Taming the Clutter: Art Binders!

My Parker.... he's an adorable child, really.  I'm not just saying that.  But my goodness.  The art messes he makes would drive even the most patient (of which I am not) mother crazy.I am so thrilled that he loves art and that he would rather draw than just about anything, but our house is a fire hazard from the sheer amount of paper he leaves laying around.  He does use both sides, so he is eco-friendly. :)

I had to come up with a plan.  I wanted something that would contain his paper and drawing supplies and was portable, as we take art stuff everywhere we go. Along came "The Art Binder".  I'm sure this idea has been thought of before and it really is simple, but it works for us.

First, I made a simple cover to slide in the front.  I also printed his name out for the side as I have plans to make one for Brynn and it will be easy for them to grab from the shelf.  The back is empty so he can slide his favorite drawing inside.  

Since I chose a 3" binder and knew it would hold 500 sheets, I hole punched an entire ream of paper (we have an electric hole punch that makes it SO much easier!) and put most of it in there.  That way I am not always being asked to refill it.

Finally, I had a lot of pencil pouches laying around, so I filled one with crayons, one with colored pencils and one with regular pencils, erasers, pens and a pencil sharpener.  I have plans to buy him some different types of drawing pencils, I just haven't made it to the store yet.  

 

Sometimes he takes the pages out to draw on, sometimes he draws right in the notebook.  The beauty is that he can keep them all together and they are not all.over.my.house.  I haven't really decided what to do with all the papers once he is done with the book.  Do I recycle them and start over, do I keep them?  If so, how?  I would love to hear your ideas!


Linking here for her "Time to Shine"party.  Check out all of the cute stuff others have posted.  Love it!