5 Steps to Organizing Your Child’s School Papers

Whether you’ve got kids in school, preschool, or daycare, you’ve got papers and artwork coming home on a daily basis. And it’s hard to keep up with it all. Between homework, school excuses, news on upcoming events, tests and quizzes taken, behavior charts, school news, school projects, artwork, and drawings, you feel overwhelmed just thinking of it all.

If there isn’t a clear plan on where to put all the things that come into our homes, the daily flow of stuff just goes where it will hopefully get looked at or addressed. Then, days, weeks, even months go by and the piles of artwork, classwork, and school news sit on our countertops or just shoved into a drawer to be looked at later.

This is what most of us do. Just stick it somewhere to deal with later. But, unfortunately, if no one in the home deals with it, it just collects dust and things get missed.

This always leads to problems later. Not finding something when you need it. Missing a deadline because there are 20 sheets of paper on top of it. Artwork getting ruined when the pile of papers just gets shoved into a drawer.

 

 

Need a Solution

Ugh, we hate the sight of clutter but can’t figure out a better solution to get it cleaned up.

I have 2 kids in school. They’re in 5th and 2nd grade. My 2nd grader loves to draw and comes home almost daily with something new that he drew. They are neat to look at but he doesn’t need to keep all of them (although he wants to).

I knew I needed to figure out a solution for all these drawings and other paperwork that entered our home daily.

So, I came up with these 5 steps when something comes into my home. And I have found these steps to be the best steps to follow to organize my children’s papers.

 

 

Go Through Paperwork

Go through paperwork right away in your child’s backpack. In doing this, you are giving attention to those papers so they aren’t forgotten. Make this a priority to do this as soon as they come home from school. Have your child do this if they’re old enough for that responsibility. Just do this every day so nothing gets missed.

School Folder

Give each child their own school folder for home use. In this folder, you can keep homework, school projects, and study material. Have you or your child go through this every night to make sure everything is getting addressed.

Filing System

Set up a filing system or some area of your home to keep important papers and artwork you want to keep or that need your attention. This could be for tests they’ve taken, classroom news, anything specific to your child worth keeping, or anything else you want to keep. Setting up a place to keep papers will give you a place to put the papers that come into your home. I wrote a post about paper organization and explained how I organize the paperwork I want to keep and that need my attention.

 

Keep the Memory

Take a picture of artwork or anything else you like but don’t want to hold onto. This works especially well with artwork. Young children bring so much of it home and most kids don’t want to get rid of anything. Taking a picture allows everyone to be happy. You can still see the drawing but don’t have to figure out where to store it.

Trash it

Throw out or recycle anything else you don’t want to keep. This is important to do every day. Paper just creates clutter. Get rid of anything you don’t need or want.

 

Get Started

Now that you have an actionable plan to clear the clutter and attack the papers as they come into your home, it’s up to you to get started.

Go through your paperwork right away. Get a school folder to keep at home. Set up a filing system to keep papers organized. Take a picture of everything else you want to keep a memory of. Throw out everything else.

Paper causes so much clutter in our homes. Every day, collect the papers your child brings home and take action with it. Get this part of your life organized and feel accomplished with the steps you’ve taken!

How do you tackle the papers that come into your home? Share your ideas in the comments below!