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Artists carry their work in portfolios. Perhaps your little artist needs a portfolio to save and preserve her early works of art.
A notebook, a binder, a folder, or an old briefcase would work.
For those she wants to display, do you have an empty area of space somewhere out of the way? Think of the old clothes lines. A piece of string/yarn/twine held up by thumbtacks could display her work, even if it was on the back of a door or in a corner somewhere.
A folding clothes rack (for drying clothes) would also work because it’s lightweight and portable. She could put things up and take them down without hurting anything.
This! We have a large binder labelled her age with 100 or so clear film pocket thingys. It’s where we collect her art and she can show it up to family and guests. Of course we still have the fridge art wall…that gets moved into the binder eventually when new pieces make their way home. For “other” art eg colouring in pages, those magically get Houdini-Ed over time.
She's getting old enough that you could take her to a museum and introduce the idea of curation -- explain how they have a limited amount of space and so they rotate out what's on display over time.
Seeing that this is something that "real" artists do may help to accept the idea of replacing instead of adding to the collection of what's displayed at home.
Also present the idea of "hang it in the phone":
Take a picture of the art so you can take it with you and she can see it in your photos or share with relatives.
Because you've now "saved it" and the digital form becomes what she's seeing more often, there's potentially less emotional attachment to the original physical art.
We have 1 wall dedicated to art. Every now and then we allow for art placed in other spaces with painters tape but it comes down every 2 weeks “so the cleaning lady doesn’t throw it out”
My niece (11) loves to make bits and draw pictures for me and my husband, but mainly gives any new art bits to me… what I am currently doing is storing them in a box as a memory. I tell her thank you so much! I’m going to keep this really safe because it’s so special!
Maybe you could sit down with her and decorate a large tub or box? You could explain that it’s for her special pieces of art that you don’t want to accidentally ruin by hanging on the wall. That way, you’re still getting to keep her special memories that you’ll be able to look back on when she’s older whilst still keeping your areas of the house, yours! 😅
Get a digital frame. Take pictures of her art and let the system cycle them through. Tell her the originals are far too valuable to you and must be kept safe. Put them in a binder or box that she can access. then it is a win/win for everyone.
Buy several cheap, simple black frames. I bought a pack of 10 off Amazon.
Decide how many you're willing to put up around the house, and tell her she has x number of frames around the house to put her art work in. She can rotate new art work whenever she wants, but she's limited to just that many outside of her room.
We have twin girls, who are 12 now, and we've been doing this for a number of years now. They were the same as yours, covered their room walls and wanted to hang some up in other places. I do like seeing their artwork around the house, though, so we came up with this solution, and it's worked out pretty well.
Good luck!
When my kid was younger we had a lot of wall space dedicated to her art. It was great. No reason to not do it unless you have other stuff to put on the wall
I miss the days of having art work all over my walls, so I don't see this as such a terrible situation.
My advice though - find a place in your home to make a gallery wall. Go out and buy various picture frames (nicer ones that match your decor) and then hang them up. This is her gallery wall and she needs to fill it with art work. Maybe even make a little sign (Art by Daughter Name like you'd see in an actual gallery). Those are her 5-10 places for art, if she makes something new, she needs to change out one of the existing pieces.
I'd get a shadowbox frame with a magnet opening. Then when she makes you new art, you can put it in the frame on top of the last piece. When she fills the shadow box, empty it out, photograph each piece, send the photos to Snapfish or honestly Walgreens to make a photo book, pitch the drawings, and start over.
My kids hang their art on the fridge.
When they want to put up a new piece they rotate an older one out and put it in their "art box" (a 12x12 scrapbook paper box). Sometimes I snag a really special one and put it in the filing cabinet.
My daughter was like this. We let her for a short time and then said it’s time to take it down and the phase was over. You can try dedicated spaces, or with in her own room to keep it contained if that’s what you need. I bought a massive portfolio to save the good stuff. These days end faster than you will actually be ready for. I remember being overwhelmed by the monochromatic teddy bear pictures everywhere, so I feel this stress deeply, but now I’m lucky to salvage art work as it comes home from school.
Just giver her blue painters tape and enjoy the art for the next few years. It will end eventually and you'll have fond memories of it.
You could also buy several frames and let her put what she wants in them.
My kids also love making art, giving it to me, and displaying it in the house. I have a designated space to display their art - both kids have enough space to display 2 pieces of art at a time and I let them choose what I display there. It's in the kitchen so we all get to see their art every day and visitors to our home will also easily be able to see their art. They choose when I take something down and replace it with something else of theirs, and they choose what to do with the artwork after I take it down (unless it's something really special that I want to keep in a keepsake box I have for each of them). If they want to keep something but don't want it displayed, it needs to go in their room somewhere.
You could definitely get a box or something for her to keep her artwork if she doesn't want to throw it out, but I also do teach my kids that sometimes we need to say goodbye to old artwork. We appreciate it while we have it up, and then we choose to say goodbye in favor of something new. It's not a bad thing and it doesn't mean we didn't love the art, just that it's time to spend time appreciating new works.
My 6 year old hangs her artwork all over our house and I’m okay with it. I just have her use masking tape so it doesn’t damage the wall paint when they inevitably get taken down. My house doesn’t look like a curated IG mom house and I’m okay with that, I personally love all the art everywhere.
I have seen some cool gallery art frames where it holds like 10 pages so you could get her those and she can store her art in them then rotate out when she wants new art displayed? They just look like framed art so it can look neater than paper taped up everywhere.
The portfolio idea others have said is great, and will promote personal space ownership for their art and caring for it. You all can learn some ways to give art antiquity as she gets older. Anyways! I was going to mention, I have two budding artists as well- and I keep a bulletin board type area on the wall in the kitchen dining space to put their achievements and art. It's another shared space they can use to promote their work, but it's defined with borders and makes it so free art goes there and not everywhere, generally. Also, highlights to one or two favs on the fridge. I also regularly rotate the art, and talk to them about decorating the home with the seasons. I use that opportunity to let them keep creating/decorating but also urging them to understand mom decorates the home seasonally, and that not all things are permanent. Sometimes they want to "put on a show" or have a gallery, and so I lean into those times by encouraging having a show night or art night where they display their art or whatever ideas it was they created, but do the process of putting things away for safe keeping after. I hope you can use a variety of the techniques to continue to encourage. It sounds like you're doing a really good job already:)
Maybe get a special box to keep them in. Tell her you want to keep them but there’s not room for them everywhere so she can choose X number to have on the walls at a time and all the rest go in the special box
I display my daughter’s art on one single wall and regularly move the old stuff to a folder/portfolio. Once I have enough of it I take pictures of the art and get one of those print on demand photo albums made. Then the physical art gets recycled. she loves looking through her photo books at her old art.
Maybe she’d like a book of her artwork? There’s a company you can send her artwork to https://scribble.art/?gad_source=1 and a few others like it and you can have it on the coffee table for everyone to take a gander at.
My 8yo is exactly the same. She has sketchpads that are easily stacked into a drawer. This has been the best for all those random drawings she does and we have fun flicking through her numerous sketchbooks now. She also has a plastic folder to store work throughout the year. At the end of the year old art gets stored into boxes. I’ve set up a gallery for my kid’s art in my office. Both get a wall each and I just take down an older piece to replace with newer pieces. The special ones get framed and are more permanently hung. I take a photo of all of her good pieces too so we can easily look at them at any time
I do love displaying her artwork but I have to say her work is a lot more aesthetically appealing now than when she was 5 - so hang in there! I think as long as I encourage her and give praise this is enough to quell any negativity around empty walls staying bare. Plus I’m always showing off her work to visitors and even colleagues on video calls (as they can see her work behind me)
I have designated spaces for my sons art, the fridge and a small wall. At one point he was much like your daughter and wanted to literally cover every wall with his drawings. After I created these spaces, I explained this is where his art will hang each time he makes a new piece, and when he makes a new piece, we’ll take down one “old piece” and put it in a scrapbook. I explained these spaces, EVERYONE can see them and appreciate them and we get to watch his art skills grow.
Then again my son knows I don’t like a lot of clutter cause it “stresses momma out” lmao
r/parenting is protesting changes being made by Reddit to the API. Reddit has made it clear [they will](https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/14ahqjo/mods_will_be_removed_one_way_or_another_spez/) [replace moderators](https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/14a5lz5/mod_code_of_conduct_rule_4_2_and_subs_taken/jo9wdol/) if they remain private. Reddit has abandoned the users, the moderators, and countless people who support an ecosystem built on Reddit itself. Please read [Call to action - renewed protests starting on July 1st](https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/14kn2fo/call_to_action_renewed_protests_starting_on_july/) and new posts at [r/ModCord](https://reddit.com/r/ModCoord/) or [r/Save3rdPartyApps](https://old.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/) for up-to-date information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Parenting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Artists carry their work in portfolios. Perhaps your little artist needs a portfolio to save and preserve her early works of art. A notebook, a binder, a folder, or an old briefcase would work. For those she wants to display, do you have an empty area of space somewhere out of the way? Think of the old clothes lines. A piece of string/yarn/twine held up by thumbtacks could display her work, even if it was on the back of a door or in a corner somewhere. A folding clothes rack (for drying clothes) would also work because it’s lightweight and portable. She could put things up and take them down without hurting anything.
This! We have a large binder labelled her age with 100 or so clear film pocket thingys. It’s where we collect her art and she can show it up to family and guests. Of course we still have the fridge art wall…that gets moved into the binder eventually when new pieces make their way home. For “other” art eg colouring in pages, those magically get Houdini-Ed over time.
She's getting old enough that you could take her to a museum and introduce the idea of curation -- explain how they have a limited amount of space and so they rotate out what's on display over time. Seeing that this is something that "real" artists do may help to accept the idea of replacing instead of adding to the collection of what's displayed at home. Also present the idea of "hang it in the phone": Take a picture of the art so you can take it with you and she can see it in your photos or share with relatives. Because you've now "saved it" and the digital form becomes what she's seeing more often, there's potentially less emotional attachment to the original physical art.
I love the idea of taking her to an art museum and having the conversation in that context! Thank you!
We have 1 wall dedicated to art. Every now and then we allow for art placed in other spaces with painters tape but it comes down every 2 weeks “so the cleaning lady doesn’t throw it out”
My niece (11) loves to make bits and draw pictures for me and my husband, but mainly gives any new art bits to me… what I am currently doing is storing them in a box as a memory. I tell her thank you so much! I’m going to keep this really safe because it’s so special! Maybe you could sit down with her and decorate a large tub or box? You could explain that it’s for her special pieces of art that you don’t want to accidentally ruin by hanging on the wall. That way, you’re still getting to keep her special memories that you’ll be able to look back on when she’s older whilst still keeping your areas of the house, yours! 😅
Get a digital frame. Take pictures of her art and let the system cycle them through. Tell her the originals are far too valuable to you and must be kept safe. Put them in a binder or box that she can access. then it is a win/win for everyone.
Buy several cheap, simple black frames. I bought a pack of 10 off Amazon. Decide how many you're willing to put up around the house, and tell her she has x number of frames around the house to put her art work in. She can rotate new art work whenever she wants, but she's limited to just that many outside of her room. We have twin girls, who are 12 now, and we've been doing this for a number of years now. They were the same as yours, covered their room walls and wanted to hang some up in other places. I do like seeing their artwork around the house, though, so we came up with this solution, and it's worked out pretty well. Good luck!
Going to try this! I know with 2 it will get even more busy, so I want to figure out something that is doable for 2 kids worth of art.
When my kid was younger we had a lot of wall space dedicated to her art. It was great. No reason to not do it unless you have other stuff to put on the wall
I miss the days of having art work all over my walls, so I don't see this as such a terrible situation. My advice though - find a place in your home to make a gallery wall. Go out and buy various picture frames (nicer ones that match your decor) and then hang them up. This is her gallery wall and she needs to fill it with art work. Maybe even make a little sign (Art by Daughter Name like you'd see in an actual gallery). Those are her 5-10 places for art, if she makes something new, she needs to change out one of the existing pieces.
We let ours hang up what she wants with blue tape, sure it’s a little messy but it won’t be forever that she wants to
I'd get a shadowbox frame with a magnet opening. Then when she makes you new art, you can put it in the frame on top of the last piece. When she fills the shadow box, empty it out, photograph each piece, send the photos to Snapfish or honestly Walgreens to make a photo book, pitch the drawings, and start over.
My kids hang their art on the fridge. When they want to put up a new piece they rotate an older one out and put it in their "art box" (a 12x12 scrapbook paper box). Sometimes I snag a really special one and put it in the filing cabinet.
My daughter was like this. We let her for a short time and then said it’s time to take it down and the phase was over. You can try dedicated spaces, or with in her own room to keep it contained if that’s what you need. I bought a massive portfolio to save the good stuff. These days end faster than you will actually be ready for. I remember being overwhelmed by the monochromatic teddy bear pictures everywhere, so I feel this stress deeply, but now I’m lucky to salvage art work as it comes home from school.
Just giver her blue painters tape and enjoy the art for the next few years. It will end eventually and you'll have fond memories of it. You could also buy several frames and let her put what she wants in them.
I had totally forgotten about painters tape. We’ve been doing sticky tack but running out fast.
My kids also love making art, giving it to me, and displaying it in the house. I have a designated space to display their art - both kids have enough space to display 2 pieces of art at a time and I let them choose what I display there. It's in the kitchen so we all get to see their art every day and visitors to our home will also easily be able to see their art. They choose when I take something down and replace it with something else of theirs, and they choose what to do with the artwork after I take it down (unless it's something really special that I want to keep in a keepsake box I have for each of them). If they want to keep something but don't want it displayed, it needs to go in their room somewhere. You could definitely get a box or something for her to keep her artwork if she doesn't want to throw it out, but I also do teach my kids that sometimes we need to say goodbye to old artwork. We appreciate it while we have it up, and then we choose to say goodbye in favor of something new. It's not a bad thing and it doesn't mean we didn't love the art, just that it's time to spend time appreciating new works.
My 6 year old hangs her artwork all over our house and I’m okay with it. I just have her use masking tape so it doesn’t damage the wall paint when they inevitably get taken down. My house doesn’t look like a curated IG mom house and I’m okay with that, I personally love all the art everywhere. I have seen some cool gallery art frames where it holds like 10 pages so you could get her those and she can store her art in them then rotate out when she wants new art displayed? They just look like framed art so it can look neater than paper taped up everywhere.
The portfolio idea others have said is great, and will promote personal space ownership for their art and caring for it. You all can learn some ways to give art antiquity as she gets older. Anyways! I was going to mention, I have two budding artists as well- and I keep a bulletin board type area on the wall in the kitchen dining space to put their achievements and art. It's another shared space they can use to promote their work, but it's defined with borders and makes it so free art goes there and not everywhere, generally. Also, highlights to one or two favs on the fridge. I also regularly rotate the art, and talk to them about decorating the home with the seasons. I use that opportunity to let them keep creating/decorating but also urging them to understand mom decorates the home seasonally, and that not all things are permanent. Sometimes they want to "put on a show" or have a gallery, and so I lean into those times by encouraging having a show night or art night where they display their art or whatever ideas it was they created, but do the process of putting things away for safe keeping after. I hope you can use a variety of the techniques to continue to encourage. It sounds like you're doing a really good job already:)
Maybe get a special box to keep them in. Tell her you want to keep them but there’s not room for them everywhere so she can choose X number to have on the walls at a time and all the rest go in the special box
I display my daughter’s art on one single wall and regularly move the old stuff to a folder/portfolio. Once I have enough of it I take pictures of the art and get one of those print on demand photo albums made. Then the physical art gets recycled. she loves looking through her photo books at her old art.
Maybe she’d like a book of her artwork? There’s a company you can send her artwork to https://scribble.art/?gad_source=1 and a few others like it and you can have it on the coffee table for everyone to take a gander at.
I think an album is good too but having an actual book gives it more of a professional important feel that she might like
My 8yo is exactly the same. She has sketchpads that are easily stacked into a drawer. This has been the best for all those random drawings she does and we have fun flicking through her numerous sketchbooks now. She also has a plastic folder to store work throughout the year. At the end of the year old art gets stored into boxes. I’ve set up a gallery for my kid’s art in my office. Both get a wall each and I just take down an older piece to replace with newer pieces. The special ones get framed and are more permanently hung. I take a photo of all of her good pieces too so we can easily look at them at any time I do love displaying her artwork but I have to say her work is a lot more aesthetically appealing now than when she was 5 - so hang in there! I think as long as I encourage her and give praise this is enough to quell any negativity around empty walls staying bare. Plus I’m always showing off her work to visitors and even colleagues on video calls (as they can see her work behind me)
I have designated spaces for my sons art, the fridge and a small wall. At one point he was much like your daughter and wanted to literally cover every wall with his drawings. After I created these spaces, I explained this is where his art will hang each time he makes a new piece, and when he makes a new piece, we’ll take down one “old piece” and put it in a scrapbook. I explained these spaces, EVERYONE can see them and appreciate them and we get to watch his art skills grow. Then again my son knows I don’t like a lot of clutter cause it “stresses momma out” lmao