Organizing Kids' School Stuff

My friend Jami asked me how I organize my kids' school/scout/activity stuff. This is what I do...it's pretty basic and it works for me.

As soon as my kids bring their papers home from school, I go through them one by one and recycle what I don't feel an immediate attachment to. If I feel even a twinge, I keep it, and it is mostly art projects and essays. If I decide to keep it, I write the year on the back so I remember which school year it is from.
Then it goes into their catch-all school bin in the basement storage area. Ideally, at the end of the school year I go through and sort again and purge one last time, and all the things I'm super attached to get tied together with their school picture package from that year.
I'm behind on his step...I've only completed up to Anna's 2nd preschool year. But because it is all dated, I can do it anytime. Maybe someday I will get them all put into a binder, but for now this works. I also keep all Sam's outgrown scout clothing, his Scouting books, their soccer jerseys and Anna's dance t-shirts in their bins.


As far as their baby stuff goes, I have a separate bin for them. I'm kinda neurotic about them because I hope that they will be a treasure to them (in Anna's case) or to their wives (in the boys' cases) someday. I keep them labeled and in their closets. I also take them (as well as our scrapbooks) with us in the car when we move so they won't get lost or ruined by the movers. They each have all their baby cards, hospital tags, foot and handprint cards, first baby pictures, hospital caps, their newborn bear Grandma Nichols made them, their homecoming outfit, their blessing outfit, and the front page of the local newspaper from the day they were born. I got them down to take this picture and I bawled like a baby looking through their stuff. Were they ever that small??

Couldn't have been.