The Decluttering Guide: Facing Hundreds of Kids' Drawings, Which Ones Should You Keep?

"Daddy, why did you throw away my drawing?"

When my daughter first found her doodle in the trash can, that aggrieved look in her eyes made me feel guilty for days.

As parents, we have a natural "preservation instinct." We are afraid that once we throw these drawings away, it's as if we've thrown away evidence of our child's growth. So we buy boxes, folders, and treasure every piece of scrap paper with just a single line on it.

Until one day, I found that when I was looking for an important document, I rummaged through the study and only dug out a draft paper from three years ago drawing an unknown creature.

Even a museum cannot exhibit every practice sketch of a painter. Curating is the core of art management. It's the same for children's drawings.

If you keep everything, it actually equals keeping nothing—because you will never flip through those thousands of uncategorized papers.

Today I'm sharing the "Choose 1 out of 3" selection rule I summarized after painful groping, hoping to help you reduce that "guilt of throwing things away."

Rule 1: Keep "Milestones", Don't Keep "Repetitive Labor"

Children's drawing development comes in stages.

• Keep: The first complete human face drawn (even if it looks like a potato); the first time writing their own name; the first time drawing a story with a plot. These are milestones of growth.
• Don't Keep: The 10th paper drawn just to practice circles; the same Ultraman drawn repeatedly on many sheets.

We only need to keep the best, most typical one from that stage.

Rule 2: Keep "Originals", Don't Keep "Coloring Pages"

Kindergartens and hobby classes sometimes give children many coloring pages or copying assignments.

• Keep: The child's unconstrained imagination on a blank piece of paper. That is a projection of her brain, unique.
• Don't Keep: The worksheet coloring Peppa Pig. This is just mechanical labor with little emotional value.

Rule 3: Keep "Stories", Don't Keep "Meaningless"

Every time I organize, I hold up the drawing and ask my daughter: "What is this drawing?"

• Keep: The one where she can excitedly tell a long story. "This is me and Daddy fighting a monster, and Daddy lost and is crying." This kind of drawing has memory behind it.
• Don't Keep: The one where she looks at it and says "I forgot" or "Just drawing for fun."

What if I still can't bear to throw it away?

Even with rules, sometimes you just can't bring yourself to do it.

At this time, Digitization is the best antidote.

I would say to my child: "Baby, the walls at home can't fit anymore, shall we take a picture of this drawing and save it in the phone? That way it will never break."

In ArtKeep, I created a dedicated "2023 Portfolio" for my daughter. Those drawings that were physically discarded actually live eternally in the cloud in high-definition digital form, processed by iPhone's scanning function. They look clean, tidy, and even more textured than the originals.

The Final Ritual

When clearing out those drawings decided not to be kept, don't throw them away sneakily.

You can join your child, pick the best few to hang up, and then stack the rest neatly, telling her: "We have already taken photos and saved this batch, we can send the paper to the recycling station, let them turn into new paper for other children to draw on."

Let parting also become an education. Only by learning how to let go can we better cherish those truly important things.