One of the questions so many of my young mom clients ask is, “How do I organize kids school papers?”

They don’t know what to do with all the stuff their kids make and bring home. These sweet mom’s love to sit down and see their children’s masterpieces when they come through the door, but, the one thing that dangles in each mothers mind is, “What do I do with all these papers now?” They don’t know what to keep and what to let go. If you too are concerned with how to select the keepers and easily store those selected, I have a FREE How To Organize Kids School Papers download for you and a two-step process for organizing kids school keepsakes.

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  Tools needed to organize kids school papers … one child at a time.                    

  • One (1) portable filing bin that accommodates hanging files (see photo 3 below)
  • Twelve (12) hanging files and file label tabs (one color per child)
  • One (1) 24 quart sized plastic box with lid for collecting the “probable” papers throughout the term.

 Tools in place? Now organize kids school papers.

Now that you have your tools ready, I suggest to you that you begin by teaching your children an important life skill:

  1. Proudly display the UTMOST favorites for a week. Then THEY will make the decision about whether it stays or goes. Allow your kids to make these decisions all year long as they bring school work home so they become masters at the decision making “best stuff” concept.
  2. Allow your children to select his/her most valuable papers to store (with some input from you of course). By doing this, you are teaching your children a very necessary life skill.  “We only have so much storage space for these, so select only those that are MOST valuable to you.”
  3. Some questions you might pose to help them include: Do you love it? Were you VERY proud of yourself for accomplishing this? Does this make you SMILE BIG when you see it?
  4. At this point they are only selecting the probable keepers to place in the 24-quart sized box that will be stored in their bedroom closet. At the end of each term you will gather each member of your family together and pull out this temporary storage box for them to make final decisions. (We did this at our regularly scheduled Monday evening family time. We called it Family Home Evening.)
  5. Narrow down each child’s paper masterpieces to ten (10) items per term.  It will be hard for them at first, but within a short time period they will become masters at it!  Allow your kids to make these decisions all year long as they bring work home so they are comfortable with the decision making concept.
  6. Categorize your twelve (12) file folders so they make sense to you and your child. If you need help with this I offer you my FREE Organize Kids School Papers and Keepsakes download which also includes information for optimum storage of your child’s favorite keepsake items (doll,  blankie, trophy, scouting bandalo, award metals, etc).

 Who are you keeping all this “stuff” for anyway?

You are keeping it to give to your kids when they are older and leave your home for a home of their own. I have found that the portable file box we made for each of my children to organize kids school papers was more than ample. Young adults are not usually interested in loads of keepsakes. SO…keep only the best to pass on to them! You can do this!

Interested in more ways to organize your family? Try these ideas:

 

 

 

 

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