Jake's art gallery

So I've been working on going through all of Jake's artwork to decide what to keep and what to (it kills me to say) toss. But once I made the decision to just do it, it became much easier. I mean, do I really need to keep a white sheet of 12x18 paper with one lone red crayon line? NO!

Anyway, here is the before picture, just to refresh your memory

And here are the piles after I sorted through them. I came up with three piles: keep (the pile in front), toss (the pile in the back on the right), and wrapping paper (the pile with the big orange blob). I read a tip somewhere that using kids art as wrapping paper was a good way to keep it useful. There's still a lot of white space left on most of it so Jake could even decorate more if he wanted to. I ended up rolling this pile up, securing it with a rubberband, and putting it with my wrapping paper stuff.

This is the wall in the basement that I decided would become the gallery. I got a level and made a line all the way across the wall. I then found these Command Decorating Clips and small binder clips at Target. I hung the Command clips and then hung the binder clips off of them. I got the "clothesline" effect without putting any holes in the wall.

This is the finished product. I had more artwork than space so I had Jake help me decide what to hang (I think he likes the end result, don't you). I have a plan, too, for the stuff that didn't fit this time and the stuff that eventually gets rotated out. I am going to get a box for each of the kids like this one from The Container Store for the stuff that I want to keep long term. For the stuff that I like but not enough to keep, I'm going to take pictures of it and start an art album.

So that's it for the first part of my Organizational Challenge being hosted by Laura. Hopefully, I'll be adding an update on the second part of my challenge (the craft supplies) next week.

Updated: There are a few questions that Laura wanted us to answer to see what we got out of the challenge:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

This would definitely be throwing out Jake's stuff. Even though it was just paper, it was hard to toss it, but once I made the decision on the first piece I decided to throw out, it got a lot easier.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Every new thing Jake brings in the house, he gets to decide where it goes. We have a whole rotation between the refrigerator, the new wall, and giving it as gifts to people. If he decides he doesn't want to do any of those 3 options, I then decide whether to toss it or reuse it as wrapping paper. Whether it's leaving the house via the mailbox or the trashcan, I now take a picture of it right away to add to his art album.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

I either tossed it or repurposed it as wrapping paper.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?

That it's O.K. to throw things away. It's just taking up space. It is also giving us a little insight into the type of art projects Jake likes. It's always interesting to see the things he wants to display and the things he doesn't care about. Sometimes we think the same, sometimes not. It's pretty cool.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

Yes, Jacob really likes showing off the stuff that he's done and it's a relief to me to know that I have a plan in place to avoid drowning in glittery paper!