How do I keep children's artwork and schoolwork without drowning in it?

A primary school child produces a very large volume of paper, and almost none of it is individually distinctive. Keeping all of it guarantees that none of it is ever looked at, because nobody sifts a box of four hundred pieces. Keeping twenty a year, dated and chosen, produces something that is genuinely revealing about how a person changed — which is the thing you actually wanted.

Step by step

1. Have a landing place so nothing is decided at the door.One tray or wall pocket where everything goes as it comes in. Deciding on the doorstep with a coat half off is why it ends up on the worktop, and the worktop is why it ends up in a bin bag in March.
2. Display the current work and rotate it.A wire and pegs, a clip frame, a magnetic strip, the fridge. Displayed work is enjoyed, which is the point, and rotating it means the previous piece has already had its life when it goes.
3. Sort at the end of each term.While you still know which was the one they were proud of, and which was a worksheet. Termly is frequent enough that the pile is manageable and infrequent enough not to be a chore.
4. Choose against clear criteria.Anything with their handwriting at a stage that changed, anything they were visibly proud of, self-portraits and family drawings, first attempts at anything, and anything genuinely characteristic of them. Worksheets, colouring-in and mass-produced craft can go without a thought.
5. Photograph the rest, and do it properly.Flat, in daylight, square on, one piece per frame, and let the child hold the very large ones so the photograph has them in it. Then file the images by child and school year so they are findable.
6. Set a fixed container per child.One A3 portfolio folder or one shallow archival box per school stage. The limit does the selecting, which means the decision is made once at the start rather than four hundred times.
7. Date and annotate everything you keep.Name, age, date and one line of context, in pencil on the back or on a sticky note that does not touch the artwork. In twenty years the annotation is worth as much as the drawing.
8. Store it flat, in the house.Flat, so nothing creases or curls; in the house, because a loft will cook and damp it. Under a bed or on a wardrobe shelf is ideal. Roll only if there is genuinely no alternative, and then loosely and in a tube.
9. Deal with the bulky and three-dimensional things differently.Egg-box models, salt-dough and junk sculpture do not keep, do not store and are not wanted later. Photograph them, display them for a few weeks, and let them go.
10. Involve the child from about seven.Let them pick what goes in the folder. They choose differently from adults and their choices are more interesting, and it teaches the same selection habit for their own things.

Tips

• A photo book made at the end of primary school from the photographed work is the version people actually look at, and it takes up one shelf-inch.
• Do not keep it in a loft or garage — paper, tape, glue and child-safe paint all degrade fast with heat and damp.
• If two children produce work at once, file by child rather than by date, or nothing will ever be found again.
• Sticky notes and paperclips both mark paper over years. Use a pencil annotation on the back instead.
• It is entirely reasonable to keep none of it and photograph everything. The photographs are what get looked at anyway.

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