I have a confession. Last year I stashed all of my kids’ paperwork and schoolwork in the corner of my dining room. As my kids were finishing their last week of school I just kept grabbing everything they hauled in with them and throwing it into the corner.
I had an attitude of – we’ll have time to address all of this next week. We’ll make time to organize schoolwork. Ha!
Well, next week, turned into next month, and to say that I was bothered and overwhelmed, is a huge understatement! I think it took me until the end of July to finally get through all of the papers.
After that disaster, I knew that this year I wanted to be much more proactive. (Coupled with the fact that each of their bedrooms also needed some serious TLC.)
ABC
So, I made a PLAN.
Our first full week of summer was last week, so I planned that Monday would be our errand day and Friday we had appointments scheduled. Tuesday I assigned to C, Wednesday to B, and Thursday to A. I did my best to clear my schedule and give my kids each a four hour chunk of time to work with. But not only that, I stuck with the plan!
It’s amazing what you can get done when you plan and execute!
On each day we went through every inch of their rooms and touched every single piece of paper. Everything they owned found its way to the correct spot, places like this below…
I hauled off nine bags of outgrown clothing to the donation center. I filed away all of their papers into their memory boxes, updated their growth charts, and cleaned things up and down. I can’t tell you how great I felt by the end of Thursday when each of their rooms were neat and tidy again.
It felt fabulous to have it all come together! Our upstairs is glowing and there is NO pile in my dining room. Hooray!
If you are in a slump with how to organize your kids’ stuff, rather school paperwork or other things, I’ve got a lot of great tips that I’ve shared within my Managing Memories series. I’ve covered the following topics: School Memories, Memory Boxes (1), Memory Boxes (2), Photos, Home Movies, Hope Chest, and Baby Books.
As I’m moving through my second week of summer I’m feeling much more on top of things and know that I’ve got two months that I don’t have to look at any school paperwork!
Tell Me: How do you conquer the school paperwork as it comes flooding through your door?
Happy Organizing!!!
