Wohls and Beams: May 2016

Does anyone else feel like they are literally D R O W N I N G in school papers by the end of the school year? Trust me, I was there. I would empty the boys' folders every night and add the papers to the growing stack stuffed in the bottom of the coffee cabinet. Because if I can't see them, the problem isn't there. Eventually I knew I had to tackle this issue, but I just couldn't bring myself to throw any of their genius work away. I mean, what if in 20 years I want to look back and see them add 2 + 2 fifty different times??My boys are only in first grade and Pre-K so if I didn't tackle it now, what would it be like when they are Seniors? I envisioned an episode of hoarders.

I am happy to say that I created a system for organizing my kid's school papers that actually works! I am not an organized person by nature, so if it works for me, seriously anyone can do it! It just takes a little bit of prep time, but I promise it's worth it.

The first thing I did was purchase some 1" white binders and clear page protectors. My goal was to condense all of the papers from that year into that one binder and throw away (eek!) the rest. As I sorted through the papers, I just kept 1 of each kind. So if there were 50 math papers where he added single digit numbers, I just kept 1. If there was special artwork or something unique, I kept it. Everything else got trashed. Let me tell you, my husband had to pry it out of my hands and throw it in the trash can, but I haven't regretted it.

Next, I created the title pages for each book and printed them out. Each year, I purchase one 5x7 school picture to go in the book and forego the whole picture package. It's way overpriced and we have professional family pictures done every year anyways.