Declutter Trophies and Medals The Easy Way

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This post is all about how to declutter trophies and medals.

If you’re here, I am assuming it is because you also have one too many trophies and medals cluttering up your life. And you are looking for easy ways to declutter trophies and medals, am I right?

I get it! I have two kids and both have been playing sports since they were 5 and they are now 12 and 13! So yeah, that is A LOT of trophies and medals!

And let’s be honest, although we want to keep these memories for our kids, for when they grow up, the truth is these items end up becoming a burden for them instead. Seriously though? How many of you have actually kept all the items your parents passed on to you from your childhood? Or how many felt burdened by the massive amounts of unorganized boxes that your parents passed on to you?

This is why a while ago I decided that if I was going to keep keepsakes for my kids to enjoy when they grow up, I was going to find ways to best organize and store these items. This way, we would actually be able to appreciate and enjoy these items throughout the years. And also when the time comes to pass on the keepsakes to my kids, it will be something they can enjoy with their kids instead of it being a burden for them to deal with.

With that said, here is what I did to declutter trophies and medals in our home, how we are keeping the trophies and medals clutter under control, moving forward, and also suggestions on what to do with old unwanted trophies and medals.

How To Declutter Trophies And Medals

Here is the gist of what I did:

I removed the engraved part of all the trophies and I ended up donating the actual trophy. And for the medals, I removed the ribbon and only kept the medal part and also donated the ribbons. I then used glue dots to glue the plaques and medals to the belonging sports photos.

Table of Contents

Declutter Trophies And Medals | The Steps

Step 1 – Gather Supplies (supplies I used)

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You will also need a chisel and a donation box.

Step 2 – Create a Photo Album (if you Don’t have one)

Step 3 – Consolidate all trophies and medals in one area

Step 4 – Purge

Decide which trophies and/or medals you want to keep intact and which ones you’re okay with just keeping the plaques and medals. Once you have sorted them, separate the ones you are keeping intact (if any) from the ones you are removing plaques and medals.

These were the only ones my kids wanted to keep intact. And for the rest, we only kept the plaque and medals.

Step 5 – Remove Plaques and/or ribbons

Safely use the chisel to remove the engraved plaques from each trophy. And for the medals, just cut off the ribbon.

Some trophies didn’t even need the chisel, I was able to remove the plaque with my fingers.

Step 6 – How to glue the Plaques and medals

Once you have removed all the plaques from the trophies and cut off the ribbon from all the medals, line them all up on a table in order by year.

Then use the glue dots to apply the medals and/or plaques to their designated picture. (as shown in the pictures below)

Initially, I had only added one glue dot per medal, but later added two per medal, and that worked best.

Step 7 – Insert into a sheet protector

When gluing the plaques and medals to the photos, it should look like the picture below. Then insert the finished product into a sheet protector. (as shown below)

And that is it! Repeat steps 6 & 7 until done.

This literally helped me get rid of several boxes of trophies and medals and a lot of clutter! However, we still got to keep the parts that matter from each trophy and medal. And they are nicely displayed and organized so that we can enjoy them for many years to come!

Dont’ Have A Photo Album? Here Are Some Ideas

If you have the sports photos handy, create a photo album with your child’s sports photos. Here I show you how I made my kids’ photo albums.
If you don’t have a picture that pertains to the trophy and/or medals, take a picture of your child holding each trophy and/or medal and use that picture in place of their team photo for the year the trophy/medal belongs to.
Don’t want to take pictures? You can use cardstock paper instead. Use glue dots to secure the plaque and/or medal to the cardstock paper in order by year.

How To Decide What Is Worth Keeping

I let my kids pick their favorite trophies and those we kept in their bedroom displayed. It surprised me to see them pick only a couple and the rest they were okay with letting go. Note: We kept ALL engraved plaques from all the trophies. We only got rid of the trophy, not the engraved part.

So all that to say, what is worth keeping is up to you and your kiddo. But just keep in mind that if you keep everything, then nothing is special. Really give it some thought and keep only the very best!

Suggestion For What To Do With New Awards

Well, this system is fairly new to us. However, we plan to have a designated space in our kids’ bedrooms to display their trophies and medals for a year.

After a year, we will decide if we want to keep it intact or only keep the plaque and medals. This will minimize the clutter by a lot. And we will still be able to enjoy the trophies and/or medals for a little while.

And every so often we will revisit the trophy and/or medal they kept intact and make sure they still want to keep them. If they don’t, then we will take the plaques/medal off and add them to their photo albums.

Suggestions For Where To Donate

Once you decide what trophies, medals, etc. you’re getting rid of, you will have to decide what you’re doing with them all. I do not recommend just throwing them in the trash. So here are a few ideas on what you can do to make sure they don’t end up in a landfill somewhere.

Check your local trophy shops and see if any will take them or if they know of a place where you can take it to recycle near your area. Many trophy shops will take these items as donations. And they refurbish them and resell. Just make sure you remove any of your information from the medals, trophies, etc. before donating them.
Donate them to awardsmall.com. I found this website online and they charge a $20.00 flat recycling fee, which includes 25 trophies. From what I read on their website, they accept gently used trophies, awards, and medals. They are then recycled, re-used, and re-gifted to non-profits nationwide. Check out the website and see for yourself if this is a place you would like to donate to.
Call your local recycling facilities and check if they accept them for recycling.

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This post was all about how to declutter trophies and Medals

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