Somewhere in most family homes there is a carrier bag of school papers. It starts in Reception with a painting of a rainbow and a certificate for good sitting, and by Year 6 it has grown into a soft mountain of reports, spelling tests and a leavers' hoodie nobody can quite throw away. A keepsake box gives all of it a home — and, just as usefully, a limit.

The trick is not to keep everything. It is to keep the right things, and to label them while you still remember what they are and why they mattered. Here is what is worth saving across seven years of primary school, and how to store it so it survives the next twenty.

Start with a box, not a filing system

Resist the urge to build a colour-coded archive. One sturdy, lidded box per child is enough to begin with: something roughly A4 in size, deep enough for a folded jumper and a rolled-up painting. A box is forgiving. You can add to it in five minutes on a Sunday evening, and its physical size forces a decision every time it fills up.

Choose something acid-free if you can, write each child's name and the years it covers on the outside in marker, and keep it where you can actually reach it — under a bed or at the bottom of a wardrobe. A damp loft or a condensation-prone garage will undo years of good intentions.

Reception to Year 2: the early years

This is the highest-volume period and the most charming, which is a difficult combination. Aim for a handful of pieces rather than the whole portfolio:

• Their first proper attempt at writing their own name.
• An early self-portrait, and one later one from Year 2 so you can see the change.
• A first-day photo at the school gate, taken in the same spot each September.
• Star of the week and headteacher's awards — the small paper ones, not every sticker.
• The nativity or Christmas programme, with their part circled.
• The school photograph, plus any birthday cards from classmates with wobbly handwriting inside.

Two habits are worth starting now. First, write the date and a short note on the back in soft pencil: "Y1, written the week after Granny visited, March." In ten years that line is worth more than the drawing. Second, skip the laminator. Lamination cannot easily be reversed and can trap moisture; a clear plastic wallet does the same job without committing you to anything.

Years 3 and 4: the middle years

The volume drops here, but the work gets more interesting. Keep one piece of writing that shows their voice — a story, a letter, a recount of a school trip — and one project they were genuinely proud of. Add the programme from a school play, a swimming badge or competition certificate, and the school report for each year. Reports are small, easy to overlook, and the thing you will most want to reread in 2040.

Large models, clay pots and costumes are a different problem. Photograph them against a plain wall, note the year, then let the object go. The photo takes up nothing and tells the same story.

Years 5 and 6: the final stretch

By now you are choosing for the long term. Keep a substantial piece of writing, the class photo, the Year 6 production programme, any award, and the leavers' hoodie or shirt — folded flat rather than hung, which stretches the shoulders. The results sheet from the end-of-primary assessments is worth keeping; the practice papers are not.

One addition makes a real difference. Ask your child to write a short page of their own: what they remember, who their friends were, what they were good at. A few lines in their own handwriting will outlast every certificate in the box.

The keep-or-let-go rule

When you are unsure about something, ask one question: does this tell a story I could not otherwise tell? Thirty spelling tests do not. One test with 10/10 on it, earned after months of effort, does.

• Keep: firsts and lasts, anything in your child's own words, notes from teachers or friends, photographs, and certificates with a story attached.
• Photograph, then pass on: models, oversized artwork, trophies, costumes and anything too bulky to store.
• Recycle without guilt: worksheets, repeated practice sheets, unnamed and undated printouts, and the fourth copy of the same class photo.

Labelling and storage that actually works

Labelling

Write on the back, never the front. A soft pencil on the reverse of artwork, or a small sticky label on a plastic wallet for anything that cannot be written on. Include the year and one line of context. Keep a pencil in the box so it is there when you need it.

Storage

Keep items flat, out of direct sunlight, and separated with acid-free tissue if you have delicate pieces. Avoid sellotape directly on paper — it yellows and stains over time. If your storage space is at all damp, add a couple of silica gel sachets and check them once a year. And photograph each new addition as it goes in; ten minutes with a phone each summer gives you a digital backup if the box is ever lost, flooded or left behind in a move.

A five-minute ritual each July

On the last day of term, or the first quiet weekend of the summer holidays, empty the school bag with your child. Ask them to choose three things worth keeping — children are usually better at this than adults expect. Date them, add the note, put them in the box and recycle the rest. Photograph the new arrivals, close the lid and put it back.

That is the whole system. It takes less time than a supermarket shop, and it means nothing important is lost in a carrier bag. In twenty years the box will hold the handwriting, the small proud faces and the ordinary Tuesday afternoons you would otherwise have forgotten.

Photo: mccreativehub / Pixabay