Space Treat: Your Little Picasso

It's back to school and if you have little kids, that means the art work is going to start piling up soon.

Here are some tips for corralling the artwork before it becomes an avalanche!

1 - Install magnetic strips or an art cable in the kitchen, hall way or your child's bedroom. These allow you to create a mini-gallery to display the art and make it easy to replace it with fresh art as it comes in.

2 - For art that doesn't make it to the mini-gallery but seems too precious to toss, pick one central spot to accumulate the entire year's worth. This spot should be as close to the front door or kitchen as possible as that's where most of the art tends to make it's first stop. I've had clients use a kitchen drawer, a shelf in the coat closet with a bin on it, even a medium sized rectangular garbage can inside the closet makes a super receptacle.

3 - When June rolls around you'll have the entire unedited collection in front of you. Each piece won't seem as precious as the very first day you set eyes on it which will make differentiating between the scribbles and the masterpieces a snap! Toss the scribbles, use them as wrapping paper or send them on to friends and family. At the end of the year roll up all the primo pieces and store them in a large mailing tube which makes for easier long term storage than a big box. Put a label on it: Hank's Artwork - Age 6 and stash it in a far away place like the attic.

Flash forward 40 years… now your adult kids discover these treasures! What a find!

Space-tacularly,Erica
The Spacialist
New York Magazine's 2008 choice for BEST SPACE ORGANIZER!
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