If it pains you to pitch so much of your child's artwork, develop a digital "art gallery" by snapping photos of every creation and culling them together for an online slideshow that you can project to your TV as a screen saver. Then you can part with the hard copy with less guilt.
What to Ditch:
- Refrigerator rejects. If you don't see a homework assignment or art project and immediately make room to tack it up, it doesn't pass the fridge test, and it's not going to be something that holds any meaning a decade from now.
- Anything Google-searchable. A poster board presentation on volcanoes or a five-page essay on Abraham Lincoln got an A+, but unless it's really showing your child's own opinions, theories, or beliefs, there's little personal value.
- Hard-to-store mediums. Even the most precious glitter-and-chalk creation will do nothing but annoy you when it somehow continues to make a mess months later, and that papier-mâché fish might seem impressive, but in a year when it's taking up valuable counter space, you'll be glad to see it go. If it doesn't fit neatly in a portfolio, scrap it.
What to Keep:
- Frame-worthy pieces. If you actually consider framing it to hang on your wall, whether or not you actually do, it's masterpiece material.
- Family-oriented art. Their depictions of Mom and Dad, their house, or their pet have sentimental staying power.
- Anything they seem particularly proud of. It's likely only once a week at most that they come home with something they emphatically share with you. If they treat one project differently than all the rest left crumpled in their backpack, then it should be a keeper.
