I'm looking for a couple ideas on how to keep my son's school paper work more organized. It seems that we have a lot just scattered all over the place & I'm finding it hard to keep it from not looking like a huge mess on my kitchen table. How do you Mom's keep your things so organized & where is it kept if I don't have an office or a desk full of drawers to keep it in??
Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!
I went to Ikea and bought cardboard magazine holders. They have them funky designs and colors. I have a couple for each kid. I toss papers in there and go through them every once in awhile to see what can be tossed or recycled.
LOL! I read your post and I work at The Container Store. I was just going to show you the same thing Jen did! ;)
T.
I got this item in September, and it's great to keep track of homework or paperwork that has to go back to school on a certain date. I just have folders labeled for each kid/class. It hangs on the kitchen wall: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/office/fileStorage/por...
The top part is a dry-eraseable calendar, but I use it to keep track of each of my kids' weekly schedule items (which day they have gym, library books due, after-school classes, etc.)
For school stuff I have to look at and respond to, I have a basket near the door. The same basket holds library books to be returned.
We still have papers all over the place, but the school stuff is much better since I started using these two things.
Hi S.-
I'm doing a blog event this month - Zone Cleaning. I take 15 minutes out of 4 days of the week and declutter a small spot in my home. I do before and afters and show lots of cheap or free ways to do it. You can jump in at any time!
Check it out-
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hi S. i feel you...my son is in kindergarten and it was the same way...i bought these giant ziploc bags and stick it all in there...works great good luck
I have 2 kids and can relate! Check out www.gathersortstore.com. Their kits include everything you need to gather, sort and store your loose papers and go beyond just kids' stuff: organize recipes, articles and documents of any kind. The idea is to have book for each kid for each year. The books are easy to slip in and come in a few sizes. good luck!
Hello S.,
What I did I made up a file for each of my kids. I kept a couple of papers from each subject and filed them. picked out the worst and to the best of each subject to work with them on what they needed to improve at.
make up separate files on each. This is what I did with my kids. I go through them every now and then to see how well as they progressed through the years.
Then I will put in scrape book for them.
Hope this was helpful. Take care.
D. Zimmerman
Maybe one of those little hanging file folder things? I used one for years for my own stuff, and it's what my daughter's daycare uses for artwork.
While I know you don't relish having things hangout on your kitchen table, since this is where it seems to land have it land in organized places. Either buy 3 cardboard magazine holders or use 3 large cereal boxes and trim them to look like magazine holders and have your son decorate them with paper. Label one the outbox, the next one Mom's inbox, then the third one is his inbox. As soon as he gets home from school the paperwork is sorted, stuff for Mom to sign or take action on in Mom's, homework or proud papers, art his box, your fourth box is your recycling bin. Any papers that can be gone over and gotten rid of immediately need to go, papers you need to review, sign, write checks for go in Mom's. As you have time during dinner prep or after your eat clear Mom's box by signing, marking calender, make calls or e-mails, shift to the outbox anything that should be returned to the outbox, completed homework to outbox. Before bed have him start his responsibility of returning items to his take home folder and then to backpack, get clothes out for the morning and pack the non-spoil portion of his lunch. On one Saturday or Sunday per month he is to go through papers with you and decide which ones to keep for memories and which ones go to recycling as I usually opt for one art piece and writing piece for keepsake(this goes into a memory box that also has their baby book and year dated ornaments for every year they have been our baby). By elminating papers that are not needed right away and then organizing the rest quickly and right away it takes the piles away. It also clears easily for meal service if you have no other cabinet/storage space for these. Same goes for mail you receive, before it comes in the house get rid of the items you can recycle including all the envelopes your keep stuff came in. If you pay bills online get rid of the envelopes to remit, ads you don't need, unneeded coupons and sections of newspapers you don't read. Handle once is the biggest thing, file right away.
Good luck whatever method you choose.
If it's stuff that we plan to hold on to for the long term we put it in an underbed rolling plastic storage bin. We like to pull it out sometimes and laugh about some of the stuff my daughter did when she was younger...and then we slide it right back under the bed.
Make three piles. 1st: has to be done before we go to bed tonight. 2nd: can be done tomorrow or later. 3rd: hold till end of week and either file or throw it away. You can use folder w/pockets and use one side for unfinished and the other for finished. Other options are: plastic envelopes w/multiple pockets and file tabs. This allows you to keep it in order and your child to keeps tabs on their own work. Start out simple with tabs labeled for Math, Reading, Spelling, etc. This will also help your child with site words. Above all, over the weekend go through and file or destroy unnecessary papers. If you don't have a file cabinet, you can purchase a small plastic file box for this years school papers. All of this will help your child feel a sense of accomplishment seeing the papers moved to a different spot when they are completed. Depending on the child, you may have to be more involved in maintenance until they get used to it.
