Easy Tricks - Organizing Kids' Stuff - Morganize with Me

I’m happy to report we are successfully packed and the move is coming together pretty well. Not to say the moving part hasn’t had its share of stresses, but for the most part everything is coming together as planned. Yay for planning! (And going with the flow too.)

As I’ve been in a continual organizing and cleaning mode for the past month, I wanted to highlight some great tricks surrounding how to keep all of the end of the year school paperwork organized.

Because, if you are like me and you have kids walking through your door with mounds of paperwork, oversized artwork, clay creations, broken pencils, dried up paints or whatever else they’ve managed to shove into their backpacks all year, it can be really overwhelming!

I’ve got some tips to help you avoid the tendency to want to toss all of those precious pieces into a drawer (or drawers) while saying to yourself, “I’ll deal with these on an upcoming long, lazy summer day.” (Yeah right.)

The best time to get (and stay) on top of all of the memory and school stuff, is now! I’m talking about report cards, treasured art pieces, class pictures, awards, memory items, and the like. Because having kids equals having stuff. Here’s three easy tricks to help you to control the chaos, I mean stuff.

Trick #1: Designate one memory box per child.

This is the perfect place to stash their favorite blankie, large piece(s) of artwork that you/they don’t want to let go of, and anything in between. I consider this a “catch-all” spot. A place where my kids can toss items they want to keep which are not in the paper category (unless they are paper items that are too big for their “file box” – trick #2). My son’s memory box is the second one down. #ispytrophies

I use a 32 quart sized bin for each of my kids and for my 15 year-old this size is still working.

It’s a good idea to limit the memory box to one and/or keep the size limited. One only needs to keep so many memories. Please re-read that last sentence again. 🙂

Trick #2: Designate one file box per child.

These are the bomb! It’s as easy has getting a file box, some files, and boom, you’ve got a wonderful system to tuck away all of those memory and school paper items that need a home. I love that it’s so simple to set up and it’s very organized so if and when you need to retrieve something, you can find it easily. I broke down my steps and categories here if you want a little play-by-play.

Trick #3: Designate one “school” book per child.

I have a sweet little system that has helped me to organize all of the fun school memories in a really simple way. Thanks to my mom, I too have one of these books from my own school years. I found these School Memory Books through a School Scholastic Book Order.

The books are an easy way to collect all of the pictures and report cards in one place. There is a spot for the current year picture and a page that your child can fill in on their own or with some help. It is a great way to have a snapshot of each school year. The book covers Preschool-Sixth Grade. I then tuck these in the front of their file boxes. (This third trick is not as essential as number one and two, but if you find something like this it can be a fun addition that will help you to keep things even more organized and documented.)

A few more tips and tricks – or how to KISS (keep it simple sisters)!

When you add to a box, file or book, make sure to do a little mini-purge. Often your (or your child’s) desire to keep certain things will change over time, so as you add, also do a little subtracting.
Make a goal to really address these three areas once a year. They can all too easily become a chaos holder, versus an organized holder!
Model to your kids how to value memories without having to hold on to every single thing.

I also wanted to share, you can join the Summer Organizing Challenge at any time! The Seasonal Organizing Challenges are now open to everyone all year-long. These are one of the best ways to tackle and organize small areas of your home in small amounts of time. The philosophy is simple (of course) 10 minutes, 10 days, 10 projects! To start getting more organized for Summer click right over HERE.

Happy Organizing!