Filing the kids artwork in File 13

As I might have mentioned, I write a weekly column for South Africa's best parenting magazine - Living and Loving.  The incredibly good looking and amazingly talented editor (who has a personal blog where she writes about parenting her son also called Max *cough*, *copy cat*) kindly agreed that I could repost some of my older articles here on my blog. As long as you all go out and buy the magazine and write lovely letters to the editor telling her how incredibly good looking and amazingly talented she is. 

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Can you sense how zen I am?  Do you know why? It is because I am in my study. I LOVE my study; it is my favourite room in the house. It is a proper, grown up study with a big wooden desk with leather inlay, it has dark mahogany bookshelves and buttoned leather chairs.  My study is my sanctuary, my creative space, my hiding place.  It is where I ply my trade, recharge my batteries and drink my wine. One day when I die, I want to be buried right here in my study.

Unfortunately for me, not everyone reveres my sacred space as much as I do and my desk has become the final destination point for all the paraphernalia in the house that apparently has no final destination point of its own.  Bills (unpaid and paid), receipts, old magazines, newspapers, party invitations, toys, kids artwork and a half-eaten peanut butter sandwich (not mine!) all jostle for space on my beautiful leather desk. It drives me CRAZY!  I hate clutter, and I especially hate clutter in my sacred space!

Every few days I make half-hearted attempts to sort my desk out, but that usually involves straightening the piles so that the mess looks neat. I make piles of “can put off until tomorrow”, “can put off until next week” and “can put off indefinitely”. I like my procrastination to be ordered, if you know what I mean. Plus a neat mess is more calming than a messy mess, right? No, I know. It isn’t really.  Which is why every once in a while, I get stuck in and sort that mess out!

I am a ruthless tidy-upper.  Already very un-traditional and unromantic, I save absolutely nothing for keepsake. If it isn’t a case of life or death or being handed over for non-payment, it gets turfed. Yes it would be nice to have an old magazine to cut out of, but I can’t take the chance that if I let the magazine back into the wild (of my house), it will find its way back to my desk.  Half-eaten peanut butter sandwiches, old receipts, broken toys and kids artwork all get relegated to file 13 – the dustbin. I can’t tell how satisfying it is to sit at my clean, tidy desk and gaze loving at its empty expanse. 

Last week, after a particularly satisfying purge, I was calming sitting at my desk, hard at work at some Serious Work Stuff (which may or may not have included updating my Facebook status and checking Twitter) when I heard a loud gasp pierce the calm: “MOM!!” shouted my six year old son in shock and horror. “What! What’s wrong?” I yelled back, envisioning all sorts of catastrophes. 

“SOMEONE THREW THE BEAUTIFUL WOODEN TREE I MADE IN THE DUSTBIN!!”

Mental note to self:  When doing desk-purge, always remove evidence immediately.

“Oh dear!” I replied, scrambling for a victim on which to lay the blame. “It must have been... the baby! You know how he likes to throw everything in the bin, silly boy”, I replied nervously.

“Here, let me put it on your desk next to you.  Thank goodness I found it, hey Mom!” Thank goodness indeed.*Sob*  Back on the desk went the very-sweet, but totally-without-any-usefulness wooden tree.

Yes, I am ashamed to admit it, but I don’t keep all my children’s artwork. In fact, I bin the majority of it.  If I were a better mom who spent less time at her desk working (and checking Facebook while drinking her Chardonnay), I would be labelling all their artwork with their names and the dates of their beautiful creations, and filing it away for when they are older.

I suppose I could get some kind of system set up to file and store their (mountains) of artwork that didn’t involve (a) my desk or (b) the dustbin, but where would I store the artwork store? I know what would happen, the artwork file would somehow find its way back to my study and add even more clutter to my lovely me-time room.  No, I can’t take the chance.

Luckily for me, modern technology has saved my mother-cred to a degree. I am now able to scan some of their drawings and save it on my computer’s hard drive.  A few kilobytes of data is so much easier to store than an A4 piece of paper with Picassoesque-like scribbles.  Unfortunately the scanning thing doesn’t work as well on wooden trees with bits of mosaic stuck on it. 

Yes, I will probably go straight to hell for throwing away my children’s artwork but at least my final resting place (my study) will be neat and tidy and free of clutter.

PS:  In my defence, the wooden tree really wasn’t his best work.  

Comments

[Lindsay]

You are so funny! I only have one child, so a little easier! I have a A3 flip file that I put the decent, worth keeping, oh my word, I love it art! Sarah also has a wall in her playroom called "My wall of art" and current work goes up there and then either into the file or into file 13. Another thing I do is take pics of the art, MUCH easier than scanning it and can be made into a photo book ONE DAY! xxx

[Susanna]

We used to save everything but last year went through it all (4 kids x many school years = lots of work). We had a scanning shop scan the best of it and made it into a book and then chucked it all. Best part is that I could make multiple copies of the book, so all the kids and each of the grandparents can have one. And no more clutter!

[Ness at Drovers Run]

OH do I feel your pain about *stuff* that makes its way onto my desk. I get quite loud about my displeasure, as soon as the kids begin approaching with something in their hands, I'm like, "LEAVE THAT THERE, DON'T BRING IT TO MY DESK. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ON MY DESK, THIS IS MY WORK STUFF!!!" I'm really nice, you can tell huh?

Heh.

[BiancaW]

Also file in File 13 - unless it is WONDERFUL! Seriously - a few pages every day, for - what - like, 6 or 8 years...........who can store all that?

I like the scanning idea - think I may do that!

[Kids ¬ Introduction]

Those kids artwork are Cool one!!Would definitely be interested in the pattern.:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diKj68Rb_xk Crochet is actually good for mental health and a good hobby too..I really surprised to go with Ur blog...

[Return to Norway]

I'm seriously considering the scanning option - 3 boxes of art work not to mention the walls covered.......

[MomAgain@40]

The scanning idea is a great one! The other day I was wondering what happened to my Teen's art work. She used to do all her stick fingers with flower fingers, and now I can't find any of those precious pictures...

[Woody's Girl]

Just take a picture of Adam's Tree, then it can be preserved for All Eternity, but you can still chuck the original (without guilt!).

Simple.

[Tine]

If you're going to hell for this, I'll see you there. I'm notorious for "accidentally" tossing my kids' reams of drawings into the recycle bin when they're not looking. Can't tell you how many times they've fished their stuff out of there. I just tell them I'm a scatterbrained ninny and apologize. And then keep doing it. They don't *always* find what I've tossed. ;)

[Sabrina]

We've been photo-saving my daughters creations for a while now, she's one of those little ladies that will draw ten or twenty masterpieces every day, and I just can't store them. I pick my fave, put it on the fridge, take a picture of the rest and toss them. She hasn't caught on yet, I think the slideshow on my PC of her work helps with that...

[Anne]

I agree with the others! My kids are in daycare, and I literally bring home at least 4 new pieces of art per day. I am of the "choose the best and chuck the rest" variety, and I don't feel bad about it (except when caught by my four year old.....) ;-)

[cat@juggling act]

I do the same - throw them out. Some I photograph. But I am going to try and be a good mommy and make a scrapbook of the best ones. Not those fancy scrapbooks that other people than I make, but truly one of those CNA big book that says scrapbook on the outside and you just past the stuff in.

[Christian Louboutin Pumps]

J-Lo has proved herself to be a wonderful judge offering up thoughtful and caring feedback week after week. Lopez does this with a great fashion flair and ever changing appearance. What can I say, I've become a fan of Jenny from the Block.

J-Lo's husband Marc Anthony had a significant impact on all the performers spending time - behind the scenes - helping them adjust their "in ears" monitors. A singer not hearing themselves will be "pitchy" - this season almost everyone sings in key. Better singers? No, just a better focus on performance and input from pros like Anthony.

In fact, almost all the performances in

[Kathy_B]

ok - so now my 'kid' is 29 years old. I think I have maybe 1 or 2 things that she did. Didn't have computers and scanners back then; I just tossed most everything. Guess what - I don't miss having those things at all! AND - the child is not, repeat is NOT, traumatized that I do not have every little thing that she ever created.

I am not really into keepsakes; I have my memories. (I don't think I have her old report cards either.)

Color me 'bad mommy'.

[Boulder]

Scan ones that mean something to them, are different from previous things (evolution in their skills), or that you find amusing, sweet, or that someone who can be an arbiter of such emotions (LOL) like Rose thinks is worth doing.

Take simple photos of a sampling of the others.

At some point, you can decide whether to make a photo book for each of them, showing their masterpieces to them when they'll appreciate that certainly you couldn't keep all of their DIVINE work. ;)

[Caroline]

What I would do for a study *sigh*..... As for the artwork - keep stacking the stuff - can't help myself....

[Jan]

So, um, eons ago, Boulder asked us to send you scrapbook pages for a memory book for the twins, telling us who we were and where we lived, etc.
Did you throw those out?
No sweat. Please tell. I put hours into mine. We just didn't know how you felt about this.

[ruth]

i save them in bulk and then send them home to the doting grannIE who lives across the other side of the pacific ocean from us. she loves it, and it completely frees me of guilt (its not MY fault if the grannIE doesn't take good care of it now, is it???)

[teaching resources sale]

Guess now it's all about scanning them down to files and storing them....boring!! My partner is all techy and says scan it...Not my kinda of way. Sorted the bedroom walls with all the art work ;)

[Ute]

Don't fret, that's a wide-spread phenomenon. *g*
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/garden/27art.html?_r=2&ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=all

PS: I'm a chucker too. ^^

[air max]

I put hours into mine. We just didn't know how you felt about this.