The following is a guest post about her school memory storage boxes from regular contributor, Kristin at The Gold Project.
Back to school is in full swing for most of us, which means school papers are coming home almost every day. Or, it seems like every day to me. I have two children. My daughter is in 4th grade and my son is in kindergarten. When both of them started preschool, I decided to come up with a system for their important school documents. It took several attempts until I found the one that worked for my household.
Paper Contents:
Before I get into the storage, let’s talk about the papers that I keep. I do not keep everything. I don’t have the space or time to keep every little piece of paper that comes home in their backpacks. I keep the following things every year:
-yearbook
-school pictures
-sample of classwork (3 or 4)
-sample of artwork (4 or 5)
-report cards
-special certificates
File Tote Box & Pouches:
Each one of my kids has their own plastic file box that I placed scrapbook paper inside the front with their initial to identify the box.
Inside of each box, I have the zippered vinyl and mesh pouches from The Container Store for every year they are in school. The pouches come in two colors, aqua and black. I purchased the aqua for my daughter and the black for my son. I went ahead and ordered pouches for every year they are in school.
Labels:
Using a label maker, I made labels with the grade and school year that I placed on the outside of each pouch.
Inside of each pouch, I have their yearbook and a plastic folder that contains all of the memories I have collected throughout the year. This is something I do the entire year. Their folders sit in my mail station all year long. As they get important or special papers, I slide them inside of sleeve protectors located inside of the folder. So, by the end of the year, all I have to do is place the folder in the vinyl pouch.
Current Year File Folder:
This system has truly made a huge difference in how I store and keep my kids’ school memories. My daughter loves to pull out her box and look through each one of her pouches. And, the best part is that she can do that without getting anything out of place. She will just slide her folder out, flip through the pages, and put it back right where she got it.
How do you store your kids’ school memories?
My name is Kristin and I am a middle school career education teacher by day and a mommy/wife/blogger by night. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two loving children. We recently made a life-changing move to Arkansas, so our new house is always under construction. I get excitement out of finding new creative, functional, and cute ways to organize things! I also enjoy writing and documenting life as it happens. So, I put these loves together and created The Gold Project. With the help of my husband, I am attempting to turn our house into a home. So, check out this special place of mine and take this journey with me!
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See also Laura’s very similar method that she uses for school memory storage boxes:
megan says
How big are your zippered pouches? Are they the letter or legal size from container store?
Kristin @ The Gold Project says
I have the letter size ones. 🙂
Cathy says
I had 3 kids to “save” for. I used paper grocery bags. They’re easy to write on and store. When I gave them to them they were not impressed. Oh well, the “school memory bags” are theirs now! I hope they appreciate my organizing skills.
Thanks for the ideas that I may use with my grandchildren! LOL,
Janell says
I absolutely love your storage idea! The folders and sheet protectors are awesome! What do you do with extra large artwork?
Kristie says
I was wondering the same thing. Do they find in the letter size pouch?
Kristin @ The Gold Project says
If it is something that can be cut down, I will trim it to fit the sheet protectors. If not, then I just fold the artwork and place it in the pouch.