I do believe I was inspired yesterday. My sweet daughter, the mother of my 18 month old grandson sent us our first ever drawing from him. The scribbles are in different colors and at the top she wrote I love you grandpa and grandma. On the bottom she wrote the date.

I do not like things on my fridge because to me it looks cluttered as I have a small kitchen. I put it on the fridge for about 15 minutes and then took it down wondering where to put it. I could start a file with his name on it, but I don’t want to file it away. So I came up with this brain storm.

I took a photo of the drawing—which was on very large paper. Now I have a picture that I can put in my gram book and keep forever. His mother can get a copy to put in his baby book of his first art work. I am going to cut out a 5 X 7 piece of it and frame it for display. This art work will be changed as I get other pictures. No clutter, no mess, no guilt.

If you have several children you could use the same idea, instead of framing part of the picture you could pin it up on a bulletin board after taking the photo. Let the children know this will rotate every few months, put them in charge of changing the pictures. If they are old enough they can take the picture for their book.

As a professional home and office organizer this is something that gets out of control in many homes as the parents can’t toss anything their child does and yet it is a source of bother and stress for them. It is not important to keep absolutely everything your child or grandchild ever does. Keep a selection by year or age in a large envelope with the name of the child, their age, teachers name and year. When they aren’t looking quietly toss the rest, or send it to a grandparent or other relative. As they get older they can write a note on the back to the person it is being sent to.