It's OK to throw it away

A friend of mine once told me that she has several large tote bins in her basement filled with all of her daughters' school work. At first I thought she was kidding, but she said that she had saved everything that the girls had done, because they didn't want their work tossed out.

I could feel her pain - it's hard to throw away your child's work (even though we all do it) - but this seemed a bit extreme. I am always happy to display my son's latest artwork in our home for a few weeks until something else takes its  place, but I couldn't imagine devoting all that storage space to bins of old papers.

At least twice a year, I go through a box with my son and we play a game called "Keep or Get Rid Of." This is how we go through all of the artwork, worksheets and other materials he has brought home from school and it has been unbelievably successful in reducing the amount of paperwork we keep.

The rules are simple:

1. I hold up a piece of paper and ask him "keep or get rid of?"
2. He decides.
3. I can veto if I want to keep something.

That's it.

My son is fully aware that he can't keep everything, and I find that the time that has passed makes it easier for him to let go of that math sheet that he was so proud of when he brought it home from school. I've heard that other parents like to use their child's artwork as wrapping paper for relatives or as gifts, but I think it is an important skill for my son to learn: Not everything needs to be kept.

What do you do with your child's artwork and paperwork from school? Tell me in the comments.