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When you are the parent of young children, you quickly face the dilemma of too much kid-created artwork and not enough walls or fridge space to display it all. Compounding the problem, you also feel as though you should keep every single thing your child has ever created.

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You want to keep the pieces because you see something so trapped in time from your kid’s art. Perhaps it’s simply a hand print, and you always want to remember when their hands were so small. Or maybe it was the way they’d write their name when first learning how to print. While the need to keep and preserve is real, it can wind up with the feeling as though your house is filled to the brim with Cheerio-appliqued wreaths and soggy paint-and-sticker collages. As much as I love my children’s artwork and treasure every piece, the reality is that I simply can’t keep it without renting space at the Art Institute. I also have the desire to never be featured on an episode of Hoarders.

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With Gracie, the artwork trickled into the house in dribs and drabs. She made the occasional painting at home or at daycare, then completed a stencil drawing or two at my parents’ home.

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Once she started preschool, I have had the happy problem of too much art, and nowhere to place it all.

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At first, I’d furtively — and guiltily — throw out piece after piece. The cut-out decorations and scribbled drawings were all placed unceremoniously in the garbage can while Gracie napped, if only because I couldn’t find space for a large Rubbermaid container to stash it for a while. There were a few who have been sent to various relatives and I’ve framed a few pieces to hang as actual art in our hallway, but the rest is long gone.

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And then I came up with an idea that’s beautifully simple: I just take a picture of every creation of Gracie’s, and after about a year I’ll make a little movie out of the pictures set to some of her favorite music. It’s so easy and simple to do, and I’ve spent more time debating which song to use than organizing the pictures.

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It’s the only solution I really have instead of burying her work in storage containers. Because let’s face it, the work will only increase as she gets older and could expand to short stories and essays. Liam has also started tentatively coloring, so I’ll need to keep things for him, too. And where will I be if I don’t have some sort of nifty plan by then?

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How do you preserve your childs artwork? Tell us in the comment section below.