04/06/2023
One of the biggest struggles I see as an organizer involves kids keepsakes.
It’s amazing the amount of artwork one preschooler can bring home! And after a few years that small pile becomes a mountain to sort through…
My favorite way to manage kid keepsakes is the bin system!
Now you might be wondering, “How is a bin a system?”
The ✨magic✨ is in the steps leading up to the bin:
First - I keep a decent size, waterproof container (such as the ones in this picture) for each of my kids.
When a momento or ITEM (baby blanket, piece of clothing, book, trophy/ribbon, etc) is ready for storage - it goes straight to the bin.
Paper is a different story. 📝
If there’s a paper (artwork, award, note, card) I want to hold onto it goes into “the basket”.
I have a hanging basket downstairs in our main traffic area where I can toss these types of items as soon as we walk in the door or empty backpacks.
Once the basket is full, I sort through and pick my favorite items.
The keepers move to a plastic bin near my desk space called, wait for it…”the drawer”. 😂
The drawer takes a lot longer to fill, usually more than a year! BUT once the drawer is full, the process continues. I go through and pick my favorites (because let’s be honest, after a year you realize you’ve accumulated a lot of repeats and can honestly tell which things are worth saving), everything gets laminated with my handy dandy Amazon brand laminator, and THEN it moves into the keepsake bin.
This process reduces clutter buildup around the house, keeps everything safe, and turns it into a regular schedule maintenance task that’s easy to manage. The yearly drawer clean out day takes me maybe two hours to complete between five kids!
