First thing’s first – the winner of the hard drive giveaway  is (another) Heather:

Congrats Heather!

I’ve talked before about how I am a pack rat. I never want to part with anything, which is unfortunate because I would have made a ton if I’d sold my troll doll and beanie baby collections. Now that we are in our new house, I am determined to shed my pack rat ways and find the perfect balance between keeping things that Annie will want to use later in life, and throwing away the stuff that will take up unnecessary room. In my research for this, I’ve found some creative ideas to share!

Baby Clothes

To avoid clutter my mom kept a few sentimental articles of clothing that belonged to me and my brother, and gave the rest away. I’ve decided to do the same with Annie’s clothes, but with one fun twist – I am going to carefully pack my favorite clothes of hers along with pictures of her wearing them. For example, my mom saved a red plaid skirt that used to belong to me. Annie wore it the other day and it’s only going to fit her for about…five more seconds. So into storage it will go, but I will also include these two pictures:

with "Santa"
Me wearing the skirt in 1980

Spooky Annie
Annie wearing the skirt in 2011

I think it will be a cool surprise for Adult Annie when she opens up the clothes I saved for her and sees pictures of herself wearing them.

Children’s Artwork

Annie’s artwork is already piling up, and she barely knows how to hold a crayon. These masterpieces start to take up a lot of space after a while. For posterity, I capture the whole creative event with my camera, then I scan the finished object and throw it in the recycling bin.

instrument of art.
Holding her instrument of art.

annie's first coloring
Annie’s very first coloring sheet, from when she was ten months old. Such a genius.

As Annie gets older, I’ll ask her to title her art, and I’ll be sure to include that when I save the files to my hard drive. There are tons of great ideas and tips for scanning and displaying your child’s artwork here, so be sure to check it out.

Greeting Cards

One idea I think is great is scanning cards. I have to confess…I have boxes full of cards that were give to me or my girls. I love being able to look at my grandma’s handwriting, or read the amazingly touching cards people sent after Maddie passed. But they take up so. much. space. I’ve promised myself that once a week, I’m going to start going through those boxes and scanning the cards. The messages are what mean the most to me, and by scanning the cards I can always have them. All HP Photo Printers have scanners, so if you’re looking to get a new printer, I definitely suggest checking out the HP printer section. I love mine (I have the e-station)!

Looking through all the great ideas for saving Annie’s stuff actually has me excited to get organized! I must have a fever or something. Be sure to check out this article on saving mementos for your kids – there are so many good ideas!

Next week is the first in a bunch of Halloween posts! YAY!