https://www.bin-store.com/blog

Each year with your child is one that will never come again, and how they blaze by! Your child will never be one again, will never be five again, will never be 10 again. Holding onto keepsakes makes us feel as if we can cling to the most precious days of those years as they speed by. Organizing children’s keepsakes is challenging for a couple reasons. Firstly, like any organization task, it takes a lot of work to come up with a good system. Secondly, there is always the challenge of figuring out what to hold onto and what to throw away. When organizing baby keepsakes and school keepsakes, it is easy to want to keep everything, but you can’t, which makes for hard decisions.

When you store keepsakes, you will be sorting through:

• Clothing
• Toys
• School assignments
• Artwork
• Books

And possibly more! For every family, the list will be a little bit different. Unlike with other areas of your home, you will not be organizing according to the types of items, but rather the chronological time. You might start out with a box for year one, year two, year three and so on. As your child gets older, though, you will need to consolidate and decide what to keep. Eventually, you may have a plastic storage container for your child’s baby and toddler years, younger years, and teen years. Why clear plastic bins? They seal against moisture and are perfect for protecting children’s keepsakes in attics and other environments that may not be perfectly climate-controlled.

When it comes to deciding what to keep or get rid of, ask yourself which items are really special. Artwork that your child worked hard on is always special and worth saving. Items with great sentimental value that your child really treasured or used a lot and which can readily evoke special memories are the best to hold onto. A lot of items can be donated later, and some can be used again. You may want to set aside a separate box for items that you might pass down to a future child and/or eventually donate. Start this collection as early as you can. This will make the job of sorting and deciding what to keep or get rid of easier as time goes by.

Even though you do not want to hang onto everything, it is also important not to become over-zealous about throwing things away. Having some keepsakes is a great idea not just for yourself, but also for your child. Even though your child might not be interested for a long time, someday he or she may love to look at the special things you saved from childhood. Going through keepsakes together is a special time to share memories. Someday when your son or daughter is grown up, he or she might also want to pass some of those keepsakes down to your future grandchildren! This is how keepsakes can become heirlooms over time. With every generation, they become more special!