Reigning in the School Clutter

When my baby started Preschool, waaaay back in 2010, I was unprepared for the inundation of papers.  Worksheets, projects, art, report cards, name cards, and sweeter-than-chocolate Mother's Day cards. What's a Mommy to do?  Especially when my sweet budding scholar couldn't part with anything.

Put everything in a drawer to "sort through when he's asleep," of course! And then let it build up for approximately three years.

The best part is when he'd remember something in there and go searching for it.  School paraphernalia everywhere.  And then he and his brother would dance in it (not the baby--he just tried to eat it all).  It was time to stop the madness.

"Save me!  Someone save me!"

So, I made some labels, printed them out on photo paper and cut them on my Silhouette.  But they wouldn't be too hard to cut by hand if you were only doing six like me. Then I glued them onto some recycled folders.

We made three piles.  One for Gregory, one for Isaac, and one that was worksheets from both of them.  You are currently witnessing the first two piles...

...because the third pile had already ended up in our recycling bin.  Worksheets from school years past don't really make me misty eyed.

We decided to save
*art projects (I told my 3-year old, "anything you painted or glued.")
*progress/report cards
*photos
*writers' workshop books
*anything that got an, "Oh, I remember this!  I love(d) this!"

Then I guessed put each "keeper" in the folder it belonged in.   

Ahhhh.  After the vacuuming that happened right after this picture (ewwwww, don't look!), my drawer is empty and clean.  The folders went to live in our filing cabinets and my single, solitary tablecloth has its old home back again.

Aaaand the boys know where to put new "keepers." So hopefully we will keep this drawer clean and the tablecloth can live in peace.  I will buy it a friend, I think.  Or perhaps three.

I shall link my labels so you can benefit from all my designing toil.  If you'd like to print the words on the labels, open the .png in your program of choice (even Microsoft Word), choose a cute font (necessary), and add your own.  Print them, cut them (I will also link a Silhouette file for fellow fans), stick them anywhere.  You could print them on sticker paper if you want to skip the gluing step.

Also, please note: these are extra large.  When you glue them on the folders, and then put the folders on top of each other to see how they look, half of the label will be covered up.  If that will bug you, make the words smaller and position them in the top half of the label.  It doesn't bother me, because when they have all their child crafted goodness inside, I can see the words just fine.

Click HERE for the .png
Click HERE for the .studio (Silhouette)

Enjoy!  And, as always, if you use my ideas, I'd love to see!