Help! School is around the corner and I need ideas on how you keep all the school papers you receive organized along with at home school supplies and general paper organization. My husband even installed a new row of cabinets in my kitchen on a spare wall so I have 2 cabinets that I can dedicate to keeping school stuff and my own paperwork organized. I promised him I would be better this year so he doesn;t have to see my organized mess of papers every where. I only have one kid in school and its overwhelming, I don't know what I'll do when the younger 3 start. I may be the first person to literally die of paperwork. So any ideas would be appreciated
Thanks
K H

As far as school papers go, I try to enter things in my calender as soon as I get a paper with dates. Instead of tossing the paper, I keep a 3 ring binder labeled school, and I put all the papers in that (just in case I didn't write all the info in my calendar). Usually once a month, I go through my notebook and purge all papers about things, or events that have passed. Now when it comes to other paperwork.... I fly by the seat of my pants! (And not very well I might add )

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Moms of little boys work from son up 'til son down!

last year i went to ikea and found cheap cardboard file folder holders, my dds both have one with their name on and when they bring something home it goes right into there. as for impotant dates they go right on to the calendar!

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"YOU COMPLETE ME!"

Last year I bought the Amy Knapp's Family Organizer - it runs from July 2005 through December 2006. (I guess I'll be buying another one soon Anyway, the calendar is set up by weekly view, which I love b/c there's enough room to write things and I can see what is going on for my entire week.

My oldest was in Kindergarten last year and this year my ds will be in Kindergarten so I'll have two in school. Last year, everyday when my dd got home, I'd go through the papers she received. If it was something that I had to take action on, I'd read it, mark it on my calendar, fold the paper in half and put it in my organizer during the week it was happening/due. This way, I still had the paper to refer back to and it was in a convenient spot. I tried "filing" my stuff before but unfortunately, I either don't pull it back out or it never even gets in the filed area. So, this seems to work for me. Hopefully you'll find something that works well for you. Good luck.

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I've been boo'd!

This is the exact same one I have and I absolutely love it!!!!!!!! Of course I use it so much, my cover is about to fall off!

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Moms of little boys work from son up 'til son down!

I try to look at things one time - so if I get something home with a date on it, I put it right in my calendar and then toss out the paper.

As far as schoolwork that comes home, I do keep things that I know I'll want to keep forever as well as things like, for my older child, we keep all the quizzes and tests and study sheets, so that when he has a final exam or some other type of cummulative exam, we can refer back to the previous work. For my younger child, I don't keep a lot of his worksheets that come home.

I used to keep everything in a file box during the school year and then I foudn that I was shredding 90% of it in June. So now I just try to keep on top of it each day/week.

My DDs have an under hte bed box in which we keep any special papers or projects they want to keep. I at first keep a stack on top of the fridge, purge part, then let them decide what we save. We do this usually 2xs a month.

I write events, things needed at school, etc on th ecalendar, we each have a different color of ink. I file the papers in their school info folder, and try to purge once a week.

We keep DDs spelling words on the fridge, I quiz her a lot during the week.

Hey, one thing I love is my Fridge File. I found it through a link on mommysavers!!

It's a sturdy plastic file that four pockets and a dry erase board. It has mega-magnets that attach it to the fridge.

It works great. Each kid has a there own pocket for forms and sport stuff and then I keep general stuff (lunch menu's, school calendars) in another.

I used to just have things hanging all over the fridge and DH hated it . But now it neat and organized!!!