It’s time for an extreme kids paper declutter! Find out how we manage kids’ artwork and declutter papers as a minimalist family, with plenty of practical decluttering tips, questions to ask yourself and your kids to make getting rid of stuff easier, and a peek at how we store our minimalist kids artwork. Decluttering with kids is the best way to teach them important life skills that they’ll need later in life for a clean and tidy home. Hope you enjoyed this minimalist decluttering video and good luck decluttering papers and arts/craft supplies in your home!
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ABOUT A TO ZEN LIFE
Along my journey to let go of 30 years of clutter, I accidentally became a minimalist, and it was life-changing.
Before, I was an emotional hoarder with nothing but the clutter from lost loved ones — and $25,000 of debt — to my name. Now I have a beautiful home in Europe, a happy family, live debt-free, and — best of all — wake up to a life that I’m EXCITED to live every day.
My mission is to help you conquer your clutter and simplify YOUR way to a happier and better life. HERE’S OUR STORY: https://atozenlife.com/about-a-to-zen-life/
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Please like this video and check out this video if you want to know more about family minimalism: https://youtu.be/zBbW-YKTBxs
I've collected a lot of paper clutter in my life in the form of art and artistic written work (poems, short stories, etc). I was that kid who always went everywhere with a notebook (or 6) and a sketchbook on them so I could just stop and draw/write when the moment struck. As I've downsized I've noticed these to be the things I still have a very hard time getting rid of and have decided to digitize as much of them as I can. I don't believe digitizing is the fix-all answer to paper clutter, but I do think it can have its place in the process.
I have just been doing this in our home! The amount the kids bring home is almost overwhelming! I used to feel so disrespectful throwing away the work they have spent so much time on and worked so hard on. I have found a way that seems to work for our family. We lay out all their exercise books and artwork and certificates on the floor around each child and take a picture of them surrounded by all their hard work from the year. It shows the volume they produced and also how much they have grown that year. If they want to pick out a few pieces to keep they can. 🙂
This is so much better for me because I used to keep everything they ever touched!
Really helpful!! Thank you!
I home schooled my kids for a total of 16 years. We used a Christian curriculum called A Beka. Depending on the state we lived in at the time we had to keep portfolios of the children's work throughout the year. I used to keep stuff organized throughout the year so at the end of the year I just had to collect what I needed and put them together. As far as the text books we kept the books they did not write in such as history, science, literature, spelling, and Bible curriculum.. I kept things in file boxes and on book shelves. I tried to be as minimal as possible, but it was tough especially in their younger years. lol. I also kept all their yearly medical, dental, and eye care records in their portfolios as well..When my youngest graduated from the 8th grade he did online schooling for high school so there was not as much paperwork. But I still kept school portfolios each year. Each year my youngest finished his books we would resell the books because I on purpose kept them in really nice condition. Although we did not get near as much as what we originally paid for, we st ill got some money from reselling. I am glad I am done home schooling but its nice t o look back on the years of their school work. The subjects that the kids wrote in the books were arithmetic, language, and lab books for science and history. We also had workbooks for all their test, wizes, and art. I also took pictures of their field trips as well and other outside activities that they were involved in.
I am really glad that you hot your sons involved with sorting out their things, thatch super important.
I have a small portable file box for each of my kids. Inside, I have 14 files labeled preschool thru 12th grade. I select a sample of their most special papers, especially things they wrote or drew. I only keep what reasonably fits in the file for that year. I take photos of some things that are special but not selected to keep, such as crafts or artwork. I print the photos and put those in the file. When my kids move out on their own and get settled, I will pass this one box on to them. I started doing this after my first child finished preschool and I had two huge Rubbermaid tubs filled with every paper she ever touched and realized that was not sustainable lol
Thank you so much for this! It’s the perfect timing. My kids got out at the end of June and I’ve been grimacing at the tipping pile of paper and workbooks for the past three weeks.
I have such guilty throwing away my kids stuff. 😞 This is why I have so much clutter.
Fabulous video with wonderful advice. Another great tip (similar to your sons project) is for kids like mine who have tons of artwork, use blue-tack or similar to temporarily display it all on a wall and take of photo of your child in front of it. It keeps a record of the artwork along with the age the child was when they did it.
Mom and dad have good reasons to be proud of those 2 guys.
Are your children bilingual?
Im not anywhere close to having kids haha but as an artist I really needed that decluttering tip on art supplies! It’s always when I pair down my materials when I feel most inspired to make art
I know you took a long time to get to this point yourself with the trauma of loss. My daughter is 5, and due to trauma from basically losing everything she loved and knew (her dad and I got divorced), she wants to keep EVERYTHING. Like, even the packaging food comes in.
Any tips on guiding and helping her through this. The clutter overwhelms her but she gets so upset if I throw anything out.
She is in play therapy abd I will speak to her therapist about this too
Thank you for discussing this topic. My biggest Challenge of all is the paper clutter. I read a Lot and I Love books, Student work book, etc and I feel very sentimental about letting them Go!
But last week I decluttered about 20 positions from my Collection. I donated these books, I for the first time I feel free and Happy to give away some books rather then get new ones!
I have started earlier this Month my first ever no spend Challenge and it works. Before I was an occasional shopper, I told myself WHY I should buy this or that I can afford it, I work so why Not. Thanks for your advice.
To conclude, I have decluttered some of my old calenders and you know what? Some of them were used only twice, so I repurpose them as a Notebook! In other words, I decluttered 3 old calenders und got 3 new Notebooks instead!
P.S. my desk looks like yours before decluttering!
Great video! Please could you post a video on tips to help kids declutter in general? Toys, clothes etc
good job! Thanks for this. But the owl, oh the owl, it was sooooo beautiful!
My daughter's school sent home all of her workbooks, I needed this video they are there waiting for me to decide what to do with them 🙈 The issue is that my daughter wants to keep them all 😬
Hey there happy lady mmm yeah i´m totally guilty of keeping drawings and sentimental drawings my boys made in kindergarten and school! Ugh i can get rid of everything else but this nooo HELLP!!! LOL
I went to my parents' house to deal with my school notebooks and notebooks. As a result, I cried for several hours over all the memories.🤣
My son and I went through his room together yesterday and I was so proud of him for getting rid of loads of clutter. Now his room is clean and functional. Feels good!
I love how effective and reasonable the process was🤩
My kids are older (15 and 17) and they have gotten really good at throwing out their school work at school when they clean up before the summer break. Their teachers usually try to make them bring home more stuff but my kids only keep the stuff they want to save. This makes me so happy, before We always did the declutter at home but now we just put their chosen stuff in their keepsake boxes. This year they choose not to bring any paper home, I’m so proud 😊
I just told my sons to recycle all their stuff, so they did. Artwork we do have some of, but I am going to take pics or scans of them and keep them that way, which is what I've always done.
It was cute watching your child declutter! and I like how you configured how to decide which artwork and books to keep or not.
My oldest son wanted to keep his chemistry book (he wants to be a scientist) and I said, "Will you even look through this?" He wants to keep it for when his brother gets to his grade, but we'll see if he even uses it. I don't like keeping things even that long if I don't need to.
That bee eraser is cute. aw.
I love keeping my girls artwork. I have hoarder tendencies so this is very helpful. I do try to throw out just scribbles at least. 😊
Thank you for this video!!! Im no where near to having children but this is amazing and something i will use when i have childre. At what age would you say you start getting them to make these choices and be aware of decluttering?😊
Your kids are so cute❤
Its funny all of my sons life ive always made sure his room was the simple clean and clear room while sacraficing my house
Loved this! However as an art teacher, I can say if you have young artists for whom art making is a focus, 3-5 pieces might not be enough, (and they may need a portfolio for admittance into an arts middle school or possibly a later career). You CAN still de-clutter if they are prolific makers but aim for 10-15 pieces and use the idea of a professional artist's portfolio as a guide. So keep a landscape, a portrait/people, the work that they worked the longest/hardest on, the work that challenged them the most, the work the used the newest supplies/techniques they learned. You could also ask questions about which work they would like to revisit later? Or the work that has a story. Artists also keep two similar works over time to show their growth (so often in middle childhood young artists draw the same thing over and over for mastery). Keep a sequence in chronological order is meaningful. If they really still have works they can't give up, make an additional bin of Ooops drawings and papers where they find interesting marks, colors, or washes on half done works that could be re-used as collage pieces or the background for new works and make it a new practice that they should rework old papers before taking a clean sheet of paper at home. Old papers can also be folded and stitched into new sketchbooks and used up that way. Here's a great little video on pamphlet stitching (you only need a need and thread or string) https://www.starpointestudio.com/simple-pamphlet-stitch-book-step-by-step/
Hi Marissa! How are your kids adjusting to reading and speaking German in school so far? Since your family speaks multiple languages, what language do you and family use to communicate with mostly?
Born and raised in the US, my siblings and I primarily spoke Mandarin and Cantonese at home, and English and Spanish elsewhere. Its funny, my siblings and I could each be speaking a different language in the same conversation, and still understand each other. Nearby strangers would be so confused but amused, lol. Do you or anyone else in multilingual families do that too?
This video is just what I needed!! My 5 year old wants to keep every piece of paper and piece of art she makes! However, I find that if we have a good container for her collection and go through it regularly she will decide not to treasure every last scrap of paper.
I sorted through my son's first grade papers while watching this! Seeing your son get down to just one thing was really incredible. We're packing ours up to be made into an art book by Artkive, but when it gets back we'll be even more ruthless about what we actually keep. Thanks, Marissa!