Have stacks and stacks of kids artwork and school papers? In this post, I’ll share with you my tips for keeping everything organized.
Like many of you, I imagine, I have a tendency towards minimalism.
I don’t like clutter and try to keep my family’s surroundings peaceful and uncluttered. If you have kids, you can understand what a challenge this can be.
I love, of course, seeing all the artwork and papers that my kids bring home. Going through it is a great way to reminisce and see how far they’ve come.
However, it has a tendency to quickly pile up.
When looking for organizational ideas, I’m always open to ideas that are simple to implement. Nothing too fancy or complex allowed.
So, today, I’m sharing some of the ways I keep my kids’ art and papers organized.
Use these tips yourself, or simply use them as a starting point to inspire your own ideas!
Organizing Kids Artwork
One of the easiest ways to organize kids art is with photo books.
I take a picture of each piece my kids bring home and, while some pieces I know I’ll keep forever, most end up in a simple photo book.
Shutterfly has been my go-to for photo books, though I know there are so many affordable options to choose from.
The kids LOVE looking through these books and looking at their work through the years. So much better, in my opinion, than a towering pile of artwork.
Organizing Kids School Word and Papers
There are, as you may imagine, many ways to organize kids school papers. This is what has been working for our family:
I have a couple of large, fabric-covered boxes (at least 12×12, so papers don’t need to be folded), that I have for items I want to keep.
I could have one per child but I’m not that organized. I fill up one box, and when that is full, I just purchase another and keep both kids’ work together.
In these boxes are things I want to keep for myself: Mothers Day and other holiday cards, notes they’ve written to me or their dad, and school work and art that they put a lot of time and creativity into.
(fabric-covered box from Homegoods)
And then, for each child, I have a file box.
This box is labeled by year, and in it, I store things that I want them to have when they get older.
Certificates, work samples, report cards, birthday invitations…these are the items that mainly get kept.
I imagine that I’ll give each child his/her box when they move out. Hopefully they’ll enjoy looking through the items as much as I have enjoyed putting them together!
(file box from Target)
What do I do if I have something I can’t decide what to do with?
I’ll usually keep it for a while and, with time, I tend to have a better idea of whether to keep it or not.
Alternatively, I take photos. Having a digital keepsake of something works for me for most of what my kids bring home. I keep these photos in a folder and can look back on them whenever the mood strikes.
So that’s it! Some simple, yet doable, ideas to manage kids’ art and papers.
Hope these ideas help you, too!
If you have other things that are working for you, let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for ways to make life easier and keep papers under control!
Thanks so much for reading all about How to Organize Kids Artwork and School Papers.
Have a lovely day!