s craft room, identifying all the unfinished sweaters or doilies or baby blankets. You can submit these unfinished projects to Loose Ends and Simonic and Kaplan’s team will survey the Loose Ends database of “finishers” to find a likely match based on geography, skill level, and the ineffable “druthers,” of what volunteers’ profiles show as their interests.

Loose Ends then contacts the finishers to see if the project is a good match, and if so they introduce the finisher and project owner by email.

Then, like any good yenta (matchmaker), Loose Ends leaves the project owner and finisher to develop the project-completion relationship in their own time and manner. (Of course, if it’s necessary, the Loose Ends team is available for troubleshooting problems, offering advice, or reassigning the project to a different finisher, if circumstances proves necessary.)

It usually takes up to a few weeks to find a finisher for a project, and then more time for the finishers to receive the project from the sender. As I discussed in Paper Doll On Understanding and Conquering Procrastination, it takes activation energy to get the ball rolling.

I imagine how much activation energy it must take just for someone to reach out for help; it might take quite a bit for the project owner to move to the next step of communicating with a finisher and even more to finally ship the project.

Finishers, whether they are knitters, crocheters, quilters, or other types of textile crafters, sign up online; similarly, project owners submit their projects online. 

What Projects Will Loose Ends Accept?

Loose Ends has a detailed FAQ section, but you may be wondering who actually qualifies to have their projects finished by Loose Ends volunteers. The criteria related to who started the project and the material and projects involved: 

  1. The original crafter must be deceased or unable to do handwork due to illness or disability. (In other words, this isn’t a service for people just looking to get free needlework done! These volunteers are lovingly completing projects started by those who are unable to do so.)
  2. The project must be partially begun. (So, no sending in Grandma’s unopened needlepoint kits.)
  3. The project and its materials must be free of moths and moth eggs. Similarly, they will not accept any contaminated yarn or rotting materials. (You would think that this would go without saying, but during my time as a professional organizer, I’ve seen people try to “donate” things that are dirty or otherwise, for want of a better term, yucky. You wouldn’t want someone sending something yucky to your home; right?)
  4. The project must be clean and not smell of mothballs or mold. If the project has been in a home with cigarette smoke, Loose Ends will try to match the project to a volunteer finisher whois not bothered by the scent of cigarettes.
  5. The project owner must want the project back — to keep! (I don’t imagine this means you can’t give the blanket to your kids.)

Submitted projects don’t have to involve knitting. Loose Ends notes that the projects can involve “any textile handwork… knit, crochet, sewing, quilting, mending, rug-making, Tunisian crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, needlepoint, weaving, etc.”

I didn’t even know what Tunisian crochet was, but apparently it’s not quite as exotic as you might think, and involves the stitching used to make afghans.

Logistics and Costs

Understandably, the more specialized the craft, the more time it may take to match the project to the finisher, and if the project and its finisher are far apart geographically, shipping in both directions will increase the time.

Speaking of geography, finishers and project owners need not be in the United States. Work can come from or be finished anywhere in the world! As of six months ago, Loose Ends had 19,000 finishers in 64 countries!

Public Domain Photo Circa 1914-1918

Library of Congress CALL NUMBER: POS – WWI – US, no. 118 (C size) [P&P]

Finishers complete projects at no cost, but (understandably) any shipping costs in both directions get covered by the project owner. Loose Ends works to minimize costs by matching individuals in nearby geographic areas whenever possible.

Impressively, the site notes that if a project requires acquisition of extra materials, JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores (Loose Ends’ partner) will supply anything available at their stores at no cost. (Editor’s Note: JOANN has recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, so it’s not clear if this will have an impact on their future support.) However, if a project requires the purchase of supplies elsewhere, that’s the project owner’s responsibility. 

Sundries, Notions, and Benefits

What if you (or your loved one) had no projects to finish, but oodles of fabrics, yarn, or craft supplies? Loose Ends can’t accept those materials, but they’ve amassed a huge state-by-state and country-by-country list of organizations that can give new life to these supplies. Go to their donations page and scroll down.

Speaking of donations, if you’d like to donate financially to Loose Ends’s efforts, you can do so through Zeffy, a Canadian donation processing company for nonprofits that does not charge fees.

Paper Doll may not be into crafting, but I find Loose Ends to be a lovely project with benefits for all.

Are you an inveterate knitter whose family and friends just don’t want or need one more sweater, lap blanket or tea cozy? If you just can’t give up the clickety-clacking of your needles, this gives you a fun project to work on without fear of adding fuzzy clutter to your space or the spaces of those you love. (I’m sorry, but some of us just don’t need any more yarn things!)

Meanwhile, those who’ve lost someone one can get one final gift of connection, completed lovingly by a crafter who shares their loved one’s passion for handiwork.

The finished project becomes a legacy instead of a piece of clutter.

For a more in-depth discussion of Loose Ends, co-founder Jen Simonic just appeared on the most recent episode of the video podcast Fiberchats, hosted by Irina Shaar.

LOVED BEFORE

My fabulous colleague Janice Simon, better known as The Clutter Princess, knows I’m a sucker for nifty projects like Loose Ends and recently sent me a TikTok about another sweet service, this one saving the environment while reducing household stuffed animal clutter. 

If you’ve got stuffies that your children have outgrown (or which were given to you by boyfriends later found to be poopyheads) then you know how difficult it can be to move them onward.

We professional organizers usually consider donation first whenever helping clients let go of excess possessions. Stuffed animals and other such toys can be donated to standard charities like Goodwill, hospitals, shelters for unhoused individuals and families, domestic violence shelters, daycare centers, social services agencies, and organizations like Stuffed Animals for Emergencies (SAFE), which give them to the police departments to share with children who’ve experienced a trauma.

The problem? These donations generally need to be brand-new, or at least very gently used, toys. Typically, well-loved stuffed toys generally can’t be donated for hygiene reasons.

The alternative to donation, especially for once-loved but beaten-up fuzzy friends, is the landfill, and nobody wants that.

And, of course, if you believe that your stuffed friends won’t find loving owners through donation, and you can’t bear the thought of them ending up on the junk heap, how will you ever bear letting them go at all? It’s no wonder that so many people have houses filled with ignored, dust-gathering stuffed animals!

Loved Before, a London, UK-based organization, has found an alternative for giving new life to old “soft toys” (what we call stuffed animals). Their mission is to:

make a difference by recycling pre-loved toys into “eco toys” that are not only adorable but also sustainable. We believe through the medium of soft toys we can teach the importance of preserving our planet to future generations.

Loved Before sees itself as the first eco-friendly, fully sustainable soft toy adoption agency.

Donate Your Stuffies — And Their Stories

Loved Before accepts donations of soft toys in “all shapes, sizes, species and conditions,” no matter whether they are store-bought Steiff, Gund, Beanie Babies, or Build-a-Bear friends or multi-generational, wonky, and handmade with love. (However, they can’t accept plastic toys or those with electronic or mechanical parts.)

People are invited to pack the soft toys/stuffed animals to donate securely in a cardboard box, along with a return address (in case the process goes awry and the package must be returned to the sender). You can even include a little note with contact information so Loved Before can assure you that your little friend has arrived at its destination safely.

Along with your donation, you’re encouraged to write up the life story of your sweet little stuffed friend. Attach it with a string or ribbon tied around the neck or waist. It’s helpful to “add a clear descriptions or even photos” so Loved Before can be sure they’re matching the right life story to the right stuffie, especially if you’re sending more than one. 

Including your soft toy’s life story is optional, but contributes to the delight of how they will be matched to future families. Loved Before provides prompts to help you become your toy’s biographer, like:

  • What are the likes and dislikes of your teddy?
  • What is your teddy looking for in a new home?
  • Do you have any memories or funny stories with your teddy?
  • How has your teddy helped or been special to you?
  • Is there anything you’d like to say about yourself?

Package up your soft toy and biography and either book a drop-off appointment at, or ship it to, Loved Before’s HQ:

202 Heath Road
LU73AT
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire, UK

or register to donate it at one of their UK roadshow donations.

UK? Yes, unfortunately for all of us on on this side of the pond, Loved Before currently operates only in the UK. However, they’re looking to expand their efforts globally, and are even seeking volunteers worldwide to reduce the landfill and spread joy.

The Loved Before Spa Experience & Photo Shoot

But wait. Why can these used, possibly shmutzy soft ties be donated? That’s the nifty part!

Loved Before states that although it’s overarching mission is to “change perspectives through the medium of eco-friendly soft toys, our biggest commitment is to ensure all of our pre loved soft toys are safe and clean.”

To ensure safety, every toy gets a “health check.” Then, to make sure that every little stuffed friend is sparklingly clean, Loved Before sends them for a full-on spa experience to clean and re-fluff these “pre-loved” toys.

The actual spa process varies by individual stuffie, and depends on the age, condition, and materials of the soft toy in question. All are “thoroughly cleaned, repaired, and disinfected to ensure cleanliness and safety.” 

Want to see what’s going on during this process? Loved Before documents the entire experience on their Instagram page (and you can see many of the new adoptees and friends on their TikTok).

Eventually, your soft friends make their way through the spa for a full shampoo-and-set (plus any necessary refreshing) and then have their own personal photoshoot before being added to the Loved Before adoption center. 

The Path to Happily Ever After

Once stuffed friends are spa-pretty and have their photo shoot, they are ready to be adopted, and their photos and stories of their adventures go up on the Loved Before store site in anticipation of them being re-homed to find new their new families! 

“Meet” the adoptees newly-ready for adventures by going to the Loved Before website each Monday at 8 pm GMT (3 pm EST). Want a reminder to make sure you get to see each new, delightful adoptee? Subscribe to be sent reminders via a link in the banner!

You can peruse potential adoptees by:

  • brand (Aurora World, Beanie Babies, Build-a-Bear, Charlie Bears, Gund, Jelly Cat, Keel, Merrythought, Steiff, Wild Republic, etc.),  
  • species (bears, giraffes, dinosaurs, etc.), or
  • collection (teenies, mythical creatures, woodland or sea creatures, farm animals, famous “celebrity” characters, etc.)

It’s also possible to see who has been recently adopted.

Once you select a new friend to adopt, click to purchase — I mean, process your adoption fees.

“Meet Ida, the soft toy with a passion for folklore! This little cutie loves listening to stories about mythical creatures and magical adventures. One time, I caught Duha trying to cast a spell with a wand made of popsicle sticks! Always keeping me entertained with their whimsical imagination.”

Loved Before uses fully recyclable, biodegradable, and sustainably sourced materials for all packaging.

The Benefits of Loved Before

Original families who no longer have the space for, or the tiny humans to give attention to, the soft toys can lovingly find them refreshed bodies and new families.

Children (and adults) have the delight of finding new eco-friendly chums with whom to share adventures. 

The landfill stays clear of stuffies.

At least half of the profit from each sustainable soft-toy adoptee goes to Make-A-Wish UK. (Read more about Loved Before’s charity model.)

Final Thoughts

Yes, Loved Before is in the UK, so it’s much farther away than the 100 Acre Woods to send your stuffies or adopt from there. Still, it’s heartwarming to read about the little friends who’ve found new lives with their new families in an environmentally sound way, and we can be hopeful that their efforts will go global sooner rather than later. Here’s the latest update on that very thing!

(P.S. If anyone knows how to center a YouTube short on WordPress, please let me know in the comments!)

Ultimate Guide to Organizing the Passport Process: In Person, By Mail, & Now: Online!

Posted on: July 1st, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments

If you’re organized in approaching the experience, travel can broaden the horizons and delight the senses, as I have talked about in posts like:

Of course, one large part of international travel is having an up-to-date passport, which I covered dating all the way back to 2010, when I wrote “May We See Your Papers?”: Passport Cards and Trusted Travelers. As you can imagine, a lot has changed since then. 

And, in fact, a lot has changed in the world of passports as recently as last month! But first, let’s start with the basics.

THE GROWTH IN PASSPORT POPULARITY

In 1990, only 4% of citizens of the United States held passports. This was consistently a shock to Europeans, where international travel between nations was common. Certainly some of this was due to the immensity of the United States, per the old joke:

Texan: “I’m from the great state of Texas. My state is so big that you can get on a train, ride for a day and a night, and still be in Texas!”

Rhode Islander: “We used to have trains like that in Rhode Island.” 

However, our expanse of land is not the only reason many Americans didn’t feel the need for a passport. Prior to 9/11, we Americans traveled in a much less restricted way. However, when the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act came into effect in January 2007, the law required U.S. citizens to have valid passports when traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.

Previously, traveling (by land, sea, or air) to these areas was fairly easy and required no passports. (Indeed, having grown up in Buffalo, I recall the many times my family or friends would dive to Canada for the day or even just for dinner, needing only to tell the customs officer our location of birth and whether we had anything to declare.) 

US Department of State, Census Bureau, Haver Analytics, Apollo Chief Economist

Over the course of decades, the number of American citizens holding passports has continued to rise. Back in 1997, only 6.3 million U.S. passports were issued; in 2017 the State Department issued a record 21.4 million passports. Now, 48% of U.S. citizens, just slightly less than half, hold valid passports.

Unfortunately, I have no statistics on how many people leave for the airport having forgotten their passports.

BENEFITS OF HOLDING A PASSPORT

Holding a valid U.S. passport comes with a number of benefits beyond having a photo that rivals your driver’s license pic as being one of the least appealing shots ever taken of you. 

A passport isn’t just a nifty little book for getting pretty stamps. It’s an essential document that facilitates domestic and international travel, and serves as a crucial form of identification and proof of citizenship. In particular, a U.S. passport comes with additional benefits, including:

Visa-Free Travel — Your U.S. passport allows you visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to much of the world, making international travel easier and more convenient. In fact, current holders of a United States passport may travel to 188 (of 193) countries and territories without a travel visa, or with a visa-on-arrival.

Consular Protection and Services — In case of emergencies (like loss of one’s actual passport, natural disasters, legal issues, etc.), U.S. citizens can receive assistance from U.S. embassies and consulates around the world.

Global Entry Program —U.S. passport holders can apply for Global Entry, which expedites customs processing when you return home, saving time navigating airport lines.

Ease of Travel to U.S. Territories — Your U.S. passport lets you travel seamlessly to U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. No, you don’t have to have a passport to travel to these locations — because they are part of the United States — but having a U.S. passport makes it much easier to travel to territories without any additional documentation.

HOW TO APPLY FOR A PASSPORT

Let’s assume you’re an adult applying for your own passport for the first time. (If you’re seeking a first-time passport for a child under the age of 16, the rules are different.)

Gather Required Documents

This is where being organized comes in handy. Gather the following documentation:

  • Proof of Citizenship — Usually, a certified birth certificate will suffice, but if you weren’t born in the United States, you’ll need a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), a Certificate of Naturalization, or a Certificate of Citizenship.
  • Proof of Identity — No, a note from your mother will just not do. Be prepared to show a valid driver’s license, government ID, or a military ID, and bring a photocopy, too.
  • Passport Photo — Your latest Instagram selfie may be gorgeous, but you’ll need a passport photo that meets specific requirements: 2″ x 2″, in color, taken within the last six months, with a white or off-white background. You also aren’t allowed to smile! There are apps to help you, but if you’re a member of AAA, I encourage you to get your photo taken there. I’m a “blinker” and the nice ladies at AAA put up with SO MUCH blinking until we secured a decent photo. 

Missing any of these essential documents? Check out my post How to Replace and Organize 7 Essential Government Documents.

Fill Out Form DS-11

  • Fill out Form DS-11 online using the Department of State’s form filler or download a PDF and print it. Alternatively, pick up a paper copy from a passport acceptance facility or any U.S. post office. The DS-11 lets you apply for a passport book, a passport card*, or both. If you think there’s a chance that you’ll be traveling a lot (did you win an around-the-world trip?), request a larger passport book with more visa pages. Just check the large book box at the top of the DS-11 form; there’s no extra charge.
  • DON’T SIGN THE FORM until instructed to do so at the passport acceptance facility. Seriously, do not sign the form or you’ll have to start all over.

*A passport card is a wallet-sized, plastic passport (so it has no visa pages) that serves as proof of your United States citizenship and identity, with the same length of validity as the passport book. However, it’s not valid for international travel by air; you can only use it to travel by land or sea between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and Caribbean countries.

Submit Your Application in Person

  • Visit a passport acceptance facility in person. Depending on your location, this may be a post office, library, or other designated location, with official staff for handling passport acceptance. The Department of State has a search page; put in your zip code to find the closest options for your needs. If your travel is urgent and in the next three weeks, make an appointment at a passport agency location.
  • Bring everything (the completed Form DS-11, proof of citizenship, proof of identity, passport photo, and the required fees (check or money order, only)) with you to the passport acceptance facility.

(There are also special passport acceptance fairs for processing new passports, but mostly only in New Jersey and Georgia.) 

Pay the Fees

  • As of the latest update, the total cost for a first-time adult passport book is $165 ($130 application fee to the U.S. Department of State and a $35 execution fee to whatever facility takes your application); for a passport card, it’s $65 ($30 application fee, $35 execution fee); for both, it’s $195 ($160 application fee, $35 execution fee).
  • For expedited service (see below for details), add $60 to your application fee; add the weirdly specific $21.36 to your application fee if you want your completed passport shipped 1-2 days after issuance.
  • Check the current fee schedule, as fees can change over time.

Wait for Processing

Have your eyes glazed over while reading this? Perhaps a video is more your style.

RENEW YOUR PASSPORT THE TRADITIONAL WAY: BY MAIL

This is all well and good, but what if you’ve had a passport forever, or applied for one the first time you ever read a Paper Doll post about passports, but now need to renew?

Mailboxes by EraserGirl licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Well, the simple act of renewing your passport was never particularly simple (or swift). The traditional method of renewing your passport by mail still requires the following steps:

Make sure you meet the renewal requirements

  • You must have your old, undamaged passport in your possession so you can mail it in — The problem? If you travel frequently for work or your personal life, you might have had to cancel trips because you would not have (or would not know if you’d have) your passport back in time.
  • The passport had to have been issued within the last 15 years to you when you were at least 16 years of age. — The problem? If a college student has to renew a passport received as a child. It’s not always easy for college-age people to accomplish all the steps to renew their passports, as they’ll likely have to get their original documents from their parents, get themselves somewhere to take an acceptable passport photo, and get to a location that helps with passport renewals by mail.
  • The passport must have been issued in your current name unless you can provide, by mail, a document like a marriage certificate, divorce decree, or court order showing a change of name to affirm gender. (For more on this topic, check out Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Legally Changing Your Name.) 
  • Your passport had to have never been reported lost or stolen (even if you later reported it found or returned).

Fill out the passport renewal form, DS-82

Note, this is not the same DS-11 you use to apply for an original passport, so don’t think you can just send in a photocopy of your old form!

Access the DS-82 online with the passport form filler tool or downloading and printing a PDF and filling it out by hand. Print out the DS-82 and fill it out completely (and, honestly).

Put it all together

Package up and mail the form with your original passport book and/or passport card (which the State Department will return to you by mail), plus:

  • a passport photo that follows all the rules stapled to the application form
  • any applicable name certified change documents (the State Department will return your copies)
  • a personal check or money order made out to the U.S. Department of State for the cost of renewing plus all applicable fees. No credit cards. No cash. No Venmo. Again, if you’ve got a college kid hoping to take a semester abroad, these things may come as a surprise to them. Whether you’re writing a personal check for yourself or your college kid (who may not even have a checking account), be sure to write the full name and date of birth of the applicant at the top of the check!

Send this application package via a trackable method

The State Department can give you status updates once your passport is in the system, but it doesn’t know whether your envelope is in your corner mail box, at the post office, or sitting on a tarmac at an airport in a random city.

A Sidebar on Passport Renewal Fees

There’s a lot going on with passport fees. To start, it costs $130 to renew a passport book, $30 to renew a passport card, and $160 if you want to simultaneously renew both (and sadly, there are no discounts for renewing both at the same time).

However, if you want to speed up your renewal by mail, there are a few different approaches.

  • Expedited service — Think of this as if you were buying a double-caf macchiato for the folks at the State Department to get them to speed up their time spent processing your passport. This adds an extra $60 to your application.
  • Faster delivery of your completed passport — This is separate from speeding along the work of the State Department. For an extra (again, weirdly specific) fee of $19.53, the State Department will mail your completed passport (whether you have paid for expedited service or not) within 1-2 days of issuance, and you will receive it within 1-2 days of them having mailed it. 

You can also speed everything along by sending your renewal packet (with your application, photo, check, old passport, and any supporting documents) via the US Postal Service’s Priority Mail.

Per the State Department, the current routine processing time for passport renewals is 6-8 weeks; for expedited service, it’s running 2-3 weeks. And these estimates only account for processing, not for mailing (in both directions).

What if you need a super-speedy renewal? In an urgent situation,  you can make an appointment to visit a passport agency. You can only secure such an appointment if you have urgent emergency travel to a foreign country in the next 14 calendar days, such as if an immediate family member outside of the United States has died, is dying and/or in hospice, or has a life threatening injury (or if you need a foreign visa in the next 28 calendar days). 

Note, if you live in the northeast, you’ll have your pick of options for passport agencies; in the southeast, Atlanta and Miami are your only choices. However, a huge portion of the interior of the United States is a multi-day drive from a passport agency office, so be organized and plan ahead!

Depending on whether you’ve already applied for your renewal and time is getting short or the trip (or the passport renewal) has caught you by surprise, there are different approaches to securing an appointment, so click the above link to see your options.

To wrap it all up, here’s how you renew your passport using the traditional renewal-by-mail method.

NEW: RENEW YOUR PASSPORT ONLINE!!!

Now that you know the standard way to renew your passport (book or card) by mail, here’s a curveball. The United States Department of State has an intriguing new “beta” program where you can renew your passport online!

As of June 2024, eligible American citizens can skip the lines at the post office to renew their passports!

Just don’t think this is going to speed up the process, or expect that it’s going to be significantly more convenient, at least in the near term. However, if you’re eligible, you can at least renew your passport while sitting in your jammies at home.

Woman in PJs at Computer designed with Bing Image Creator

Note, that this is a “beta” release of the online passport renewal system means they are still working the kinks out. Some aspects of the online passport renewal system are similar to what you’d do if you processed everything by mail, but there are several differences, depending on your personal status and your previous passport situation.

Online renewal requirements related to you

  • You are at least 25 years old.
  • You are not changing the name, gender, date of birth, or place of birth associated with your current passport. So, online renewal isn’t appropriate for anyone who has changed their name since their last passport was issued, whether due to marriage, divorce, matching their gender, or otherwise.
  • You won’t be traveling internationally for at least 8 weeks from the date you submit your application. There’s no expedited service during the beta phase of this renewal by mail, so this program isn’t faster; it’s just (when everything else works), easier and prevents you have  having to schlep out in the 90°+ temperatures.
  • You live in the United States (in either a state or a territory). If you’re living in a foreign country or have an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) address, you don’t qualify for passport renewal by mail. (Again, this is likely because of beta program. Requirements are likely in flux.)

Online renewal requirements related to the passport

  • You’re applying to renew a regular (tourist) passport. This online program doesn’t cover renewals of specially-issued passport statuses, like diplomatic, official, or service passports. So, if you’re a new American diplomat, like the Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, our brand-new U.S. Ambassador to Peru, you’ll have to renew by mail (or, y’know, get your fancy assistant to help). 
  • The passport you are renewing was issued between 2009 and 2015, or over 9 years but less than 15 years from the date you plan to submit your application, and it is (or was) valid for 10 years.
  • You have your passport with you, and it is not damaged or mutilated, and you have not previously reported it as lost or stolen. Unlike when you renew by mail, you’ll be keeping that passport with you; don’t mail it in!

A few other differences exist. For example, you don’t have to (and indeed, can’t) pay your renewal fees by check. Instead, pay your passport renewal fee by credit or debit card. Yes, this means you can get points or airline miles. Yay!

You can upload a digital passport photo. However, it still has to follow all the same requirements, so again, no goofy selfies!

Finally, understand that the passport you’re renewing will be canceled after you submit your application so you can’t use it for international travel in the interim. 

Once you know you are eligible:

  • Sign in to your new account and select the option to renew your passport to start your application. Don’t worry if you get interrupted; you can save your application and finish it later. However, you only have 30 days to complete the application once it’s started; after that, you’ll need to start from scratch. 
  • Enter information about your current passport and travel plans.

  • Upload your digital photo, following all of the rules.
  • Digitally sign the application and pay for your application fee(s). You’ll get a series of confirmation emails letting you know that the payment is pending, then that it’s been processed. (This may take up to three days.) If something goes wrong and they can’t process the payment, they’ll let you know that, too, so be sure to check your spam folder if you don’t see update emails. 
  • Wait a week; then enroll to get updates in the Online Passport Status System. (Yes, it’s silly that this isn’t an automatic part of the account set-up process.) They’ll notify you as your status changes, such as when your application is in process, when it gets approved, and then when your passport is mailed.

Sticking points of the ‘beta’ passport renewal program

You can’t necessarily start your application at the time or on the day of your choice.

The system opens for a limited mid-day Eastern Time window each day, and closes once they reach their limit for the day. So, if you try to start your application at 4 p.m. on Thursday and you’re not allowed in, you can either try again the next day (or any other day) or renew by mail.

The State Department just began this program in June, so they’re limiting the number of applications accepted each day so they can monitor the program’s real-time performance. They want to make sure the software (and the employees using the software) aren’t inundated and that nothing breaks. (This is a good thing, so don’t be that person, like in the TikTok skits, complaining that a restaurant won’t stay open past official hours because you’re hungry and arrived late.)

Eventually, this online passport renewal program will get a full launch, and we can expect some (but not all) of the requirements may be relaxed.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?

  • Look at your passport to see when it expires.
  • Consider your travel plans (or make some travel plans) and figure out how far in advance you need to renew to be able to travel. Many countries won’t allow you entry if your passport expires within six months.
  • If your passport expires in the coming year, renew it now so that you don’t have to worry about additional fees for expedited processing or shipment.
  • If you don’t have a passport at all, consider the possibilities. It’s not just so you can travel internationally at the drop of a hat if you win a free trip or get offered a job requiring international travel. A passport also offers advantages for flying domestically.
  • If your college-aged (or college-bound) kids don’t have a passport, encourage them to apply this summer. If they suddenly have the opportunity to study abroad, visit college friends, or participate in exciting school programs (like performing or playing sports abroad), they’ll usually have a very brief time in which to make arrangements.

Still need encouragement? If you renew your passport and go to France, you can send your envious friends postcards and letters emblazoned with La Poste‘s new scratch & sniff “La Baguette” postage stamps!

From Glitter to Macaroni (Part 2): Storing and Displaying Children’s Art

Posted on: June 24th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments

(DRAWING) THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

Last week, in From Glitter to Macaroni (Part 1): Downsizing and Organizing Children’s Art, we looked at the key elements of digging out from under so that you’re house doesn’t have three-inch thick wallpaper layers of kiddie art.

To recap the key concepts:

  • Children live in the moment, enjoying the process of creating art for its own sake. They enjoy applause and appreciation, but by the next day, they’re usually ready to move on, so you should be, too.
  • Ask questions to show you’re curious about junior’s artistic choices and thinking.
  • Have a plan for collecting the art and host at least a weekly review where you figure out what to purge and what to maintain, at least for the near-term.
  • To help you cull the excess, focus on keeping masterpieces (original artwork) and let go of reproductions (coloring book pages, paint-by-numbers, etc.).
  • Record the name of the little artist and the date. 

If you regularly purge, you’ll feel more confident that whatever you store or semi-permanently display is the best of the best!

HOW TO STORE CHILDREN’S ART

As last week’s post explained, kids create so much art, and so quickly, that thinking you’ll put it all on the fridge or kitchen counter is a recipe for clutter. You need a plan for storage of any art projects that you hope to maintain (both short-term and long-term) without displaying. There’s just no room to show it all off!

Unfortunately, this is the one category of paper that doesn’t lend itself to the filing solutions we usually discuss, like vertical filing folders and three-ring binders with sheet protectors, such as we’d illustrated in Reference Files Master Class (Part 1) — The Essentials of Paper Filing. Those solutions work for pieces that are 8 1/2″ x 11″ emblazoned with only crayon or pencil, but thick paints, glitter, and glue often prevents paper from maintaining structural integrity and laying flat. 

Flat Files

In the professional art world, instead of vertical filing cabinets, art pieces and blueprints may be rolled for shipping or travel, but are generally stored in flat files, cabinets with short but deep metal drawers. The problem? Flat files tend to be expensive and ill-suited for children’s art created by anyone but Richie Rich.

For example, this small, 5-drawer Safco Products 4969LG flat file is $710!

At 32″ deep x 46.25″ wide x 16.25″ high, (after a proper culling of lumpy finger-paintings and nature studies made from small sticks and cotton ball clouds) you could probably store all of the elementary school art. But for $710 you could buy a Disney World four-park, four-day ticket and still have $300 left over for concessions, T-shirts, sun-block, and decades of memories!

 

While yes, the above flat file it will let you store pieces of up to 40-inches in depth, your child’s Kraft-paper, full-sized self-portrait could also just be rolled up to fit in the tube of a used-up roll of wrapping paper!

There are more affordable flat files with more storage space (covering less horizontal real estate), like this pretty Bisley 10 Drawer Steel Under-Desk Multidrawer Storage Cabinet, available in ten colors, including black, charcoal, light grey, a truly sickly green, navy, orange, red, steel blue, white, and as seen here, fuchsia.

At 15″ deep x 11″ wide x 24″ high, it’s a smaller profile solution that works if your prolific artists create relatively narrow (dimensionally-speaking) works. It’s “only” $260, and can be used for storing art and school supplies, too. But eleven inches of width and 15 inches of depth is decidedly small for the often-expansive creativity of a Mini Mary Cassatt or Tiny (tinier?) Toulouse Lautrec.

Given that, I encourage you to seek less expensive, more portable art storage solutions.

Clean Pizza Boxes

As I mentioned last week, a (clean, new) pizza box is the right size to handle the weekly collection of art creation. As your kids get older and you do seasonal and end-of-school reviews, these can be repurposed for winnowed longer-held collections.

Sure, you can tip your favorite pizzeria cashier to save you a few extra boxes when you pick your next pie, but do you want to be beholden to maintaining a friendly relationship with Mario to keep you in pizza boxes until your kids hit middle school (and stop creating art)? And when he goes off to college, are you prepared to start fresh with his replacement?

Assuming not, consider buying a stack of white, Kraft, or themed pizza boxes directly from Amazon or a restaurant supply store like Webstaurant Store. (I recommend white or Kraft boxes so that you can label accurately (“Jamie’s Artworks—1st Grade” or “Chris’ Creativity — 2024”) without cartoonish distractions.

These boxes often come in packs of 50 for about $30-$45, so split a batch with the other parents in your carpool or PTA. 

Just be sure to get boxes that are at least 12″ square, as most children’s art won’t fit in the 10″ x 10″ boxes. You can also select options that come in 14″ or 16″ (or even larger) sizes, so explore box style you want to see the different sizes available.

Try one box for each child for gathering a week’s worth of art for curation meetings, storing it on a shelf in the kitchen pantry or mudroom, and another more permanent box for each child into which you put the weekly “best-of” selections.

Art Portfolios Bags

Hard-sided art portfolios cases are a popular resource for professional artists to store work or carry their best pieces. However, children’s art tends to be larger and “lumpier,” so portfolio cases aren’t the best option. Instead, opt for large format portfolios and portfolio bags.

The standard is something like the Classic Red Rope, Paper Artist Portfolio with Soft Woven Handle. All versions come with a 2-inch expandable gusset, and comes in multiple sizes (14″ x 20″, 17″ x 22″, 20″ x 26″, 23″ x 31″, and 24″ x 36″), with prices ranging from $16-$24.

These are lightweight and constructed with heavy-duty recycled paper, ideal for inexpensive paper art storage. Find them on Amazon at the link above or in your local art supply stores. Stand these up along the back wall of a child’s closet or slide them behind a child’s bookcase or dresser to keep art tucked out of the way. You might also consider using using these in combination with pizza boxes, with the pizza boxes for weekly collection and the portfolios for longer-term storage.

For more visually stimulating storage options, you’ll find lots of zippered plastic/nylon portfolio bags, like this SUNEE 19″ x 25″ Art Portfolio Bag. The nylon strap and edging are sewn into the mesh cloth for extra durability, and it’s semi-transparent so you can immediately realize, “Ah, it’s Katie’s art collection.” 

Use one portfolio for each child, labeled with the name on the outside. Don’t try to combine different children’s art in the same storage, especially when they are small.

Aim to keep relatively equivalent numbers of art pieces (per week, per semester, etc.) for each child. If your kid makes it to middle school or high school and is still creating massive numbers of pieces — prolific creation is a rarity after 6th grade — then you have an actual artist on your hands and have my permission to treat this as an interest/hobby (much like sports or musical performance). But when your kids look back in adolescence to what you’ve retained from their tiny tot years, spare yourself family strife and aim for balance.

Capturing Memories

The location doesn’t matter as long as you have adequate space to keep these collections accessible (and file them away regularly). Remember, legal-sized filing cabinets will give you more length, but chance are good that what you need most is more width. If you fold children’s art to make it fit, the paint and glue will crack and flake; glitter will come loose.

You can also choose clear plastic bins to store the art that you decide to keep, memory box-style.

Whatever storage method you use, clearly label each box, bin, portfolio, or folder with the child’s name and the date range. As I noted last week, you may think that you’ll never forget when your Tiny Titian or Mini Matisse created each piece of art, but I guarantee you that 30 years from now, you won’t be able to tell which kid did which.

WHERE TO DISPLAY CHILDREN’S ART

Minimize the backlog, then consider which tangible pieces on display.

Identify a location for a rotating display.

Rotate the art regularly to keep it fresh. Display this week’s award winners and replace them frequently. (Remember, kids live in the moment, so don’t make VIP displays about a moment six months ago!)

Art galleries have both permanent exhibits and rotating ones that allow fresh, inspiring work to grab the attention of visitors. Permanent exhibits (like the collection of family photos on the wall next to the staircase) are lovely, but it’s the rotating exhibits that will catch the eye. The question becomes, where shall it all go?

The American standard is to display art on the fridge. This worked well when everyone had a big white (or avocado green) refrigerator that happily accepted a plethora of magnets. Nowadays, more and more of our boxy chill chests have non-magnetic fronts and are designed to be pieces of art themselves.

Before you run to the 1960s-Classic-Fridges-Are-Us Emporium for your next art wall installation, recognize that there are alternatives to hanging art where your lunch lives.

Invest in a large cork bulletin board.

Pick a bulletin board like you might see in a typical classroom, such as this one from Quartet.

Find full-sized, framed cork boards on Amazon or at office or school supply stores. Alternatively, buy individual cork tiles — array them in a uniform grouping or artistically around a child’s room or playroom — to affix to your walls.

Display the art as-is, right on the cork, or cover the entire board with dollar-store wrapping paper or kraft or butcher paper. Your kids can even draw on or decorate the paper, first, creating a meta-message of art-on-art, or add drawings and designs around the posted art.

Perhaps, use just one cork tile in a high traffic area of the home to showcase the Masterpiece of the Week!

The board does not have to be cork, per se. Customizable felt boards and panels, like these from Felt Right, can make a child’s bedroom or playroom wall bold and exciting as a background display option.

Princess Castle from Felt Right

Wallpaper an unfinished space, like a basement or work area.

Art can be a fun way to decorate your child’s room as well as any other casual area, like a guest room, mud/utility room, playroom or basement, whether you use a cork board or not.

The walls of a basement laundry room are likely to be gunmetal grey and depressing. Charming and colorful children’s art can brighten the area (and the mood of laundry day) immensely. Easily and safely attach artwork to walls with removable 3M’s Command-brand traditional or re-positionable Poster Strips.

Match your child’s magnetic personality!

Chalkboard paint allows children to create masterpieces directly on the wall, but magnetic paint is actually a storage solution for existing art.

Try a brush-on paint like Rustoleum’s Magnetic Primer or Magnetize It! Magnetic Paint & Primer so your wall surface will hold magnets for displaying artwork, schoolwork, and more. Alternatively, use a sprayable magnetic paint primer, like Krylon’s. Find them at Amazon or home supply stores, and then paint your wood, metal, masonry, drywall, or plaster walls.

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After the primer dries, cover with a colorful latex paint — use a solid color, stripes, or a pattern designed by your little artist. Magnetic primer generally goes on as grey or black, so apply multiple coats of the latex to get proper coverage. Then attach the artwork with decorative magnets. (Hey, that’s another art project your kids might like!)

Hang a retractable clothesline or cable.

Position a clothesline high enough that it’s beyond children’s ability (or consideration) to climb to reach. Attach paper artwork with clothespins. Paint wooden clothespins or use full-sized or miniature plastic ones in bright colors or funky patterns for a more kid-friendly atmosphere.

If you want something with a less DIY look, you can purchase an art display rod (with 48 clips) for $29.97, like this one from Willow and Eva on Amazon.

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For a little higher-end approach, Pottery Barn has a nifty Rainbow Dot Art Cable for $59 and a Magnetic Art Gallery Display for $79.

Try a Frame Job!

In the olden days, we created our own frames with Popsicle sticks, but times have changed. One modern classic are the L’il Davinci Art Frames from Dynamic Frames.

The L’il Davinci Art Frames are, yes, frames, but each also holds numerous other pieces of art (up to 50 pieces), so you can easily switch out what you wish to display at any given time.

They come in four sizes (8 1/2″ x 11″, 9″ x 12″x 12″ x 18″ and 18″ x 24″) and four frame styles (black, white, cherry, and natural), and you can hang the frames/cabinets in portrait or landscape orientation.

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The front-loading frames are a snap to open; push the art under the corners of the frame; the art hiding behind what’s on display is held under a spring-loaded backplate. Prices start at $37.50 for one, but they offer discounts on bundles. Shop directly from Dynamic Frames or pick them up on Amazon.   

TRY SOMETHING OFF THE WALL 

The spectacular art your little geniuses create need not displayed in the traditional way. You can create magnets, mugs, T-shirts, greeting cards, calendars and other gifts to share with your little ones’ fans.

Consider a variety of companies that allows you to upload children’s artwork and turn it into something tangible:

Book ’em.

(“Framed?” “Book ’em?” Children’s art demands criminally cute puns!)

How about art books? We GenXers were satisfied using a three-hole punch and “sewing” art together into book form with yarn. However, you can use a photo book publishing site like Shutterfly to digitize your children’s artwork into high quality photo books. There are even book creation options designed specifically for children’s art.

Do you picture yourself lending Medici-level patronage to your children’s art collections? Consider one of these higher-end services:

Artimus Art — Artimus Art’s concierge service has you send the actual art to them (rather than you having to take photos); they photograph the art, design, print, and bind the book, and ship it (and, if you want, the original art pieces) back to you. (They also have a DIY option.)

Artkive offers professionally photographed and edited books, as well as framed photo mosaics. You send your child’s art, they create a professional masterpiece as if your tot were Banksy. (Their ads are funnier.)

However, if you fall somewhat in between yarn-bound construction paper and fancy-pants book publishing, try one of these DIY options, where you upload photos of the artwork and design the book yourself:

CREATE A DIGITAL ART ARCHIVE FOR STORAGE AND DISPLAY

Not all art is “forever” art. Whatever is sticky, gooey, and glittery needs to go sooner rather than later. That macaroni art will attract bugs.

Not all art is *forever* art. The stuff that is sticky, gooey, and glittery needs to go sooner rather than later. The macaroni art will attract bugs. Share on X

But whether you intend to keep a particular piece of art on display until your grandchildren’s significant others can admire it or merely until the glitter-and-glue-stick era is over, a digital art archive is an easy solution that isn’t fraught with keep-or-toss guilt.

Even better, you can start easily with skills you (and your kids) already have:

  • Scan or snap: Digitally capture each piece of art. This method allows you to keep a record without physical clutter. The meta data ensures that you’ve got the date the photo was taken (so, it’ll at least be noted close to the creation date). Later, you can use your favorite photo app, whether Apple’s Photos or Google Photos or whatever to add notes regarding the artist and what it is (you think) they’ve created.
  • For their best work, take a photo of the art with the artist, as if it were a magazine profile. Tots these days are used to selfies and immediate photographic gratification. (Oh, how I remember my father standing us up for posed photos until our faces ached from trying to hold a smile, and we rarely saw those 35 millimeter shots in the same year, let alone season, in which they were taken.) Satisfy your little one with seeing their own toothy (or toothless) grins and their art work, and they can shuffle through the photo app whenever they like.
  • Take a photo of the artist with the ALLLLLL the art. Is your junior Frieda Kahlo filling the house with so many pieces each week such that the idea of doing the “Artist Poses With His Work” route and snapping photos all day, every day, exhausts you? Just have your little creator post with the entire week’s collection! If possible, hang the art and place your tiny human slightly off center in a gap between paintings. If there’s just too much, position your child on the floor and arrange the art around them; then stand on a bed or a ladder (with a spotter to safeguard you) and shoot from above to get the artist surrounded by the art. Easy peasy!
  • Post the art to social media. Create an Instagram or similar account and just post the weekly shots. Keep it completely private so you just have chronological family “album” online, or open it to friends and relatives. Though fewer than a decade ago, there are a whole slew of photo-sharing web sites to try if you don’t want to support mainstream social media and the evil billionaire overloads who profit from them. 
  • Use a journaling app (for children or adults) to create a chronological record that only family can access. 
  • Digital Display: Digital photo frame have gone seriously high tech. Years ago, you plugged a flash drive in; now, you can email directly to the frame to showcase scanned or photographed art collection. Not only can you display the art to a photo frame in your home (so your kids can see their own creations lovingly displayed) but you can make sure grandparents and other loved ones see the art without glitter filling their mailboxes.
  • Art Apps: Technology endlessly evolves. Try out apps apps like Artkive or Keepy to organize and store digital versions of your child’s artwork.

“Take a picture; it’ll last longer.”

That may have been childhood snark when someone was caught staring, but now, a digital photo is the ideal option for preserving children’s works of art. Plus, getting a shot of your little one holding the masterpiece provides a stellar historical record of the artist during his or her Blue Period.

Baby Paper Doll’s Blue Period

Suppress your instinct to use filters, color-correct green hair, or fix the spelling mistakes, the very things that make children’s art a delight.

And, of course, always maintain digital backups, whether in the cloud or on flash drives or external hard drives. Memory is cheap, but memories are priceless!

From Glitter to Macaroni (Part 1): Downsizing and Organizing Children’s Art

Posted on: June 17th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments

I suspect that in the past (almost) 18 years, Paper Doll has covered the entire span of paper organizing topics. Just in the past few years, we’ve reiterated the essentials for all the documents that keep your financial, legal, medical, household, and personal life running:

We’ve also delved into specialty topics, like paperwork hoops to jump through for handling insurance, changing your name, helping a loved one with Medicare, or organizing recipes, and we’ve repeatedly looked at organizing solutions for storing and organizing papers:

However, after delving deeply into the Paper Doll archives, I found that it has been 13 years since I’ve visited the topic of one of the most unwieldy types of paper: children’s art!

With the school year ending and all those lockers, cubbies, and book bags getting cleaned out, this is the perfect time to refresh our look at children’s art.

ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO RUN AN ART GALLERY FOR TINY HUMANS?

Parents (and grandparents) sometimes find themselves with secondary careers as curators of pop-up museums catering to a very narrow category of visual media. Do you often imagine yourself the director of something along the lines of the Family History Museum of Kindergarten Arts and Crafts (FHMKAC) or the Modern Museum of Macaroni (MMM)?

With most types of paperwork, we can determine what to keep and for how long based on document destruction and records retention schedules, such as those I provide in Do I Have To Keep This Piece of Paper? 

For items without legal or financial rules, we can analyze the situation to see what makes the most sense. If we opt for paper instead of digital users manuals, a series of simple file folders and binders will suffice, and the documents can be discarded when we no longer own the gadget. Our clippings for a dream wedding or trip to Spain generally go away one the event or trip has passed and the photographic of the experience supplants the files. 

But children’s art? Figuring out how and when to let that go may be a toughie for several reasons. For example:

  • You’re a sentimental softie and it’s hard for you to let go of anything related to your kids. (You’re my client who kept the purple mimeographed instructions on how to get to the right school administrative office to register your child for first grade…in 1978.)
  • You haven’t got a clue what most of the art is supposed to be. Your toddler hasn’t quite managed enunciating, so you’re taking the stance that a picture is worth a thousand words.
  • You’re a fairly new parent and haven’t previously experienced the inundation of art that comes from tiny humans creating new projects every single day.
  • You are certain that your child is a prodigy. You assume everything is stellar and that museums someday be falling over themselves to acquire Little Dude or Dudette’s Early Period work.

Children’s Art Photo by cottonbro studio at Pexels

  • Your family of origin never organized art. Either your parents saved everything you created or it all went in the bin. If it’s the latter, you weren’t taught the tricks of separating wheat from chaff in the tiny tot art world. If it’s the latter, you may resent not being able to trace your MiniMe artistic path and resentment fuels your unwillingness to make judgements about your kid’s artwork.
  • You’re digital in almost every other area of your life. You receive and pay bills online, and rarely even receive mail. Your child’s school sends every message through a digital portal. You and your spouse keep everything in Dropbox or OneNote or Evernote. You may not even have experience managing paperwork of any kind, but paper without labels, dates, or clear categories makes your eyes glaze over.
  • You’ve tried to declutter, but the art has taken over. You’d wave a white flag, but every white piece of paper and white t-shirt in your home has already been turned over to your picayune Picasso. At this point, you no longer recall what color your refrigerator is because the doors and sides are covered with all of the major artistic methods: watercolor, oil(y Play-doh or sticky jam-hands), and mixed media (painted, sparkly macaroni)!

Never fear. Whatever your situation, there’s a path to making sense of all those artistic endeavors.

HOW TO CULL CHILDREN’S ART

When children are very young, every artistic effort may seem like a masterpiece, but soon enough, parents can become overwhelmed by the embarrassment of finger-painted riches. At some point, you realize you’re either going to have to start buying Frigidaires in bulk, or you’re going to run out of display space in the kiddie art gallery you used to call your home.

There are no records retention schedules for crayoned drawings of your family, each with out-of- proportion body parts in front of a boxy house with a yellow sun in the upper left corner of the page. Culling children’s art is neither an art nor a science, but a labor of love wrapped in papier maché and held in place with colored pipe cleaners.

Culling children's art is neither an art nor a science, but a labor of love wrapped in papier maché and held in place with colored pipe cleaners. Share on X

We’ll start with looking at the basics for winnowing the collection, and next week, we’ll move on to both standard and creative ways to display the artwork. Remember these general concepts:

Kids live in the moment

For children, the charm of creating of art is the experience making it. Unlike adults, they rarely create art to get adulation or social media likes. Whatever they’re doing right now is what matters to them.

Tiny Paper Doll in Deep Work Mode, Circa 1968

A toddler is enjoying the experience of goopy blue and yellow making green under his fingers.

A first grader delights in the representational aspect of getting the whole family, plus Bluey and Elsa, onto the front yard; the fact that Frozen’s princess towers over Dad is entirely beside the point.

New art is good art

Because kids are little art factories, the stuff arrives fast and furiously, and their favorite pieces are whatever they’ve made most recently. Praise it! Stick to age-appropriate questions and comments (“Is that blue?” “Wow, look how tall Daddy is! Oh, that’s actually a spider? What a cool spider!”)

Little Boy Creating Art Photo by Oleksandr P on Pexels

But know that they’ll move on from their blue periods with nary a glance backward, unless you make them think they’re supposed to care about the past efforts.

Be an art collector — for the short term

Don’t feel like you have to display all art, either immediately or at all. Your tiny human is new to the planet and doesn’t know there’s a cultural expectation of putting every piece of art on the fridge or on display in general.

Your tiny human is new to the planet and doesn't know there's a cultural expectation of putting every piece of art on the fridge or on display in general. Share on X

Maybe your child will angle to have art displayed (or at least shown off) each night when parents have returned home from work. If the tidiest and easiest way to do that is to display today’s illustrations on the fridge, that’s cool, but if possible, from an early age, consider this like a Today’s Specials board at a café. But tomorrow or next week, they can come down to make way for the next collection.

Perhaps your child is such a little art factory that morning crafts have been forgotten by the time the lunchtime juice box has been abandoned. Try to follow your little one’s cues instead of making too big a deal of the retention aspect. Again, they live in the moment, and so should you!

Separate the masterpieces from the reproductions

We’ve all seen the coloring-book outline of a human hand turned masterfully into a Thanksgiving Tom Turkey with the application of crayons.

Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving Turkey Hand Print Magnet designed and sold by aarniviita on Teepublic

It’s the pre-school version of paint-by-numbers and is a mere reproduction. As you start thinking about what to keep vs. save, yield household space for the masterpieces, the originals that only your child could have made.  

Schedule a Weekly Curation Meeting

You are the head curator of this museum; the tots are your assistants. Give yourself permission to collect the week’s art and evaluate it all at once. A good option is a large (clean) pizza box, one for each child. It’ll corral the art until you’re ready for the weekly Curation Meeting.

  • Communicate — Once you develop a process, discuss it with your child on an age-appropriate basis. Your two-year-old doesn’t need to know why every finger paint and scribble seems to have a short-term showing; your first grader, however, needs to understand (and eventually participate) in the decision process.
  • Create limits and set boundaries — Explain that you have limited space and that by letting go of some art, you are making room to highlight new creations. This can be part of a larger, ongoing discussion with your children regarding how the world is filled with options but your home is for the most useful and beautiful things, and how making decisions about what to keep and what to send on its way is all part of life.
  • Choose the best — Involve junior in selecting a few special pieces from that week to keep. You may ask, “What’s your super-duper favorite?” but recognize that your child may have very different evaluative criteria, picking a piece because it was fun to make or because she got to share the best crayon with her BFF. You’re teaching decision-making and value assessment, but remember that perspective, especially with regard to art, is personal!

Mom and Child Discussing Art Photo by Ketut Subiyanto at Pexels

  • Allow for sentiment — For new new parents, the process may be difficult, especially when your child is too young to weigh in, and every piece feels like proof of a milestone achieved. At this weekly stage, it’s OK to keep items that have special significance to you, such as the first drawing that actually looks like something, particular holiday-themed art, or pieces that reflect significant moments in your child’s development.
  • Document the legacy — You may doubt me, but twenty years from now, you will be hard-pressed to figure out which of your formerly-tiny geniuses created that giant lizard-fish-horse-princess-robot. During your weekly curation meeting, pencil in the name of your little artist and the date on the reverse of the artwork.

Establish Regular Decluttering Rituals

Purging weekly is a great start to keep yourself from drowning in sparkly construction paper and 473 identical drawings of a tree. However, you’re going to want to establish periodic curation meetings to go back over the things you’ve kept during those weekly curation meetings.

When kids are younger, that might be monthly. Once they are in school, opt for a seasonal review. Go through the collected art at the end of each season or semester to decide what to keep and what to let go. If you fall behind throughout the year, at least be sure to wrap up the school year to collect what was most representative of the just-ended grade level. 

Make this decluttering ritual one that fits your family’s style, whether formal or casual. No matter the tone, establish a routine purging session, a special event where you and your child review and reminisce before making decisions. 

WHAT TO DO WITH ART YOU AREN’T KEEPING

Let’s face it. Not everything your child creates is going to go up on the wall of a museum. Most really need not go up on your fridge. (Yes, I’m sure grownup Angolo di Cosimo didn’t imagine his little drawing of a rich patron’s kid would be famous some day, but your two-year-old’s scribble using three different brown crayons just isn’t in contention for the Louvre or Uffizi.)

Portrait of Giovanni de’ Medici as a Child Holding a Goldfinch, circa 1545 by Agnolo di Cosimo. (I shot this at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence in September 2018.)

Toss

If it’s goopy, sticky, or critter-attracting, let it go (but do it after the kids go to sleep, as nobody needs to see their creations head to their ultimate resting places). If it’s got macaroni (or any other foodstuffs) stuck to it, let it go. Organic materials attract insects and creepy-crawlies, and while Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM might have literary merit, you don’t want the main characters coming by to sniff and taste the art at your house.

Recycle

If the artwork is on recyclable paper and not very sentimental, consider recycling it. For example, as long as it’s clean (and clear of organic materials), construction paper is recyclable. Make a point of knowing what types of paper are recyclable and which are not. For example, Kraft paper is recyclable, but tissue paper is not.

Gift

While you don’t want to inundate grandparents, older siblings off at college, or lonely neighbors with absolute mountains of art, it might help (when one or two pieces just barely fail to make the weekly cut) to share with loved ones. 

Kids who are just mastering writing can “sign” their masterpieces, and you can add a note to Grandpa to explain what the piece actually is, if it’s not quite representational art (assuming you have a good guess at the content).

Donate

Some organizations or nursing homes appreciate receiving children’s artwork to brighten their spaces. There are also organizations like Fresh Artists which will enlarge, print, and display art in public spaces supported by corporate sponsors. Explore your local and regional options.

Repurpose

For for giving older art new life for a shorter duration, try it as:

  • Gift Wrap: Use large-format art (such as the kind drawn on big rolls for Kraft paper) as unique wrapping paper for gifts. 
  • Craft Projects: Turn artwork into calendars, bookmarks, greeting cards, or other craft projects.
  • Collages: Group smaller pieces into a collage to preserve memories in a compact form.

 

Next time, we’ll look at how to store favorite pieces of children’s art (but seriously, just what makes the cut!) and how to display the special pieces. Until then, start thinking about the places in your home where you might brighten things with whimsical displays of really modern art.

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