How to Get Rid of Kid's Clutter

When my girls get too much junk collected in their rooms I go in with a trash bag when they're not home. Seriously!!

I've heard a suggestion in the past to take pictures of special artwork and put the pics in an album. You could do the same for his "sculptures".

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Let him take pictures of them before he has to trash/destroy them. Other than that, I'd go with MOMJP's advice.

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Take a picture of it from all angles and then put it in the recycling bin.

Create a disc of his art work and only keep the ones that are OUTSTANDING...

My kids did Abrakadoodle when I worked at Kindercare...it was great as my Nicky loves art. The ones that were the best - got hung on our family room wall - they are still there...all the others? we took pictures of and put them on a CD then put them in the recycling bin.

Yes, it was hard. But he understood that we had pictures of them so they really weren't gone.

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There are a lot of cool ideas for displaying kids artwork here: http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2010/03/12/kids-artwork/ We've done the clothesline gallery and also scanned/taken pictures and published in a digital photo book. As my son gets older, we've become a lot more selective about which pieces are worth keeping, especially since it's clear that I have more sentimental attachment to most of his stuff than he does.

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My neighbor has a great idea of how to handle this. After the art has been displayed for a while, they take a picture of it and then give it to grandma or another relative. That way the child keeps his "memory" of it or of making it and then you don't have to throw it away. Then other family members get to enjoy it too.

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My boys were (are) into baseball. They are now minor league pro players...they didn't really get into GI Joe or anything like that - I just had to contend with their baseball stuff...and baseball gear can be massive!!!

My youngest was a catcher (now a pitcher) so his catcher's gear was in a HUGE duffel bag along with the helmet, glove and bat. My now ex-husband and my father built a cubby in the garage that housed their gear. Since our washer/dryer was in the garage - I would wash their uniforms and put them on top of that cubby.

My boys LOVED books and board games...again - cubby's for those..

I would take a picture and put it on a memory stick or a CD and trash or recycle what you can. If he needs storage space for the tape, scissors, etc.? go to Target and buy one of those organizers - might help out!

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T., does he have a bathroom with counterspace? Put his best inventions that aren't too big there. I did that with my son's pottery from school and some of it is STILL there 7 years later!! LOL!

Do you have a train table? My kids loved to build Legos and quite frankly, the train table was too small for their track creations. So we put their Lego creations on the train table and the train track on the floor.

Other than that, I just I'd just put them in a tub so that he can look at them when he wants to!

D.

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I just had a talk with my 6 yo daughter about this. She loves taking our recyclables and building "masterpieces" with them. But now I have them stuffed in corners, taking up counter space, etc. When I asked her to help me think of somewhere to keep them, she suggested a box. I told her that I will give her one large box/bin for storing them, but when the box is full she will have to make some choices about what to keep. She seemed satisfied with that idea.

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Take a picture of them and have him write something about it and put it in a notebook or scrapbook.

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I have 4to young daughters and I feel your pain! They will put a line on a piece of paper and they get all excited and jump up and down and yell mom look what we made you, and hang it on the fridge! When they were little I just told em at nifty a fairy cleaned it all away to make room for more, now that they are older I give each of em a limit of 3 things, whatever they want and everything else goes to grandma or the fire pit

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I love the idea of photographing it and then donating it to nursing homes or whatever.
I have to wait until she is not home to declutter. She would keep everything.

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Tie them up to the ceiling with string to make little mobiles. Have him pull one creation down, and reinvent it to something else. A good way to recycle. Take pictures of some and then give them away or recycle/trash them to make room for more. We have a rule where we can only keep so many items, so they get to decide what to keep.

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Now, wait a minute! Give them to Grandma. Now what is Grandma supposed to do with them? How does she get rid of the clutter? lol

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Wow T.!!! I was thinking of asking moms suggestions about the same thing!!! My kid is 5 and he is very creative too. He leaves everywhere his "creations" (boxes that supposed to be cars and houses, lots of cardboard creations and lots of painting! The fridge's door is "loaded" with his paintings and drawings). I will be reading too. I think the idea of taking pictures of them it is very good.