Organizing schoolwork at home that’s been saved over the years from your kids is a daunting task. Your children’s art projects and school papers are hard to throw away, and you’re having a hard time coming up with an effective way of organizing school papers. Sound familiar?
At the end of the school year, moms everywhere brace themselves for the mountain of art, school papers, and awards that their children will inevitably bring home.
Neat and organized spaces become home to cluttered piles of papers that represent a year’s worth of work to your children that they are not willing to part with.
Supplies you’ll need for organizing school papers
- Binder
- Tabbed Sheet Protectors
- Regular Sheet Protectors
- Magazine holder, storage box, or other holder to store artwork
Collect and store children’s art projects
Here are a few examples of some of my kids’ papers that I have kept over the years…
Self portraits made by my kiddos,
cute little doodles…
a letter to Santa that my daughter wrote when she was starting to not believe,
special awards that my kids have received,
memorabilia, like these embossed metallic handprints,
diary entries for important events, like the birth of our son, and much much more.
To temporarily collect and store the art, I use metal magazine holders. I have one labeled for each of my children, and one for my husband and I.
Wondering what school papers to keep?
As my kids bring home work, we decide together if it’s something that we should keep or throw away.
We keep their best work, special awards, my homemade birthday party invitations, letters to Santa and the Easter Bunny (make copies so they’re not suspicious), special cards and letters, etc.
Keep anything that is your child’s best work or is meaningful to them and/or you. When organizing schoolwork at home, it’s also nice to just keep a sample here and there of their work to see the progress they make throughout the year.
Record the date
As the art and memorabilia come in throughout the year, be sure to date them if there isn’t a date on it already. I like to write the date and how old my child is on the back of the paper so it’s not taking away from the art or work. This is an easy way of organizing schoolwork at home.
Label and organize
Label your tabbed sheet protectors. I label mine like this for each child:
- Birth-Preschool (or EAK or Kindergarten)
- Preschool (or EAK)
- Kindergarten
- 1st Grade
- 2nd Grade
- 3rd Grade
- 4th Grade
- 5th Grade, etc.
These Avery labels are printable, but I just used my trusty label maker to make small labels that I stuck onto each tab. They fit perfectly!
I also used some Avery Martha Stewart sheet protectors I bought at Staples that have pockets that hold 4 photos. Although I keep separate scrapbooks, I like to add the 4 photos behind each divider, so we can remember what each child looked like when they made their art.
Add the art and papers
What if my kids’ art work is too big to fit?
Keep up and enjoy it!
Once the binder is initially created, this school work organizer is very easy to keep up!
Just slide the favorite school papers right into the binder as they comes home, and you’re good to go!
My kids LOVE organizing schoolwork at home and looking through their binders. It’s a great way to point out to your kids how much they have grown and progressed!
I love this kids artwork storage method because it is so easy to keep up and keeps all of the school papers neat and organized chronologically. I love that I can still keep much of our favorite kids’ work without feeling guilty because there are no messy piles!
What do you think? Do you struggle with organizing what and how much of your kids’ work to keep? Is it hard to keep organized? Will you be giving this method a try? Leave a comment and let me know!
