How to Organize Kid’s School Papers at Home

Well, it’s back to school time again. As parents it’s time to get ready and prep so our homes and lives stay organized with the constant coming and going each day. The first thing we can do is to prep for all the paper that will inevitably enter our homes. And you may wonder “How do I organize my kid’s school papers at home?” Let’s look at a few options and, hopefully, one will work perfectly in your space.

The In/Out Basket

It took several years of trial and error to figure out how to organize my kid’s school papers. One thing that I implemented was an in/out basket. I love having an in/out basket for actionable papers in my home. It’s the best way to make sure that anything that needs to be signed/paid/etc is seen. This is only for papers that will not remain in your home, so this is not a permanent home for anything. The daily goal is for this basket to be empty.

There are lots of different options for this basket. It can be an actual basket on your kitchen counter or entry space. Another option is to use a wall basket that will be easily seen. A wall basket is great if you are short on counter space for a basket. Be sure to have this basket in a place that you will see it, and it can be accessed easily by kids dropping off papers for you to sign.

Wire basket | Woven Tray | Wood Tray | Wire Hanging Baskets

Short Term Storage

When we decide how to organize kids school papers, we have to decide how long we will be keeping them. So there are times that you need a school paper for a short time but it isn’t something you want to keep forever. These are things like field trip information sheets, home based projects or upcoming events. You might want to keep them for the list of things your child needs to bring to school or specific dates. However, once those dates are past–these can go in the trash.

There are a few options for these papers. First, you can just snap a picture with your phone and dump the paper now. Technology has made it easier for us to get rid of a lot of paper that comes into our lives. If you do choose to go this route, be sure to clear out the photo once the dates are past. Our phones fill up quickly and we want to save that space for more important photos.

Another option is to attach it to a magnet board or calendar in a central place in your home. A central location or control center is a place where the family’s daily items and schedule can be collected and organized to make sure nothing is forgotten. You can add a magnetic board or strip to display important info like field trip forms, practice and game schedules, and lesson info. Having a central location for these things allows others to help you when you find yourself overwhelmed or in case of an emergency.

Decorative Dry Erase Board (other options available) | Chalkboard | Magnetic Dry Erase Board

Just be sure that when using short term storage, it remains SHORT TERM. This storage space should to be cleaned out regularly and once dates are past–the papers are disposed of.

Long Term Storage

Now let’s look at how to organize kid’s school papers for the long term. Deciding how to store your kids papers and projects long term can be tricky. We often start out keeping everything when they start preschool and kindergarten. Then we quickly realize the error of our choices. I recommend have some kind of storage container. It can be as small or large as you want. If you have one child you may want to store by year. But if you have multiple children, you may want one box per child.

Here’s what I do. I have one “under the bed” style box per child that I keep in our garage. I also keep a 12×12 scrapbook case in my office for each child. When I have something that I want to save I put it in the scrapbook case. This idea is that the case should be able to hold one year’s worth of pieces. At the end of the school year, I take the cases to the garage and get out the larger boxes. At this time I look through the things I’ve collected over the year and decide what is going in the long term box and what can be discarded.

Scrapbook case | Underbed box | File Boxes | Large Heavy Duty File Box

Since I have implemented this, I don’t have my kids awesome work being ruined or trashed from being left on a counter. I also have a place to actually save the items that I want to be able to look back on. When items are moved from the small (short-term) box to the long term box, I have another chance to purge anything that doesn’t really need to be saved.

Back to School Prep Series

This is the first post this year on our back to school prep, so be sure to come back to see other ways to organize yourself, your kids, and your home before school starts this fall!