There’s been a growing pile in my house for several years. A pile I wasn’t sure quite what to do with, but knew it had to be addressed at some point. If you’re a mother, you have this pile too. It’s the papers, projects, and drawings our little ones have done that we can’t bear to part with.
I try to say I’m not a sentimental mom. I’ve laughed at my sister and made her throw stuff away that broke her heart. “How can I throw this (scrap) away? It says, ‘I love you, mom.’ One day they won’t say this anymore. I need proof!”
This week, I realized I am Johanna…. and my mom. Well, maybe not quite as bad as them (I don’t have any of my children’s umbilical cords). I finally pulled all the memorabilia together to organize it, and get it into a filing system.
I’ve seen several ideas. The one I though I’d use consisted of storage boxes similar to these:
If I were still in Virginia, I’d hop down to the Container Store and get them. But since I’m not, and shipping was almost as much as the boxes themselves, I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought these. They’re large, home decor boxes. Not exactly my style, but I like the size. Even better, I used my 40% and 50% off coupons to get them for $10 and under.
I’ve seen systems like this:
But I don’t like that you are held to an 8.5×11 piece of paper. Many of the preschool projects are larger as are art projects from grade school. So I knew a hanging file (or expandable file) wouldn’t work for me.
I did sort all the kids’ work into folders by grade level.
And placed it in the box with the current grade on top, since I’ll be accessing that folder the most this year. (That blue paper is a good example of larger work… see how much bigger it is than an 8.5×11?)
Then I trimmed some construction paper the size of the box front and painted a personalized label for each box. (poor Ryan’s box is feminine complete with bows and flowers. My other choice was Christmas poinsettias. I picked the lesser of the evils)
The kids’ school work is now organized and sitting in the storage room.
And a whole load is off my shoulders! Then I texted Johanna…
How do you organize school papers?
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (3)
I took pictures of their great big school art. This way I still have how it looked in a 4×6 ” size. Great job on the organization!!
haha I win! Johanna wants to be me 😉
hehe
I keep their last report card, my favorite piece of artwork, and journal for about two months, then I throw it all away. Because I am heartless and cruel and I have three hoarders and I don’t have room to be even a teeny bit of one.