Maybe your oldest just grew past the top line. Maybe the house is sold, and the chart is coming off the wall for the first time in years. Either way, you're holding a long strip of canvas covered in dated lines, and it's not obvious what comes next.

A growth chart becomes a family heirloom through a few plain decisions made when it retires: how you record it, where it lives, and who gets it. This guide walks through each one, with a section on door-frame marks for families who are moving. The full retirement plan checklist is at the end.

What "full" means, and your options at a glance

In short: a chart is full for one child at a time, and you'll likely combine two or three of the options below.

A chart usually retires for one of four reasons. A child has grown past the top mark. A teenager no longer wants to stand against the wall. The marks are so crowded that new ones are hard to read. Or you're moving.

None of those make the chart less worth keeping. Here's how the options compare.

These aren't either/or choices. Digitize first, then pick one home for the original.

Step one, whatever you choose: digitize the marks

The canvas is the only one of its kind. Photos and a written log are your backup if it's lost in a move, damaged by a leak, or kept by one sibling while another wants a copy. Plan on about an afternoon.

Photograph it

1. Hang it straight or lay it flat on a clean floor, in soft, even daylight. Turn off the flash, since it bounces off ink and hides faint lines.
2. Take one full-length shot, standing far enough back that the top and bottom both fit.
3. Take close-ups section by section, each one overlapping the last, with the printed numbers in the frame. You should be able to read every mark from the photos alone.
4. Photograph any handprints, footprints or notes on their own.
5. Flip it over and photograph the back if anything is written there.

Log every mark

A photo shows the chart. A log keeps the numbers usable. Open a spreadsheet or a notebook page and give every mark one row.

If a mark is smudged, write your best reading with a question mark. If the date is missing, write what you know ("summer, year unsure") rather than guessing. An honest gap is more useful later than a confident mistake.

Back it up and make copies

• Save the photos and log in two places, with at least one outside your house. A shared cloud folder plus a USB drive works, or an email to a grandparent.
• Name the folder so someone else could find it: "Growth chart – [family name] – [first year] to [last year]."
• Print the full-length photo as a poster or a photo book page. That's the easiest way to give each child their own copy.
• For a closer-to-full-size copy, some print and copy shops have large-format scanners. Call ahead and ask whether they'll scan fabric.

One more benefit: the log never runs out of room. If a child is still growing past the top of the chart, keep measuring against a bare wall with a tape measure and add the rows. The record stays in one place even after the canvas can't hold it.

Keeping a full growth chart on display

In short: if you're not moving and the chart still looks good, leaving it up is a perfectly good answer.

Leave it up, but check the spot

A full chart still works as wall decor, and it's a conversation piece when relatives visit. Check two things. Direct sun fades ink and fabric over time, and busy spots get scraped by the same backpacks and laundry baskets every day.

If the current spot fails either test, our room-by-room guide to where to hang a growth chart has quieter options, like a closet door or a stairwell landing.

Frame it

A long shadow box or custom frame protects the canvas and makes it read as art. Ask the framer for UV-filtering glazing and a mounting method that doesn't glue or tape the canvas itself. Get a quote before you commit; custom framing for a piece this long is a real expense.

A framed chart is also much heavier than canvas on a single hook. Use hardware rated for the weight, anchor into a stud where you can, and don't hang it above a bed or crib.

Bring it out once a year

Another option: roll the chart away and unroll it on one day each year, like a birthday or the first day of school. Everyone finds their old marks, and you take one photo. It turns a stored keepsake into a small tradition, and it's the gentlest display option for the canvas.

How to store a growth chart so it lasts

In short: roll it, wrap it, and keep it somewhere you'd be comfortable living.

1. Look it over. Brush off dust with a soft, dry brush. Don't wash it, spot-clean it or scrub near a mark, since water and cleaners can lift or spread ink. Follow your chart's care notes; if you don't have them, assume no washing, no drying and no ironing.
2. Roll it, never fold it. A fold becomes a permanent crease, often straight through a mark. Roll it around a tube at least 3 inches across; wider is gentler. Keep the marked side facing out, which puts less strain on paint handprints and footprints.
3. Add a buffer. Plain cardboard is acidic and can discolor fabric over years, so wrap the tube in acid-free tissue first. Lay a sheet of tissue along the chart as you roll so the layers don't rub. Tuck a folded piece around the metal grommet so it doesn't press into the canvas.
4. Cover it with cotton. An old pillowcase or cotton sheet lets air move. Skip sealed plastic bags and vacuum bags, which can trap moisture and crush the roll.
5. Pick the right closet. Store it inside your living space, like a bedroom or hall closet, and keep it off the floor. Attics, garages, basements and storage units swing hot, cold and damp, and they're where pests find things.
6. Label the outside. Write the family name, the years, and where the digital copy lives. Tuck a chart card (template below) inside the roll.
7. Check it once a year. Unroll it, look for spots or musty smells, let it air for an hour, and roll it back up.

For more on keeping family papers and keepsakes at home, the National Archives has a practical guide to caring for family archives.

Passing it to a sibling or the next generation

In short: a chart is only full for the child who grew past it, and it can pick up a new chapter decades later.

Younger siblings

If younger kids are still growing, keep marking them on the same chart. Give each child their own pen color or put initials beside every line, and write the key on the chart card so nobody has to guess later. If the lower section gets crowded, put one child's marks on the left edge and another's on the right.

Side-by-side marks make comparisons easy, and not every younger or shorter kid enjoys that. Our guide to talking to kids about height differences without comparison has simple language for when it comes up.

Grandkids

This is where a growth chart becomes a real family heirloom. Two approaches work:

• Add to the original. When your grown child has a baby, they mark the new child in a fresh color right beside their own childhood lines. Seeing "you at 4" next to "Dad at 4" is hard to beat. This works best if there's still readable space and the canvas is in good shape.
• Retire the original and start fresh. Hang the old chart beside a new one and keep the same measuring day the family always used. The original stays protected, and the family story still reads side by side.

If the retired chart is going up in a new baby's nursery, hang it measured from the floor as usual, make sure the hook is secure enough that a tug on the bottom edge can't pull the chart or hook down, store the marking pen and its cap out of reach, and keep it well away from the crib. Nothing should hang over a crib.

Be realistic about age. How long any canvas holds up depends on storage and handling, so treat the photos and log from step one as the backup, whichever route you take.

If you're starting fresh, our Canvas Kids Growth Chart ($44) is 100% cotton canvas, starts at the 6-inch mark so it clears baseboards, and comes with a fabric-safe pen. You can personalize it with a name. If it's a gift for a new arrival, allow 7–10 business days for shipping.

A third setup: the chart lives at the grandparents' house, and one big visit each year becomes measuring day. Our post on the annual Thanksgiving height check at Grandma's house covers how to keep marks accurate when you only measure once a year.

Deciding who keeps it

One chart, several kids, and eventually several households. Decide early and write it down; it's a much easier talk while nobody is moving out. Three setups that tend to feel fair:

• Parents keep the original, and each child gets a full-length print when they leave home.
• The original goes to the first child who wants to measure their own kids on it, and every sibling gets a print.
• The original stays wherever the grandkids get measured, even if that's not with the child it started with.

Write a chart card

Whoever has the chart in 20 years won't remember that blue was the middle kid. Write a short card and keep one copy in the storage tube and one with the digital files. Copy this:

"[Family name] growth chart, [first year] to [last year]
Blue: [Name], born [year]. Green: [Name], born [year].
How we measured: [shoes off, heels to the wall, on birthdays].
Last mark: [date].
Photos and the full log are saved in: [folder name] and [second location].
This chart goes to: [name or plan]."

If you're handing it on, add a one-line note:

"This chart hung in our hallway from [year] to [year]. The [color] marks are you. Add your kids in a new color, and date every line."

How to keep a growth chart after moving (door frames included)

In short: a canvas chart rolls up and rides with you. Door-frame marks need a plan before the house is listed.

Moving a canvas chart

• Take it down yourself a week or so before the movers arrive, and roll it using the storage steps above.
• Carry it in your car with your documents and anything else you can't replace. It shouldn't go on the truck.
• When you rehang it, measure from the floor so the printed numbers match real height again. If your chart starts at the 6-inch mark, that line goes 6 inches up from the floor, not 6 inches above the baseboard.

Saving door-frame marks

Door-frame marks stay with the house unless you act. Pick one of these before move-out, listed from least to most work:

1. Measure and log them. Run a tape measure from the floor to each line and add it to the same log format as above, copying names and dates exactly as written. Photograph each mark with the tape visible.
2. Trace a full-size copy. Tape a strip of kraft paper over the trim with painter's tape, from the floor to above the top mark. Mark the floor line on the paper, then copy every line and label. Roll it like a canvas chart.
3. Transfer them to a new chart. Hang a chart in the new home, measured from the floor, and add each recorded height with its original date. The history carries on, on something that comes with you next time. If you're picking one out, our canvas growth charts hang from a single grommet, so taking one down for the next move is quick.
4. Take the trim. If you own the home and haven't listed it, you can remove the marked casing and replace it with matching trim. Renters need the landlord's written OK. Once the house is under contract, trim usually counts as part of what the buyer is getting, so ask your agent before you pull anything off.

Kids may need a goodbye moment for the marks as much as a record of them. Our guide to helping kids say goodbye to the old house before a move covers that side, including photographing the growth-chart wall before you leave.

The growth chart retirement plan checklist

Here's the whole plan on one list. Screenshot it, or print it and tuck it in the storage tube with the chart card.

Before it comes down

• ☐  Add one last dated mark for every child still on the chart.
• ☐  Take a full-length photo, then overlapping close-ups with the printed numbers in frame.
• ☐  Photograph handprints, footprints and anything written on the back.
• ☐  Log every mark: name, date, height, notes. Flag smudges with a question mark.
• ☐  Save photos and log in two places, one outside your house.

Pick its next home

• ☐  Display: out of direct sun, away from backpack traffic, secured to the wall.
• ☐  Frame: UV-filtering glazing, no glue on the canvas, hardware rated for the weight, not above a bed or crib.
• ☐  Store: rolled marked side out on a 3-inch or wider tube, acid-free tissue, cotton cover, indoor closet, off the floor.
• ☐  Pass on: one color or initials per child, chart card written, "who keeps it" decided and shared with everyone.

If you're moving

• ☐  Chart taken down a week or so early and rolled, not folded.
• ☐  Chart riding in your car, not on the truck.
• ☐  Door-frame marks measured, photographed and logged before listing or move-out.
• ☐  In the new home: chart rehung measured from the floor, not the baseboard.

Once a year

• ☐  Unroll the stored chart, check for spots or musty smells, air it out and reroll.
• ☐  Add any new heights to the log.
• ☐  Update the chart card if the plan has changed.

A full chart doesn't need a big plan, just the right first step. Photograph it and log the marks this week, while every line is still easy to read. Where it hangs, rolls or travels next can wait until you know, and the record will be safe in the meantime.

Frequently asked questions