August is When I Declutter Kid School Stuff

I am so grateful for the creativity that abounds at both of the schools that my kids attend!  I mean the things that they are creating are AMAZING!  BUT…. all that amazing artwork ends up coming home at the end of the year & becomes a “to-do” that I tend to put off.

My daughter is headed to high school this year so you would think that by now I would have a streamlined system in place, but every year, we end up with a nice pile that sits for a couple of months.  I mean, shouldn’t “I” be on top of this?  Have a plan?  Be clearing the clutter?

But today, as I sat down to write about this topic, I realized that I actually do have a plan.  There is a process and it has been working for years.

Here it is!

1. Kids bring home the art.
2. We ooh and ahhh over it.
3. We display some of the favorites right away (on the mantle or the piano or on a shelf in our TV room).
4. The rest sits in a pile (in a place that doesn’t get in our way).
5. In August we curate the pile, take pictures, and make decisions about what stays and what goes.

That’s the plan!

It doesn’t seem too strategic or systematic, heck, I didn’t even call it a plan, but it works for us.

The “plan” offers the kids a couple of months in between the time of creation and when we have to make decisions.  It gives them a chance to step back and be a little more discerning as they evaluate with fresh eyes whether it is their best or favorite work.  And doing this project in August feels natural since we are closing up summer & preparing for a new school year.  It is a natural restart point.

Sometimes you might feel like you don’t have a plan or aren’t doing things the “right” way, when actually you are doing just fine.  Give yourself a pat on the back if you are chipping away when you can or have made slow progress on a goal that you set.

Let’s give ourselves credit for all the great stuff we do.