Hi friends, five years ago I wrote a post about how I organize my kids’ school memorabilia and keepsakes. I wanted to share this system with you again today because now I have some fancy free printables to help you easily set up your own system. These free printables include school memory box labels as well as last day of school review sheets for each grade. With just a few supplies you can have a system setup in no time and feel like an organizing superstar! No more school papers piling up everywhere or worse shoved in a drawer. These boxes also establish a much needed limit and boundary to the amount of paper we keep. No more worrying about how much to keep, this system will keep you in line and keep you from going overboard. Let’s go set up these school memory boxes for your kids today!
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My system for memory keeping includes one 55L tote and one 19L file box for each child. The tote essentially holds all the keepsakes from before the school years and then the file box holds the memories from each school year there after. That’s it. The truth is if we are keeping these memories for our kids (and not ourselves) then even this amount of stuff might be too much. It’s hard to know and each kid is different in how sentimental they are. However from experience (my kids are 24, 21 and 15) I think this is a good compromise. We simply want to keep the best of the best for them, a carefully curated piece of their history.
It’s so tempting to want to keep it all though. Oh my the cuteness! But honestly we are probably more attached to it then they ever will be. So let’s do our kids a favor and do the heavy lifting (and by heavy lifting I mean purging!) for them as you collect their memories each year. It’s also helpful to get your kids involved with this step every year. Let your kids have a say in what it is they want to keep. I was often surprised by the differences between what I thought they’d want to keep and the things they actually did. This helps them learn to practice their decision making skills early on. By having a limiting container, you can lay out all the art pieces for instance and say “we have room to store three art pieces, can you pick your three very favorite ones?”.
This system allows you (and them when they are older) to easily access any given year without having to dig through a ton of information at a time. It’s more manageable that way and less overwhelming.
Remember, we don’t want this to be a burden to them, we just want to bless them. And even then if they don’t want to keep any of it, once they have grown and flown, then we shouldn’t take it personally. If it hurts too much for you, keep it for yourself but no one should be made to hang onto anything out of obligation.
Okay now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get into what supplies you’ll need.
Supplies:
To set up school memory boxes, you’ll need the following:
-memory box suitable for holding hanging file folders (I purchased my 19L Really Useful Box at Walmart, it’s currently sold out on Amazon but hopefully it’ll come back in stock soon). The dimensions on mine are 14L x10W x 11.5H. With two kids now finished high school I can assure you that this is a reasonable size. I don’t think it’s necessary to go any bigger.
-hanging file folders (I prefer the letter size found HERE). I used 14 hanging file folders in mine so I had one folder for each grade beginning with Pre-K through to Grade 12.
-hanging file folder label tabs (found HERE) or purchase hanging file folders with label tabs built in (found HERE).
-school memory box labels (click on the link below to download)
-full sheet sticker paper to print labels (found HERE) optional
DOWNLOAD SCHOOL MEMORY LABELS HERE
Once the file opens in Dropbox, click on the three dots in the far right column and then click on Download.
{for personal use only please}
Set Up:
To set up simply print out the labels onto the sticker paper, cut out and attach to file folder tabs. You can also print labels onto regular paper and then cut and tape them onto the file folder tabs.
Open the time capsule kit and print each of the end of the year review sheets for each grade and add one per hanging file folder.
DOWNLOAD TIME CAPSULE KIT HERE
Once the file opens in Dropbox, click on the three dots in the far right column and then click on Download.
{for personal use only please}
At the end of each school year, sit down with your child and fill out the sheet together. These are so fun to go back and read! Don’t forget to attach a picture. File additional memory papers behind this “last day in review” page in the corresponding file folder. Things you may want to keep are drawings, crafts, stories written, awards and certificates, report cards, notes from the teacher, cards from grandparents, essays, sports recognitions, etc.
Enjoy:
That’s it. Simple to set up and simple to maintain. What could be better than that?
I hope you found this post about school memory boxes helpful. If you did, please feel free to share with your friends or any young moms you know. Together we can banish paper piles forever! If you have any questions or need me to talk you off the ledge of wanting to keep too much, I’m here for you! You’ve got this mama, one finger painting at a time 🙂
Ekta says
Just to be clear, it is one 55L tote and one 19L file box per child for Pre -K to 12? I have a similar system and use these boxes https://www.amazon.com/IRIS-Letter-Legal-Size-Clear/dp/B00FXRN4IU to store their paperwork. At the moment there are three boxes per child (Pre-K to 12) and another larger box for their keepsakes. I would like to cut down but I am struggling with the purging part. I sort through their papers at the end of each school year and keep what I feel is of sentimental value. Both of my children do not really care if I keep anything at all and I can not get myself to throw any of it. Quite a conundrum!
Apologies for the long comment.
Laura Wittmann says
Yes just one 55L tote and one 19L box per child and now that two of my kids are grown, I can honestly say that I’m happy that it’s not more than that. I also know they appreciate it too. It is so hard, I so get it. But it’s not too late to go through it all and pare it down. Spread out all the artwork for one year and see if you can keep only the most special pieces. Those things that show a progression of their work like printing or their handmade Mother’s Day card. Also take pictures, that really helps too. You’ve got this mama!!
Laura