*Sponsored by Wayfair
Today we are participating in Wayfair’s Spring Cleaning Challenge and I am tackling the topic of school papers! Are they every bit as hard to know what to do with as they are in my house? So, with 4 kids and 4 sets of school papers that come home everyday I thought I would talk a little bit about some tips, tricks and solutions that have worked for me for organizing school papers.
Tip #1–You can’t keep everything. I learned this one long ago when my children wanted to keep everything. I’ve gotten better over the years about knowing what to keep and what not to so I will share a few thoughts.
What do I keep? For younger children, I love to keep a sample of their handwriting at least monthly (especially pre-K through 1st grade) because I love to see how it changes. What I don’t keep are the day to day things….everyday math, everyday writing…those things can add up fast and create clutter. And for older children, I let them decide what they want to keep. It’s a great thing to be able to give them a storage container and let them fill it up…it’s more personal to them.
Tip #2–Use school artwork as art! I love to use kid’s art as artwork in my house. It’s one of my favorite things to show off how great kids’ art can look in a space…it adds brightness and color and it just makes me happy.
Tip #3–Take care of papers everyday. This tip is an easy one to think of but taking care of papers as they come home is a day to day struggle! I think it just takes getting into the habit of doing it everyday to put it into your routine.
Tip #4–Have a place for papers that need to be returned. I use one clipboard for everyone, so if they have a permission slip that needs to be signed and returned, it goes on the board. Then I can sign everything in one fell swoop and they can return it to school.
Tip #5–Everyone is responsible for their own papers. With trying to keep track of 4 kids, I have taught my kids that they are responsible for their own papers (and library books!). It takes a bit of time (and lots of reminders) but then once they know that they are responsible it takes so much pressure off me.
Tip #6–Have storage containers that are kid-friendly to use. Here is the thing…it has to be easy, or the kids won’t use it. So I have 5 storage ideas that are kid-friendly and will work great to store papers.
This file folder box would be perfect for the older kid years when there are only a few papers per year. Place a hanging file folder for each year and you are done!
These paper boxes are a great solution! One box for every school year…and you are done!
This metal wall organizer would be perfect to hang on the wall and be an easy place to plant papers for organizing school papers.
These magazine holders are the solution I use at home….and they are perfect! Every child has one holder a year so when one of my kids brings home a paper they want to keep they just go open the cupboard and place their “take-home” paper in there.
Or this open metal file folder bin would work super well to put in papers as well.
