Tuesday's Terrific Tip

With the start of school comes the daily deluge of paper. In my opinion, conquering paper clutter is the key to better organization. Like many homes, my kitchen is the hub of before-school and after-school activity. So the kitchen is where my paper system begins. I have this setup on one of the counters.

The left side holds file folders standing up. Each member of the family has a file folder. These folders hold papers that we need to refer to often. Carpool schedules, school calendars, projects in progress, scout calendars, any paper that you need to keep handy. The horizontal slots on the right are holding areas. The top slot is the active file. These are things that I need my husband to look at that day-- important mail, papers to review, sign, etc. The middle slot is a holding area for my husband. He can put his papers there and get to them when he is ready. The bottom slot is for papers that need to be scanned or filed.

After school, the kids are responsible to empty their backpacks and put their papers in a pile on the counter. Then I go through the pile. I pull out what needs to be saved-- flyers, calendars, etc, and file them in that child's individual folder. Papers that need to be signed and returned to school are signed right then and returned to the backpacks.  Then I put all of their completed work in their laundry room cubby. When that pile gets big (and when the child is NOT around) I go through the papers and save what is meaningful and throw the rest away. Art projects are hung on the wall for awile. Then I take a picture of them before they get filed or tossed.

To store cherished school papers, I have a plastic file box for each child with hanging folders for each grade. Items that are too big for the box get photographed and then tossed out. It sounds a little harsh but most of the time we display things for awhile and I find that I am more emotionally attached to these things than my children are. Many times I throw things out at the end of the school year. By that time the child is not as attached.

We have this setup in our laundry room. The binders and baskets on the top are for my husbands stuff. There is a basket for work papers, scout papers and personal papers. The top row of squares is for backpacks. The second row of squares is for school papers. The third row has a basket for each child. They keep whatever they want in these baskets. Swimming goggles in the summer, gloves in the winter, etc. It has been SO helpful to give each child a place to keep their "whatever."