How to organize kids keepsakes so that you can find them easily. Enjoy the free printable birthday cards!
I’m a super organized person but also super sentimental when it comes to keepsake stuff. Especially stuff for my kids.
Now that my daughter just turned 5, I knew it was time to tackle filling out the rest of their baby books before I forget.
Most baby books go until the age of 5 so it’s the perfect time to finish filling everything out and store them away.
I had 90% of the books filled out but I still needed to finish adding a few photos here and there.
I also needed to organize their birthday cards.
If you toss them, that’s fine. But if you are like me and want to keep some, here is my solution along with a timeline for how long to keep them.
Let me show you how I organize my kids’ keepsakes (birthday cards) along with a free printable for you to download for your keepsakes.
Because the baby books go until 5 years, I keep the birthday cards for those birthdays.
There’s a section in my kids’ baby books to fill out who came to their birthday and what gifts they received. There is also room for a few birthday photos.
I collect the bunch of birthday cards from that birthday and wrap them in beautiful ribbon.
I used to stick a piece of card stock on top with the birthday year but I decided to make pretty printables for you to download.
Print these printables on card stock and cut down to the size you want. Next slip it on the top of the birthday card pile and add them to a pretty keepsake box/photo box.
This is my favorite paper cutter for cutting the card stock with.
I have two boxes for each of my kids.
One box I labelled ‘birthday cards’ for the five years of birthday cards and another box for just random keepsakes.
For the ‘keepsakes’ box, I have letters from Santa, tooth fairy letters, Valentine’s cards from mom and dad, anything special you’d like them to keep.
I have the keepsake boxes on a shelf in my office and I can add to that box throughout the year.
After the fifth birthday, I just keep the cards from mom and dad and grandparents and stick it in the keepsake box.
There are so many items for the kids that you can keep and if you don’t care about keeping birthday cards, then don’t stress yourself if you didn’t keep them or don’t want to hang on to them.
For me, one shoebox of cards is a sweet, sentimental item to keep.
And a keepsake box is a perfect way to add special momentos over the years.
I’ll be sharing more soon on how to organize other kids’ keepsakes like artwork and baby books.
Happy organizing!
Here are the printables to download 1-5 years for girl and boy:
Keepsake (Girl) Printable
Keepsake (Boy) Printable
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Very sweet! As you children enter the years over 5 you might consider the following: I have “keeper files”, not scrapbooks. So much of what my children wanted me to keep is 3-dimensional – that beautiful work of art they created, a purse that was ruined by nail polish seems to be an important memento, etc. Once they caught onto the fact that these files existed, they started driving the ship! I was recently handed some t-shirts and asked to add them to the file (Homecoming t-shirt, etc). I envision be-questing them each their files when they have their first child.
The other thing I’ve just done was go through 10 years of photos and divided them into 4 boxes, but first I had my favorite 250 photos scanned onto a CD. Each child got their box and a copy of the CD for Christmas this year. They were old enough now to really appreciate it. I made a copy of the CD for the grandparents and uncles. It was a hit. Sorry to be so long winded! Your site is so lovely – thank you.
Such great ideas! I have folders right now for the kids artwork until I figure out what to do with them. Thanks for your sweet comment.
Hugs, Jamie
Did you cover the boxes with that fab pink polka dot paper or did they come that way? Love them!
I bought the boxes that way from Michael’s. Aren’t they cute?
Hugs, Jamie
Great tips! I have three kids and poor #3 has gotten the shaft, lol! They each have large Memory Boxes that I try my best to fill with those important keepsakes. Thank gawd for sites like Shutterfly where I can turn their endless artwork into books (versus keeping the art). Visiting from Style Showcase party.
Thanks Victoria! I love that idea with the artwork. I’ve been keeping their artwork in scrapbooks! Did you write a post on it?
Hugs, Jamie
Nice, you posted this article. You can show your creativity making cards and your feeling towards that person.