How do you sort through this sentimental deluge?

You are not alone. You know that, right? Being overwhelmed with sorting through mountains of kids’ artwork is probably the most frequent I-got-so-much-stuff struggle for moms.

#1 Keeping It Even

If you have more than one child, curating your kids’ artwork honors your secondborn, thirdborn, fourthborn, and so on. We all have about four times as much stuff of our firstborns than we do of all the other children combined. Yet, we love them all equally, am I right? Power-sorting that pile of artwork evens out your inventory of each kid; it corrects any imbalance. Do it for THEM. I keep a casual count of what I have from my two kids. Yesterday, I was re-arranging art in my living room and realized that, without really trying, I had 3 pieces from each child on my walls and bookshelves.

Start by sorting the artwork by artist. Count the number of pieces in the shortest pile. Challenge yourself to make the other piles match that number.

Life improvement: peace of mind

#2 Keeping the Heart Art

Those uncurated piles of artwork are hiding some gems that really need to be plucked out of a mass of mediocrity. Some of that artwork was completed because the teacher said it had to be done. Some of it was done from your children’s hearts and on their own initiative. The heart art is/are the pieces you want to find, keep and digitized for posterity.

Life improvement: only the best in your home.

#3 Keeping Creativity Safe

Deep down, you already know this one: some artwork in there embarrasses your child artist. Sorting through it means you can open a dialogue and respect each young artist’s wishes that you either discard those or display them privately. I have about seven or eight frames in my clothes closet in which I rotate some of the art my kids want me to avoid having in our public rooms of the house. It totally surprised me which artwork embarrassed them … I would have never guessed it.

Life improvement: respect that goes both ways

#4 Keeping Parenting Real

Fourth, you will process your past as a parent. I thought I did a lousy job parenting and found out through my children’s artwork that they thought more highly of me sometimes than I did. Also, I came across some truly sad moments in letters to me or drawings. I was able to apologize in person and ask for forgiveness. So, I have made peace with my parenting.

Life improvement: a realistic self-image

Sorting my kids’ papers put me to rights with myself. 

These reasons — finding the heart art, respecting your child’s wishes, leveling out the inventory of each child’s handiwork, processing your past — add up to a big bump-up in life improvement. And it means you have a manageable and meaningful art inventory for a long, long time.

May you have a fruitful gallery of family art.