Keeping School Work Clutter Free

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Well folks, if your kids haven’t gone back already, I imagine you all will be back to school this week, and I for one can’t wait! I guess it’s the teacher in me coming out, but I am so excited for my big boy to walk the halls of Kindergarten. Having taught for many years before deciding to stay home this year, I know first hand how much PAPER can come home with your little ones. My oldest has been in daycare for five years, and around year 3 I had massive stacks of crafts, awards, evaluations, pictures – all sorts of papers filling his closest shelves. I am a bit of a hoarder at times, and it’s difficult for me to part with anything school related, so my paper mounds have grown quickly – and we’re just starting elementary school! I am an organization freak, so I knew I needed to find some sort of system to get this stuff off the shelves and more organized.

Thanks to good ‘ole Pinterest, you can find lots of different systems of organizing school paperwork. I was looking for something that was:

  1. cost-effective
  2. going to hide or conceal the papers
  3. would hold several years worth in one place
  4. and above all CUTE!!!

Three years ago though I didn’t even know what Pinterest was, but thanks to all my avid blog reading I was able to find just what I was looking for. One of my favorite organizing blogs, I Heart Organizing, had a perfect solution that met all my criteria!

Here is my solution…I purchased a nice big file folder box from The Container Store®  (have you had a chance to visit the new location yet?) and some hanging file folders. Fifteen to be exact! I want to cover two years of Pre-K, then years K-12th.

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Then I printed off these adorable cover sheets and taped them onto the front of each hanging file folder.  There is a spot for a first day picture, and places for you to write in the year, school, and teacher name!

school1I have two years worth of stuff nicely tucked away into file folders, and have this year’s Kinder folder ready to go!

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I love this storage solution because its all in one place and it’s inside a box! Nothing can fall out or get ripped, and it’s easy to distinguish year from year! I do keep arts and crafts up around the house as they come home, but once a new art project comes in the old always has a place to go to. As my boys get older, I’ll see less arts and crafts, and more schoolwork, like report cards, sport awards, essays, and more.

If you are needing to tackle the school paper mound, I found Pinterest to be a great resource where you can browse through all kinds of options and pick something that works best for you and your style. If you’re not a hoarder like me, you may want something on a smaller scale. Now I just need to get on the ball and make one for my youngest, as he’s about to start Pre-School in a couple of weeks!

school2How do you organize the mounds of papers your kids bring home?

2 COMMENTS

  1. I <3 "I heart organization" as well, Tara. LOVE her site and am headed to the container store TODAY for this stuff. My oldest is only in preschool but already we have a fair amount of school clutter.

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