May
20

How To Organize and Store Your Children’s Keepsakes

Your kids are going to create and generate so much stuff over the years. It can be hard to know what to hold onto as keepsakes and what to throw away. Their first clothes, their first blanket, early toys, artwork, birthday cards, awards, schoolwork, school reports… the list goes on.

Many parents don’t know where to start with organizing all of this *stuff*. It can really start to accumulate, and your home can begin to get cluttered. It can be a good idea to have a fixed strategy right from the beginning.

Obviously, it’s up to you how many keepsakes you choose to hold onto. However, following these general guidelines can help you to stay organized and store them safely.

School Papers

School papers could be kept in their own keepsakes box. This would be a solid file-storage box. In this box, you could put paperwork that is only related to your child's school life. You would need hanging file folders that have tabs. An external label for the box would also be super useful.

You could have a file folder for each year of your child’s school career. You could then have separate folders for report cards, test scores, awards, and school pictures. You could even have subcategories, such as academic awards, sports awards, and scholarship awards.

You could keep a small sample of artwork and schoolwork from every year and chuck out the rest. By the time your child graduates from college, they will have a small sampling of schoolwork from every grade.

Non-School Papers

Non-school papers should be kept separate from schoolwork. Again, you would need a solid box for storing files and hanging folders. You can have a folder for artwork. This includes any pictures or projects they do at home that you would like to save.

You could have a media folder. This would include any newsletters or articles that feature your child. You could have a folder for professional photos. This would include baby photos, birthdays, and family portraits.

For any other miscellaneous articles, you could have yearly folders. Here you could put birthday cards, Christmas cards, letters, notes from friends, etc. You can even keep the paperwork when you open a bank account for your child.

If you save everything, there will never be enough room. You can choose a small sample size from each year of things you would like to keep. The rest can be put in the recycling bin.

Clothing

For storing clothing keepsakes you just need a regular storage box. You can also get some index cards. It is useful to add an external label to all these boxes. You could include the clothes your child wore for their first professional photo shoot.

You could also include their first bib, first bathing suit, first sunglasses, and first jacket. You could also include their first Halloween costume, Easter costume, Christmas outfit, and Thanksgiving outfit. Their favorite blanket could be a wonderful addition.

You could also include special shirts worn for events, clothes they made or decorated as part of school projects, and team jerseys. Finally, you could include their first school uniform. Use index cards to label the clothes. You could record the date, age, or year when they wore them.

Everything Else

In this box, you would include everything that won’t go into the above categories. Basically, everything that isn’t paper or clothing. This box could contain a flash drive for everything that you want to store digitally.

You may have a huge assortment of items in this box. There could be a photo album of ultrasound pictures, a baby book, journals, and a small infant keepsake box.

Perhaps you want to keep ticket stubs, stuffed toys, rock collections, comic books, or baseball cards. In this box, you could store souvenir pennies, books, toys, autographs, trophies, pressed flowers, pottery, picture frames, and souvenirs.

This box is for anything that can’t be stored in a folder and has a clumpy shape. Make sure that you label everything with dates and brief descriptions. This way, both you and your child will know why you saved these items.

Just Four Boxes

If you follow this simple system, you will have just four storage boxes for each of your children. You could keep them in the corner of your closet or in your self-storage unit. Sticking to this system will make maintenance of your keepsakes a breeze.

When your children grow up, they will have just four boxes that they could easily carry anywhere: a box of their school career, a box of other paper keepsakes, a box of clothes, and a box full of other treasures.

Four boxes may sound like a lot, but when you are getting 21 years' worth of stuff down to a manageable amount, it is very reasonable.

Really important documents such as birth certificates, baptism certificates, social security numbers, etc. should not be kept with these keepsakes. These should be kept in a fireproof safe.

One day, your children will be super grateful that they can peruse these four boxes. However, they will also be glad that you didn’t keep every single document and trinket. By sticking to this simple system, you will have a perfect balance.

Important Notes

Make sure that all these boxes are completely waterproof and stored in a safe space. Make sure everything is labeled. If you have space in a cupboard, this could be perfect. If you have a self-storage unit, then you could free up space in your home.

Writing notes is important. You could include stories of why you want to keep each item. If you are overwhelmed by how many items you have, you could take pictures of some of them. You can then keep the photo and get rid of the item itself. Many items can be kept digitally.

In Summary

The rewards of organizing and safely storing your children’s keepsakes will increase over time. The sentimental value of these items could be immeasurable. Your children, and maybe even your grandchildren, will be super grateful that you took the time to organize these items. You can use them to tell a story.