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Home » Blog » Sorting, Saving and Storing Children’s Keepsakes-A How To Guide for Busy Moms

Sorting, Saving and Storing Children’s Keepsakes-A How To Guide for Busy Moms

by Sarah Turner Clover Lane, House Love, Organization

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Here is a simple guide to how I’ve been sorting, saving, and storing my children’s keepsakes and mementos for twenty seven years.

What to keep and what not to keep? Every mom is going to have her preference but here is how I decide. With six children I would be buried in papers, artwork, trophies and special items if I did not have some sort of discretion. Sorting, saving and storing children’s keepsakes has been a work in progress for me and I’ve found a system that is quick and easy.

The most important question is-Will they and their significant other, or children, think this was worth looking at? I can tell you that no adult child wants to haul huge storage containers of their childhood mementos place to place, or sit for days and go through each item. With that thought in mind I save-

-A few or more sweet outfits from baby and toddlerhood, and a few pairs of little shoes, anything monogrammed and items from baptisms. A first haircut, a favorite blankie or stuffed animal and a few hospital things. Little mementos that trigger strong memories. (This is very difficult but gets easier as time goes on to weed out what is memorable or not-I saved so many clothes and then would revisit those boxes years later and choose less and less to keep.)

-School aged-artwork and papers that are significant-they have a handprint or drawing of themselves, something “about me”, a sweet story or note, or artwork they’ve worked very hard on. Not workbook pages, or a generic project. Something one day that they can look at and know something about themselves at that age. (These things greatly decrease while in high school.)

-Awards for something significant-Hardest Worker, etc. Not participation ribbons or trophies (only because my kids are very active in sports-if they had worked hard to accomplish one season only I would probably save that.)

-Letters written to my children from me, (I keep the ones written to me in my own scrapbook box, see below), their dad, their sibling, or grandparents, etc. Not generic birthday cards.

-Small mementos of little stuffed animals and toys that they adored. As we clean out rooms and purge I often ask “Do you want to save this?” If yes, it goes up in the scrapbook box OR they keep it in a special little box that stays in their rooms.

How do I organize and store children’s keepsakes?

I have always had a box or boxes in a closet or on a shelf (which can be labeled by child, or can be sorted through if just one box) where I can easily place these things until they go up to large plastic lidded storage bins in the attic which happens about once a year during my 40 Bags in 40 Days declutter method.

Here’s a visual look at the process:

This simple container (a cuter bin here) sits at the top of a kid’s closet, and I place things in here all year that I or they want to keep for their scrapbook boxes. Examples are an autographed t-shirt, a trophy (that they are finished displaying), a favorite little stuffed animal or blankie they’ve outgrown, or special notes.
I also have two drawers in my desk area in the basement that I put my youngest grade school children’s papers from school that I want to keep. It is close to the kitchen where the kids come in and where I go through their school things. The key is both of these places -closet and desk drawer -(which could easily be combined into one) are easily accessible. Things can be placed in either immediately. I will gather the papers for the year into a large rubber band, bind or folder and place them in the bin in the attic.
At the beginning of the school year, or when I do my annual spring clean, I place them in strong lidded storage bins like these that are stored in the attic. My older boys have around two, Abbey has about five (she is extremely sentimental), and the youngest two have one that isn’t full right now.
Each child has had, or does have, a little scrapbook box of their own. It looks something like this above…
…or this. I can’t find the personalized ones anymore, so I bought a vintage clean traincase for the younger two-these are easy to find on Etsy or estate sales. This storage case and this one would also work. I wanted a roomy one with lots of space, and a latch.
Here’s the example of a what’s inside-lots of those little things-souvenirs, a special coin, baseball cards. I can tell you my adult children love these boxes and these remain in the younger children’s rooms since they add to them and like to look through them.
This year I sorted out the bin in the closet by child and took these things up to the attic to their boxes. (I have my own storage bin also from my own childhood.)
These are my easily accessible scrapbook boxes in my closet (these are pretty ones)-the pretty inexpensive floral ones. These contain notes, cards and letters, or any other little mementos I want to keep.
I also have scrapbooks for my children and yes they have massively trickled down with each child as I’ve lost my momentum. I love these, they are beautiful and took a lot of time, but I also want to say this-it’s okay to just have a bin of things to give your children to sort through themselves. This was a hobby of mine for awhile and served its purpose.
Since I’m of age to also have printed photos, I keep our family’s photos in matching photo albums. It was a HUGE project to get this finished and one I did years ago. (You can read about it here.) I haven’t printed photos in about five years, and feel no guilt about it. There are so many easier newer options, like making a family yearbook each year, or one day putting them all those photos on a hard drive and handing them out to each child to do what they’d like with them. All photo options are time consuming, but if I had any advice, it would be to come up with what you DO have time for, or the inclination for, and keep focused on that. (My friend Andrea Decker, always sensible, frugal and thoughtful has an excellent process.)

I hope this post on sorting, saving and storing children’s keepsakes has helped you-let me know if you have any questions-I always check back to answer them.

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March 25, 2021 · 8 Comments

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  1. Ashley Urke | Domestic Fashionista says

    March 25, 2021 at 5:47 pm

    This is so helpful Sarah! My children are 4 and 2 and their small box is already exploding with things I wanted to save. You offer some great tips and suggestions. As soon as they wake up from their nap I am going to take the boxes out of their room and put in an easier to access place so I can sort through and pare down quite a bit. I also loved how you mentioned different kids have different storage bins based off of how sentimental they are. Such a good reminder that as time passes, to let my children dictate how much they want to keep as well (as I also tend to be a bit more sentimental). Anyways, loved this post! And your new site looks lovely!

    Reply
    • Sarah Turner says

      March 25, 2021 at 6:55 pm

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
    • Sarah Turner says

      April 22, 2021 at 4:18 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply
  2. Hannah says

    April 14, 2021 at 8:16 pm

    I love this and am curious about your scrapbooks for your kids! Are they just photos or include writing too, and did you do multiple books for each child? I’m trying to be more organized about record-keeping for my kids

    Reply
    • Sarah Turner says

      April 22, 2021 at 4:16 pm

      Photos and not much writing. I did multiple for each child, but as I’ve gone done the line I’ve become lazier and lazier.

      Reply
  3. SD says

    June 3, 2021 at 10:15 am

    Thanks for these great tips! I am also of the age where I have LOTS of printed photos. It’s on my list to organize them into albums…someday. It seems like I’ve read on your blog before that you’ve made some on-line photo albums, as well. Which websites do you prefer for that type of thing? There are SO many options like Shutterfly, Snapfish, Chatbooks, etc. It’s crazy trying to figure out which one is best/easiest.

    Reply
    • Sarah Turner says

      June 4, 2021 at 7:04 am

      I usually use Snapfish for any photo books I’ve mad. I have used them all though!

      Reply
      • SD says

        June 4, 2021 at 11:26 am

        Thank you!

        Reply

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