Displaying Kids’ Artwork: How to Minimize Clutter

You all know I’m pretty crazy about containing clutter. My physical space impacts my psychological space so much. That’s why I loved reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Even though I didn’t agree with All.The.Things in that book, I did love the idea of everything having a place and making it a habit to regularly purge the things you don’t love. Enter children’s artwork. Displaying kids’ artwork is such a challenge! I love that my children want to produce and display art, and yet it’s hard to find space for it in a place that still contributes to an overall feeling of calm around our house.   

My solution was to make a space of our home that could solely be devoted to their art. I wanted it to be someplace that they regularly see and could easily access. That’s where the idea for this magnetic chalkboard came from.   

I bought a piece of sheet metal from Home Depot and painted it with chalkboard paint. Then we had it framed with with more wood from Home Depot. I bought a chalk pen to write their names on it.   

So far it’s working out great! They can pile as much onto it as will fit. Once it gets full, they have to take something down in order to add the new thing. Then we generally say a little goodbye ritual to the thing they are taking down and we recycle it. It’s good practice in letting go of things that we no longer need (such an important lesson learned from Marie Kondo!).   

What strategies have you come up with for displaying kids’ artwork in a way that minimizes the clutter?