Keeping Childhood Memories Intact
While Losing the Guilt of Having to Get Rid of Some Things
Don't we all wish we could keep the precious paintings and crafts that our kids have made throughout their early years? Here are some ideas that won't take up space.
Children make unique and timeless memories almost every day in their early school years. They brim with pride as they bring home crafts, paintings, and sculptures that come right from their tiny hearts. They give us homemade gifts that we want to treasure forever. It is enough to fill a mom with all the pride in the world. Have you seen this poem before?
My Hands
- Sometimes you get discouraged
- Because I am so small
- And always leave my fingerprints
- On furniture and walls.
- But every day I'm growing ...
- I'll be grown-up someday,
- And all those tiny handprints
- Will surely fade away.
- So here's a final handprint
- Just so you can recall
- Exactly how my fingers looked
- When I was very small.
(Author Unknown)
What can you do with these keepsakes before they eventually fade, crumble, and sometimes unavoidably get damaged? Or, perhaps you are just running out of room to keep anything else without getting rid of something? Here are some great ideas to preserve the memories, even when you cannot save the actual masterpiece:
- Hang up a clothesline either outside or in a bright room in your house. Hang up pictures, paintings, scrapbooks, and other items with clothespins along the line. You can video tape the items and say something special about each one, like when it was done, what was the occasion, or anything else that will help you remember the specifics about each project.
- When your child brings home an art project or some other memento, take a picture of it right away. Digital cameras make this very easy now-a-days. Store the photos on your computer in separate files that mark the day it was given, for what occasion, etc.
- For the scrapbookers out there, take the photos that you have accumulated and turn them into a scrapbook of your child's projects. Keeping up with this task is not difficult, if you do it each time your child brings something home. This way, when your child is older, she will have a keepsake that you can pass down to her, or keep for it yourself always. You can even keep some of the actual projects, if they are small enough to fit into the scrapbooking pages.
- Keep a memory box that is air-tight to store these treasures in. Place the box where it will be out of extreme heat (like an attic). Be sure to mark the box with its contents, so it will not get accidentally thrown away. You can also paper clip a small form (something simple you can make on your computer) that states any pertinent information you want to remember to each individual project.
There are more great ideas here at Suite101 to help you organize and keep all of those precious memories from fading physically and in your mind. And, there are no more worries about feeling guilty when you have to throw something out. You have it all safe and sound.
