It’s hard to believe it’s that time of the year again. As much as I enjoy looking forward to the slower pace of summer what I don’t enjoy is all the paperwork/artwork/duotangs/binders/supplies that come home on the last day of school. Seriously I hate paper so much that I start to twitch at the sight of all it. I really do. I see the kids lugging home their big backpacks just jam packed full and I don’t even want to let them in the house with it.
As I’m sure you can guess I am NOT one of these moms that keeps every piece of artwork or schoolwork her children have ever done. I’m just not sentimental that way. I mean I enjoy looking at it, I may even take a picture of it but then I’m done. Bye, bye…..cause really who are we keeping all this “stuff” for anyway. Most often it is for the kids when they are older and have kids of their own.
So with that in mind, the system I use to tackle the mile high stack of endless crap paper involves letting the kids decide what is important for them to keep or toss. Gasp! I know it sounds frightening but it’s not as bad as it seems. At first they wanted to keep everything but now, especially with my oldest, they have gotten pretty good about narrowing the selection down to a manageable level.
I know you must be thinking…”are you kidding, my child would keep everything”. It was that way at first but with a little encouragement and “loving” persuasion, I am empowering my children to make their own organizing decisions and as a result helping them develop a very necessary life skill. Last year and throughout this year my daughter has really amazed me with what she has been able to part with. Things I thought she would want to keep she didn’t and things that I may have thrown away on her if I was doing it on my own she wanted to save. I’ve learned a lot about my kids listening to their reasoning about what should stay or go. Sometimes I ask them some questions to help them out. Do you love it? Is this important to you? Did you put a lot of thought into this? Were you proud of yourself for accomplishing this? Does this make you smile when you see it?
Each child has ONE rubbermaid tote that sits on the top shelf in their closet. Any coveted works of art/schoolwork get placed inside with the date marked on the back for safekeeping. The only school supplies we keep are the ones we are able to re-use the following year.
Really my kids are making these kinds of decisions all year long as they bring work home so they are pretty use to the concept. You see as something comes home throughout the year, the kids get to proudly display their favorites on a big white magnetic board that resides in our dining room. The item stays there for about a week before a decision needs to be made about whether it stays or goes.
I know many of you have already faced the last day of school and in a couple of weeks it will be my turn. I’ll anxiously wait at the door to welcome my kids home for the summer and I’ll try really hard not to make the waiting garbage can too obvious.
Procrastinated decisions = clutter
Karen says
I just wrote about this exact same thing last week! Great minds think alike.
http://www.pediascribe.com/20070605/pediatric-pack-rats/
Marcia says
I love the questions, Laura, but more than that, I really love how you are empowering them to make their own decisions!!!
It is also true that it’s because of the inability to make decisions that we get clutter and piles of stuff.
Twisted Cinderella says
I love how you get them to help out with it and get them to make the decisions.
Slava Bogu says
Wow! I like the idea of taking pictures of the art and then letting it go. What a great idea! I am VERY sentimental, and as a result, have a very cluttered house. With one child and 4 bedrooms, it was very neat, but with the adoption of our sons 2 years ago, our house is crammed full of clutter…there is stuff everywhere and I just can’t STAND IT!!! For the first time in my life, possibly, I am really wanting to get rid of vast quantities of unneeded stuff. The problem is coming from a family where everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING, I saved in case you need it in the future…sigh…I take after my grandma too much.
Anyway, thanks for your suggestion with the pictures!
dcrmom says
Excellent idea! I do this, but I don’t enlist the kids to help make decisions. I need to start doing that.
Patty says
Hi Laura
We too do the grand purge at the end of the year. It gets better once they are in high school. The only thing I always keep is their journel. It gives an insight into who they were that year.
Only 2 weeks to go!
Patty
Gretchen says
Puuuurrrrrfect post. Just what the dr. ordered!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Gretchen says
P.S. and BTW, I need to walk around with: procrastinated decisions = clutter stapled to my forehead. :O)
Debi says
Oh, I can so relate to this one! I just hate all that paper! We do almost the exact same thing. I let the kids decide. (Though I sometimes keep a couple of extra things that I scrapbook.) And after we finish with the “just ended year”, we then go back to the previous year and end up weeding out a couple more things…you know, the “why on earth did I save this?” things.
Tanya says
I have 3 kids and what I do is keep a large binder with plastic insers for each one and label it with the school year and their name and as they bring things home from school I put the things that they want to keep in it and the rest goes into a container then at the end of the year they have a binder of their artwork and school work that was important to them and the rest can go bye bye.
Tessa says
That’s exactly what I do Tanya! I have four, and unfortunately, I allow it to pile up and then go through them and put them in their binders. And then there is scrapbooks that I haven’t even started. I like the idea of the kids deciding on their own. I don’t usually keep a lot, but after a couple of years of keeping for four….it’s a mess. At least now I have my “own” room and it’s full of shelves and cabinets so I can now go through all of it and organize it. Why is it we can organize more for friends, family but not for ourselves? LOL
Jane says
Great idea, now I should try this in the classroom before they pack their backpacks with all that crap! It’s funny to me, some kids do throw everything out and take little or nothing home. Mostly because nobody there wants to see their work. I can tell that kids who take a lot home have an audience.
Birdie says
Since I am a homeschooling mom (yes, I am crazy; thank you for noticing) who hates paper clutter, I have to face this same decision just about every day. :/
Ladybug says
I love this idea. I will start using those questions with my children.
I was an elementary school teacher before staying home and I did the 3 ring binder idea with every child in the classroom. I had their writing pieces from the beginnning of the year to the end and it was always amazing to send home!! I loved it!
Faerylandmom says
Great post. I’ll have to keep that in mind when my kids start school.
Rebekah says
I’m de-lurking….I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your blog! I love organzing…love it! However, since I’ve had my kids (7 and 4) I haven’t had the time to think organizational type stuff through like I used to. It has been awesome have inspiration from you.
Thank you!!!!
Anonymous says
I was disgusted as I tried to walk thru my sons’ bedroom this a.m. The high schooler has piles of paperclutter everywhere! It’s the last day of school 2day, and I’m going to have to threaten him that if he doesn’t go thru the paperblizzard soon, *I* will!
Sandy says
The first thing I so is go through my daughter’s back pack and TOSS the junk (crap!) 🙂 The boys are in hi school so they are on their own.
Great post.
Gets everyone geared up for summer.
Check out my new truck if you have time. You will chuckle!
Sandy
For Reluctant Entertainers
sara - The Estrogen Files says
I just ADORE (not) all that junk the kids bring home. What to do with all of it? You’ve got some good ideas. Thanks!
Jennifer says
I am a mother of four and a kindergarten teacher. I am amazed of the amount of paper that comes home from school.I usually put some up for display in the kitchen and toss the rest.
At first, they want to save everything but that eventually wears off. They usually see me throw out stuff from work, so they don’t feel so bad.
Taylor at Household Management 101 says
I like the idea of having the kids make the decisions about what stays and what goes. I may need to start implementing this, so they can learn how to purge their own stuff.
If you want to see my current system, click on my name as the link about my article on how I keep track of my kids’ school papers.
Barb says
I take pictures of my kids’ school work, then I keep the report cards, special awards and top artwork pieces. But if I ever want to really scrapbook things, I have the pictures of their work, which will fit nicely in a scrapbook – works great for those weird shape and 3-D items. Also, they are saved on a hard drive and disk, until I have time to do that, which means less space. I like the empowering your kids to choose though. I have something similar. Kids get paper gifts from friends all the time, so my kids have a littler zip up folder thing that I let them fill, but they only get that much space, and then they need to choose what is important and what is not.
Leta says
It is amazing by I actually wanted to keep more papers than my 3-4-5-6 grader wanted. I do it this way. I have a file for each child (I have two) and through the school year I put those papers that I feel like keeping. During summer break (or sometimes later) I pull the whole file out, look through it and pick my favorites. Then I let my girls look through their stuff and leave what they want. After this 3 times picking system we usually have a pile which can easily feet in on of yellow mailing envelopes. I write the name and the grade – and it can be stored away till they grow.