Organizing All That Stuff That Kids Bring Home From School

Here I am, my oldest son set to graduate next month and 13 years of papers in manilla folders by grade to put together in a month for his "Through the Years" book. So be glad that you are undertaking this task early on! I have four children and I have just been putting papers, awards and report cards all in a manilla file folder by grade with the intention of going through it later. Well, later is here for the oldest, but I wish I would have done it sooner! Thanks for the inspiration and hopefully I can learn from this with the other three!

Umm, Ali--as the mother of 4, the oldest 25yo, I would say, please reconsider. Your kids really will not want 25 stuffed albums to take with them to their tiny first apartments and homes. Trust me on this. Keep those for you, make a simple couple of albums for them to take with them into their grown-up lives and figure that if they want the rest of all that stuff, they can visit you and see it, scan it (who knows what wonders will be available to copy things by then!), and of course inherit them at some point in the far distant future. With the hindsight of a quarter century of mothering, I will tell you that you do not need to save more than a VERY FEW things. Like no more than 10 objects per year--do the math! 18 years x 10 precious things=180 things!!! Be VERY ruthless!!!

wow, that sounds like a great plan. i too am super inspired by ali's systme. i'm making a mental note to myself to make sure i have a nice filing cabinet by the tiem Emma is in school! (2 years)
my mom also kept our stuff in boxes, but waay too much stuff, so we felt overwhelmed to look through it.
i'm inspired knowing that there are plans out there to be had!

agreed.

I actually completely agree Kary. Ruthless is a good thing! The albums that we already have which hold scrapbook layouts right now (all those in the photo) can stay here or go with either of the kids. I will definitely not be pushing anything on them ;).

I love that - living with things that have meaning out in the open :).

That is really cool Robin - thanks for the link.

I often take a photo of my daughter holding her artwork (simple drawings, etc), holiday wear (huge valentine they wore in kinder, etc.) and projects (leprechaun trap, etc.). The photo shows off her work and her age. Sometimes I keep said pieces of work and some are tossed but we always have the photo.
I, too, weed through items and then weed again usually a few years later. For example, when my daughter was in preschool I weeded through all the work and stored it in hanging files in a plastic tub. When it came time to weed through and file her kinder papers I looked back at the preschool papers and found a few to toss. Something I though was a "keeper" at first later doesn't hold the same feelings a few years later. I'm sure this will be an on-going process as we can't keep everything.
Another trick I've learned is to teach my daughter from the beginning that we can't keep everything. She'd keep every single piece of paper that came home from school if I'd let her. I've let her in on the weeding process and tell her why I want or don't want to keep something. She still wants to keep too much but as she's getting older she's starting to "get it".

We don't have kids so my nephew, my brother's son, is our pride and joy! My Mom and I are both papercrafters and sentimental. I am especially sentimental (to the point where I tend to be a packrat...). Anyway, my sister in law knows how much we treasure Jonathan (he is the only grandchild and only nephew) so what she does is divide is school papers amongst the three of us! She knew there was no way she could keep it all and none of us wanted any of it to go. One Christmas she filled two huge scrapbooks with artwork he did in pre-school!!! Instead of tossing everything you may consider making an album for your Mom of some of Simon's artwork. It is so apparent what an amazing bond they have! :-)

I have been using my printer/fax/scanner/copier thing to make color copies of their art....at 50% size! I even used a leprachan (okay< i cant spell) colored CUTE picture they made as a scrapbook embellishment! I copied it at 25% of its size, matted it and used in on a page. Kind of fun and less to keep.

I like the idea of making something for my Mom. I know she would like that :). She is a "keeper" in all forms of the word.

As a mother of grown boys...29, 25, 22...I understand your dilema with a new baby girl and looking at your older son and wondering "what happened to him...how did he grow up so fast?" and "why can't I remember him at this age now?". These emotions make us want to save "everything" which is impossible. Be thankful that you are in the digital age and you can scan their artwork...I didn't have that when my boys were young and we moved alot so I was forced to purge alot. What I ended up with was accordian books from the office product store...the kind used for taxes I guess...anyhow they have 12 monthly tabs...I used one tab per school year and whatever could be kept in those files I saved...they are decorative...black toile...got them at Pier One I think...anyhow they tie up and now the boys can pull out a year at a time when they want to reminisce. I also have albums done for them with more memorabilia...but you just cannot save it all. Hope this helps...have a great weekend. Fondly, Roberta
http://con-tain-it.typepad.com

Someone may have already said this, and I don't have time to read...but, Becky Higgins School Years folders ROCK...as they get older and are doing writing assignments and getting awards and certificates, they can all go flat in one of those three ring things with the grade tabbed and a snap closure at the top. I can't believe how much I can fit in them. My only thing is...I'd almost rather store them separately from the layouts because they are bulky. Still thinking on this...but I love that each of my three has a folder for every year...I can just put them there as they come in and scrap as I feel led. I can whittle until it fits into that one enclosure. SO much comes in with three that I just can't scap the projects...I try to do about six 12X12 layouts for each grade with all big projects and events from that year, and they slip everything else in those, and I'm DONE. It's very gratifying! (Now, I just need to get back to it!)

Im shocking at throwing away things. My oldest son took so long to draw anything that didnt look like a 2year old has scribbled it so i kept things and i have a big box now with all these drawings in it. I also have a bog for his school books and art work that I keep, now that both my boy are at school im thinking im going to have to cut back somewhere otherwise the hosue will be filled with artwork by the time they finish at school. I do have a different album for each of them for their preschool.kindergarten and school pages that i do. They love to look through and see what they have done at school. Each year i make a page with a pocket and certificates and that sort of keep sake goes into the pocket for that year. I love the layout where you have used some of Simons visuals on it, i have a huge box of visuals from Stevens earlier years to and might pull some out to add to a page. Im also doing an album for my autism support group so mihgt add some visual into that as well.
Alison,NZ

What an enormous project - I am going to read all of these comments when I have some more time to be inspired! My oldest is in his first year of preschool this year and every time he goes, he comes home with another pile of artwork! Here's my solution...
About once or twice a month, I take a picture of him holding each and every paper he has brought home with him - art projects, letter writing practice, etc. - and then he picks a couple of things he wants to keep and I pick a couple of things I want to keep and we toss the rest. I plan to put the pictures ina 6x6 album to allow room for any endearing stories or further explaination (ie. this is a self-portrait, monster, name, etc.) and keep a box for the saved pieces since they are mostly on the larger side. I love that this captures pictures of him and where he is scholastically in one.

I do this as well. Right now I am keeping the kids school work separated by grade & I plan on going through to get rid of some eventually.
The holiday work is the only stuff I keep separate & I just store it right with the holiday items. My kids are in 2nd & 6th so always look forward to them coming out. If I forget, they get mad :)

Great ideas! My kids are out of school and I didn't keep as many papers as you'd think. I saved a few from each grade and then put together a scrapbook with all of the different papers in it (Quick, easy, 12X12 pages) and had it out at their Graduation Open House. The larger papers I store in empty (clean) Pizza boxes. They're free (all you have to do is ask for them) and they hold all different size papers. They can be stored anywhere because they're not that big.

Pretty sure Ali already took the LOM class -- see the 1st picture? That's her LOM.
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Ali -- I was just wondering why you decided against a School of Life type file box? (I get that you want the school related LOs to be integrated into your family albums; I mean the storage system from Stacy's class.)
I am interested in why people choose what they do. Becky Higgins has posted she scans most artwork, and then resizes it and prints it out as needed to fit her sketch/design. She doesn't seem to want a lot of paper clutter in her house.
I recently wrote a big post on my blog about memorabilia. I was advised to scan and toss items, but I replied that to me, a digital copy is never the same the "the real thing." I am experiencing that with scanning and reprinting old family photos. They are the same images, the but the old photos have a much bigger emotional pull on me... knowing that I held and looked at these photos as a little girl, or that loved ones who have since died handled the photos. I am very inspired to scrapbook these stories when I hold the originals in my hands. When I hold a copy, I am not.
So I am just curious. :-) I don't have kids but I have a lot of my own memorabilia to deal with. I am planning to adapt Stacy's School of Life album concept to some concepts in my own life. I was thinking I could adapt it and make an album of all the weddings I've been in (nine) -- one LO of photos of the wedding, one LO of shower/bachelorette party photos, and a pocket for the invitations and other paper items. Or all the places I've traveled, to show off photos on one LO, postcards I've collected on a LO and a pocket for all the rest of my travel memorabilia.

What an encouragement this post was to me. It is good to know that I am not alone in the work in progress of organizing my home and all of the "stuff".
I am going to continue chipping awaying at my projects -you are so right even a little dent is a step in the right direction!

You might find Stacy Julian's School of Life method helpful! I am taking her LOM class now and she talks about it a lot. I think it's in some of her books too.