Are you one of those moms?

[papie]

I was just browsing Pinterest and there was a pin about making a folder for each school year with memories inside. Which made me think of how MIL did that. And also had albums for each year all the way to 18.
My mom is the opposite. Pictures and memories are shoved in giant plastic bags at random places in her house.

I am honestly more like my mom. I throw any prints people give me in random order in albums and that is as organized as I am going to get. I made one printed album for Anna three years ago and will make then each one every few years I hope. And their baby memories (including cord stump) are shoved in a ziplock bag somewhere. I started a baby book for Anna and gave up at like 3 months.
I will never be the mom with all the organized pics and memory. I guess I need to accept that about myself.
Are you?

[iamali]

No. I'm not.

I am, however, friends with someone who keeps EVERY.SINGLE.THING that her children bring home from school. I wish I was kidding.

[Deleted]

I hope I do it by school year, but I'll probably be the douchey twin mom and not give Marc and Gabe their own folders/whatever.

It seems like, based on how I deal w their daycare art, I'll be more likely to go through stuff at the end of the year and just hoard it until then.

[daisybuchannan]

Get rid of the cord stump. They will not be happy iWeb you tell them what it is while they're rummaging through childhood pics.

Lol.

I'm in between, certainly not a Pinterest worthy organized mom but its not a mess either.

[hisno1girl]

Hahahahaaaaaaaa.

No.

I'm organized but I'm not sentimental. 18 years of folders would be too much clutter for me to deal with. ALL of my daughter's baby items fit in a box that holds a case of paper.

[sara76]

I've only got a 2 year old but I did repin the binder for every school year thing. I'm very unorganized though so that's probably a pipe dream. But I have nothing from when I was young and I was supposedly a great creative writer. I remember my teachers always making a big deal and I always got chosen to read my stories in front of the class. I really wish my mom would have saved just one of those stories.

[papie]

Nov 7, 2013 16:02:51 GMT -5 hisno1girl said:

Hahahahaaaaaaaa.

No.

I'm organized but I'm not sentimental. 18 years of folders would be too much clutter for me to deal with. ALL of my daughter's baby items fit in a box that holds a case of paper.

I know, right?
MIL wanted to drop it all at our house. H and I were like "um no.we don't know what to do with that stuff!" Finally we took a few albums.

[silva]

I plan to do the "OH, the places you will go" thing were each teacher will sign the book at the parent teacher conference.

There is a photo of M at the school with all her fellow kindergarters with the sign Class of 2025.

I almost cried right there.

[callalily]

Nope. Not even a little bit. I keep cute things like cards and art projects. But I'm a bad twin Mom and all their stuff is together. Haha. I don't have time to organize anything, and when they were newborns I didn't even have time to pee let alone write in a baby book. At that point a shower alone for 3 minutes would have been heaven.

[ginap]

Nope. Caroline's baby book (and it was a super simple one) is half assedly filled out. I am organized in that I have all of the cards that have been given to her in a Tiffany box that I stole from someone at work and have kept her craft projects from daycare in a storage box and I'm calling that good. We don't even have nice printed photos of her in the house anywhere. I would rather devote my energy to other things that she will remember and find important than cataloging all the craft crap she has done thus far.  Her art from daycare isn't going to matter to her when she's 20+.  

[margotmacomber]

I didn't even fill out the baby book.

[Deleted]

I don't have any organized album of photos, no professional pictures, no keepsakes, nothing. I fear I will regret this very soon.

[CurlyQ284]

I keep all artwork. I have a huuuge folder of artwork from SDs and now DSs finger paintings from daycare. All my pictures are digital and organized by month/year on my computer. I have a few albums completed on shutterfly. Every few months I update my current photo album project with new stuff. When it reaches the max amount of pages (100 I think?). I order the album and start a new one.

[papie]

Nov 7, 2013 16:08:40 GMT -5 CurlyQ284 said:

I keep all artwork. I have a huuuge folder of artwork from SDs and now DSs finger paintings from daycare. All my pictures are digital and organized by month/year on my computer. I have a few albums completed on shutterfly. Every few months I update my current photo album project with new stuff. When it reaches the max amount of pages (100 I think?). I order the album and start a new one.

So yes? ;-)
I admire your organization and dedication.

[luckyval]

I have a master box where artwork and other mementos go.

When stuff that's worth saving from the trash comes in the house, we hang it on the fridge or on the art line in Hart's play room until it gets moved up to the box.

Nothing is organized in the least, but I try to write dates on the back of everything.

[papie]

Ok those who say a box, how big is it? Because I would need a box for every year! And that is not counting the stuff they make at home. I shove them in a closet in the basement but will eventually need that closet for other stuff I guess, lol

[flutterfly]

I have every intention of being that mom.  I have all of these great ideas, things I WANT to do, pins that I've pinned on Pinterest. But, their artwork is shoved into a plastic bin in the my closet, their baby books were half-assed and the pictures I've taken are still in the snapfish boxes that they were shipped in.  I want to be that kind of mom, but I too unorganized and probably a bit too flaky.  I swear I'll get to it one day  .

[bonquiqui]

I would like to think that I will be that mom that does those things, but in reality I probably will be like my mom and just put things in random places.  

[caddywompus]

My mom had a big square box for each of us. She kept school pictures, report cards, stuff we made, etc. Once my parents moved out of their house, (to downsize) she gave each of us "our" boxes. It was so cool, because we didn't even know she was saving the stuff!

[Deleted]

I have a huge file box (banker box size) that I got from Ikea that I just throw stuff in. Mostly art work since he is only Pre-K. DH is a photographer so he has all the photos organized on his hard drive. I don't keep every scrap of paper he brings home, I tend to throw away a good amount of the scribbles,etc.. I have a drawer full of baby blankets in his room and his old pre-school teacher made a baby book for each kid when she retired. I have a full binder of pics of him from 3 months until age two when he left that preschool. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't even have anything organized in a binder.

[eb777888]

Dude. I am TOTALLY that mom.

I think my biggest issue is that I have nothing of my childhood. NOTHING. No baby pictures, a baby book, nada. When my grandma heard recently, she had some slides converted digital for me and totally made my year. I hadn't seen these photos and were the first I'd seen when I was a young child.

So now I'm obsessed with documenting a lot. I admit I go overboard.

[gretchenindisguise]

I really wish I was one of those organized people.

I made a L's First Year Photobook, and I still love it. Kid is 4 now, and hasn't gotten another one made. I keep saying I'll get to it. hahahahahahaha

[luckyval]

Nov 7, 2013 16:13:22 GMT -5 papie said:

Ok those who say a box, how big is it? Because I would need a box for every year! And that is not counting the stuff they make at home. I shove them in a closet in the basement but will eventually need that closet for other stuff I guess, lol

I know! 

Right now it's a big Gymboree box that has cute polka dots on it. It works for now, but I've got maybe one more year's worth.

We have an old carpenter's tool box that never gets used, I may make that a larger kids' memory box 

[youbetcha]

I have two things going.

One is the thing you described on Pinterest with the file box and the hanging folders for each grade. My folders are not all perfect with the photo mounted on the outside or whatever, but I have them. I actually just set this up last night, coincidentally. Now that I do, I feel like it will be easy to throw the "save-worthy" things in the folders.

Two is that I have a medium-largish tub for saving their stuff I want to keep. Like the outfits they came home in, my daughter's adorably tiny arm brace from when she broke it, a cute family picture my son drew, whatever. I just throw stuff I want to save in the box. I am fully aware that my kids will not want 99% of that when they are grown, but my mom saved all that stuff and I got a kick out of looking at it at various times as I was growing up. If they want to pitch it when I am dead, they can go for it.

I am NOT ORGANIZED. Anyone I know will say that. I got these receptacles so hopefully I can just throw stuff in as the years go by.

My pictures, on the other hand, are not printed out or anything. Sometimes I am sad about that, but then it all seems like SO MUCH WORK.

[cleo29]

I am going to get one of these for C and then K. I do save birthday cards too and each will have a memory box when they are older. It's not all perfectly organized right now. lol

www.amazon.com/ALEX%C2%AE-Toys-Early-Learning--Little/dp/B000HV0XLS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383865671&sr=8-1&keywords=Kids+Art+Storage+Folder