Start with a shoebox, not a skip

Every household with a small child has a corner where the artwork accumulates. The painting that came home on Friday, the clay owl that is still faintly damp, the cardboard rocket that is far too big for any folder. The instinct is either to keep everything until you are drowning in it, or to quietly recycle the lot and feel guilty for a fortnight.

There is a middle path, and it is the one I recommend to every parent who asks: photograph the bulky, awkward things, and keep a small, well-chosen set of originals flat in archival sleeves. Two collections, two purposes. The photographs give you a complete record without the storage problem. The originals give you the texture, the smudges and the actual crayon marks.

It helps to start with a shoebox rather than a storage unit. One box per child per year is a realistic limit, and knowing the limit makes the decisions much easier.

Photographing the things that will never fit in an album

Clay figures, junk-model robots, papier-mâché animals, dens built from cereal boxes: these are the pieces children are often proudest of and the ones that cause the most grief when they eventually crumble. Photograph them before that happens.

Set the object on a plain sheet of A2 lining paper or a large piece of card, taped down so it does not curl. Stand it near a window but out of direct sun, and turn off the flash — a flash flattens texture and bounces off shiny paint. Move yourself, not the object, rather than handling a fragile model repeatedly.

• Take three shots of anything three-dimensional: one from the front, one from the side and one looking down from above.
• Include something for scale — a 30cm ruler, a favourite toy, or your own hand — so that in ten years the size is obvious.
• Note the dimensions and the date in your album alongside the print. "Rocket, 62cm tall, made with Daddy, March" tells a better story than the photograph alone.
• Photograph the messy bits too. The wonky wing and the glued-on bottle top are what you will actually miss.

Getting a good photograph of a flat painting

Flat work is easier, but a few habits make a real difference. Work in daylight on an overcast day, or beside a north-facing window, which gives soft, even light without glare.

• Hold the camera directly above and parallel to the paper. Angling it turns a rectangle into a trapezium and hides the edges.
• Take one full-frame shot that includes the whole sheet, then a close-up of a detail — a wobbly signature, a carefully drawn eye, a handwritten caption.
• Crop the background afterwards so the artwork fills the frame, and straighten the edges.
• Name the files as you go: 0123456789_Elsie_rainbow. Future you will be grateful.
• Back everything up in two places. A cloud folder plus an external drive is enough.

Print the best images at 6x4 or 5x7 inches on matte paper. Matte prints resist fingerprints and glare, and they sit comfortably in an album alongside written notes.

Choosing which originals to keep

You do not need to keep everything to keep the memory. Sort in short sittings rather than a whole rainy afternoon, and ask four questions of each piece:

• Does it show a leap — the first time they wrote their name, drew a person with a body, or mixed a colour on purpose?
• Is there a story attached, or words written on the back?
• Does the child love it? Ask them directly: "Which three would you save if you could only save three?"
• Would a photograph do the job just as well?

If the answer to the last question is yes, photograph it and let the original go. Some pieces can be cut into gift tags or used as wrapping paper for a grandparent's present, which is a gentler ending than the recycling bin. Children are usually far less sentimental than their parents about this, and watching you decide calmly teaches them something useful about keeping what matters.

Storing originals in archival sleeves

Once you have your chosen few, store them properly, because cheap storage undoes good intentions. Look for acid-free, lignin-free, photo-safe sleeves and album pages — the materials sold for photograph archives rather than general office supplies.

• Avoid PVC sleeves and old-fashioned magnetic albums. They can release gases over time and stick to artwork.
• Choose polyester or polypropylene pockets, or paper sleeves with a clear front so you can see the picture without handling it.
• Interleave pastel, charcoal and thickly painted work with acid-free tissue, as these smudge and transfer onto whatever is next to them.
• Never laminate a drawing you intend to keep, and never repair tears with ordinary sticky tape. Both cause damage that cannot be reversed.
• Store flat rather than rolled, in a cool, dry room away from radiators and direct sunlight. Lofts and garages swing between damp and baking, which is hard on paper.

Oversized pieces can live in a large portfolio box or an under-bed storage box lined with acid-free tissue. Add a sheet of tissue between each layer and keep the box out of damp.

Labelling so the album stays useful

An unlabelled album becomes a mystery within a decade. Every time you add a print or an original, write the essentials on the page or a caption card: the child's name, their age, the date, what the piece was made with, and what they said about it. Quote them exactly. "It's a dog but it's also a boat" is worth more than any description you could write.

Use a pigment-ink pen for labels, as ballpoint and felt-tip can fade or bleed. If you need to mark the back of an actual artwork, use a soft pencil, lightly, in one corner — never a marker. Put sticky labels on the outside of the sleeve rather than on the art itself.

Finally, number the pages and keep a simple index at the back: page number, child, year. Keep one small box of current favourites out on display and rotate it every few months, refilling from the archive. That way the album becomes a living thing you actually open, rather than a box you are slightly afraid of.