We're moving and I need help

[newfiemountiewife]

OMG most of you know we're moving when the school year is over, DH is in the RCMP and we're transferred to a community a few hours away. I decided this morning, that since this is only 2 months away, it's time for me to start purging and get moving.

I cleaned ONE cupboard LOL! And it's got the kids stuff they made in school in it. How in heck am I supposed to throw it all away? I can't keep it all, there is just too much. How do you decide what to keep and what to toss? I need to purge a lot of junk we've accumulated and I'm in a throwing away mood, but ugh.....

[FeeJardine]

Well as a paper hoarder I have a huge stash of kids drawings so I feel your pain My plan...(when I get some time) is to scan most of the things (pictures, cards etc) and create a scrapbook of work. I'm keeping some special pieces but the rest will end up in the bin (probably in the dead of night because if Em saw me chucking them out she would have a hissy fit). Oh and I've taken pics of any collage pieces that we had.

Anyhoo good luck chickie...I don't envy you

Fee

[kscwgirl]

I keep one piece a month from each kid. Those go on the fridge for that month, and the rest go in the trash, although yeah, I do that at night. LOL

The monthly pieces go in a box, and at the end of the year they each keep 6 pieces. Abby chooses her own, I choose JJ's. They go in the filing cabinet under what year it is from.

They do art projects almost every day in the preschool/daycare that they are in. If I kept them all, this house would be filled to the roof w/ paper. LOL

[azrood]

I scan my all my favorites and keep the electronic copies, and then I have a binder with page protectors that I keep really special pieces of artwork (like things that are dimensional - cards and such). Of course, I also have a huge stack of "to be scanned" items piled on top of the scanner, lol.

[meems]

oh i don't envy you! at least you're not waiting til the very last minute.

I usually ask/tell my kids when I throw something of theirs out. They get more upset if I throw their stuff away w/o asking (I think the learned this from me and my freaking out at DH when he throws away my stuff).

I'd scan/photograph the faves.

Good luck!

[mrs_jb]

I really struggle with this because my oldest is very attached to EVERYTHING. It drives me crazy because he wants me to keep every last worksheet! I like Sara's idea of a paper/artwork a month.

I really want to steal Stacy Julian's idea of a box with folders for all the kids, K-12 and then a folder for each grade. I think this is a great idea because what's the point of saving stuff if you don't have any real place to put it?

[Sue Setiadji]

similar trend here too. I scan some of it and have kept a bit in plastic sleeved folders for a4 size and an art folder for the larger stuff. anything else has to go. I tell my dds that half of the fun is in the creation and learning and if I kept every bit of artwork they had done they'd need to move out to make room for it all. At 8 and 11 yrs thats not a pleasant thought so they just keep the super special stuff and scan the rest. I like that they learn to let go - something I have always struggled with myself.
Good Luck with the move! I think its great that you are starting to get things ready now. I like the photo shoot idea too that would speed up the process - scanning stuff takes a while.

[crecia27]

My kids came home with a couple of things a day while in pre-school, so I started just keeping things that had either a hand or a foot print, or were made for mothers/fathers day; Christmas etc. What I'm ever going to do with those remains to be seen though. LOL

[my4boys]

I saved every single piece of paper for my DS1 from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Did the same for DS2 up until 1st grade!!! I did finally go through it all about a year ago and saved just the "special" things and it all fit in 1 file box afterwards....When the twins start school next fall I am sure I will do the same...they make me keep all the pictures they draw now..I imagine they will freak out if I toss anything from school!!!! I do have some things scanned as well but really need to do more for sure!!!!! GOOD luck with the packing and the move. Keep packing girl, you will be much happier when moving day comes!!!!!!

[newfiemountiewife]

I'm just completely buried in paper, the kids draw and colour all day long besides school, which is good, but then I feel bad throwing out their stuff. My mom kept EVERYTHING we ever made, and when I was in high school I had a blast looking at it all, she had one big box. I remember that, and I want to make sure I save some of it for them!

[hhleung]

I took individual photos of all of the things my DD brought home from pre-kindergarten and then when I had a coupon for a free Classic book from Shutterfly last fall, I uploaded all of those pics into Shutterfly and created a book with all of those photos. If I had more time, I might have tried scrapping those photos but I didn't have time so I just used the Shutterfly templates. So now she has a book of just her pre-kindergarten artwork and I got to throw away lots of the original artwork (I did save some of our favorites)

I plan to do the same for her preschool artwork once I get around to scanning those, and the same for this year's kindergarten stuff. I figure a 20 page photobook is a lot smaller than a box of artwork.

Helen

[MelissaL88]

We have an "end of year" party. I save most everything they come home with during the school year (1st & 3rd grades). Then, at the end of the year, we go through all their school work from that year. They are allowed to pick out 10 - 20 of their favorite pieces. I save things like spelling tests/math tests from the beginning of the year and end of year. I also keep the writing journals they come home with...these are notebooks that show their writing progress throughout the year. I also keep all their report cards. I have a filing cabinet with folders for each boy/each grade that the papers go in.

All that said...I have NO IDEA what I'm actually gonna do with all of it I've thought about putting together binders for them showing their work through the years.

[mummytothree]

I didn't read any of the other responses but this is what I do (since I have 4 kids and there is no way in heck I could keep all the stuff from all the kids ). I keep all the stuff for one year (I keep it in a box stuffed in my office) then when summer rolls around I start seperating it.

I choose about 10 to 15 "special" things to keep (usually holiday related) and then I take a photo of every thing else. Then those 15 things go to their "permanent" home (a rubbermaid tub in the basement) and everything else gets tosses.

It was so hard that very first time I did it...I mean these were my baby's memories and I was just throwing them out!?!?! But it got easier every time. Now I have a huge "folder" on my desktop full all those "tossed" items and I have them for ever and they only take up a couple GB now. Plus I usually then make a slide show out of them and burn it to DVD so that we can watch it anythime and I also send a copy to the grandparents!!!

Hope this helps and gives you some idea about how you can maybe keep all your kids things!!!

[lizzyfizzy]

i have three kidlets who are constantly coming home with stuff from school and church. i always ask them what is really special to them and we try to keep like 5 key items a school year. i like to involve them with the process so they can be good about it as adults. they are now really good with taking one last look at something they colored in sunday school and letting it go in the bin and i think it's because i let them help me with the decision, plus they want to keep their really cool stuff! it's just paper, ya know. my kids school projects i seem to be most sentimental about but you just have to think...if i don't constantly purge where will my paper stack be at the end of 13 years of school (x3 for me). that keeps me motivated to keep just the key things.

(sorry so long.) =)

[Kat Stokes]

The kids' stuff is the hardest to get rid of. I throw away most of Derrick's stuff now since he's in Kindy and they don't do all of the cute projects that he did in pre-school. Makes it a lot easier to get rid of stuff. However, I have 2 big plastic tubs with stuff from pre-school... Now, I only keep the REALLY important stuff - like report cards and notes from his teacher and a couple of special projects.

One thing that helped me get rid of some of his stuff was ANTS. Yes, ants. Did you know they like Cherrios and Apple Jacks? And even dried macaroni! LOL!!! After finding billions of ants in my bedroom closet, I took everything out with food on it and took pictures and then threw it away.

[my3hens]

Oh I hoard everything!! You should see my hard drive LOL!! I can realy relate and actually I LOVE the idea of scanning things. I dont know why I never thought of that!!

[Becca Bonneville]

I am very bad about keeping it all. But I have made myself start weeding things out and doing the ol' keep x amount and get rid of the rest. I do like the ideas of making them into a digital image and creating a book for them.

[rochelle789]

Originally Posted by crecia27

My kids came home with a couple of things a day while in pre-school, so I started just keeping things that had either a hand or a foot print, or were made for mothers/fathers day; Christmas etc. What I'm ever going to do with those remains to be seen though. LOL

Ditto - lol!

[Stacey42]

I keep it all in a drawer & every so often I go through & pull out the special things or the really well done things (like the first flower that DS1 painted that really looked like a flower) and then toss the rest. My youngest is in K3 and bring home lots of what I call 'brown blobscapes' from school. I keep the ones he seems especially proud of. I take pictures of them & I keep them in a bin. I don't have much storage, so it is a small bin & has to be gone though even after the initial purging. At the end of the year they each get to pick 6 thins to keep. I've done a couple layouts of their artwork but I'll probably end up getting a photo book made at some point.

[wildblueeyez]

Scan some of it and use it in a few layouts so you'll always have it to remember!!!!

[Angie4b1g]

My kids know I throw their stuff away. Sometimes I feel bad, but they mostly don't care. I told them that with 5 of them, if we kept all that, the entire house would be full to the top with it!

We do hang up and save special pieces, but they know I can't save ALL of that stuff!

[meganmecrazy]

Hubby and I both tend to be hoarders so I'm scared for the day (but hopefully we WILL have that day, and sooner than later) that we have to move. It will be a bittersweet time. I know we need to STOP hoarding everything so that we can live uncluttered but it will be hard to part with stuff that we "think" we will use at some point. LOL!