Best of Resourceful Mommy: Solutions for Crazy Craft Clutter

I’m taking some time off this week, but am happy to bring you some of my favorite past posts.

If you’re like me and you’ve got a kid in pre-school, you know that back to school time means the return of craft clutter. I’m pretty sure that the teachers at my children’s school held a contest last year to see who could send home the most projects. We had melted plastic jewelry, glittered cardboard creations, plaster of Paris paperweights, and oh, the many ways that you can turn dried food into art! In an attempt to honor my child’s hard work, enjoy the beauty of her projects, and feel like I wasn’t throwing my tuition money straight into the trash/recycling bin, I hung my daughter’s craft projects across an entire wall of my home. By mid-year my kitchen looked more like Mount Everest strung with Tibetan prayer flags than like a room in my home.

There are crafty solutions to this crafty problem – short of cutting a hole in your child’s backpack – and now is the time to put them in place.

1. Go vertical!
If the artwork is something that can be hung on a wall, you’ll automatically reduce the accumulation of counter piles. However, don’t just slap papers up with painter’s tape, magnets, or push pins. Try to make the area a bit of art itself. One solution is to frame their work in picture frames that match the decor of the room. Another trick that works well is to string a length of picture hanging wire between two decorative nails. In order to hold the pictures in place, choose brightly colored binder clips, clothespins, or curtain rings. I personally like the “Work of Art Clips” available for only $9.95 from Land of Nod (http://www.landofnod.com/). Their decorative wall attachments, strings, and clothespins brighten the room and serve a great purpose simultaneously.

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  • short of cutting a hole in your child’s backpack…
    LOL! now that’s an interesting solution to a very real mothering issue! why do they send all that crap home? Do they think we really want it?
    sheesh.