How to Organize Kids' School Papers

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Colored pencils bordering text "Tips for Sorting and Organizing Kids' School Papers"

Kids bring home tons of papers from school, and while many can be tossed, there are some that you need to keep. But where do you safely store them? How do you sort through years of papers if you are behind? What should you keep? I spent a lot of time Googling how to organize kids’ school papers, with lots of ads and no clear directions to walk me through an easy, effective process.

So instead, I made a system that works for my family and hopefully yours. I took the time to make a bin for each child while they were young that should last through high school.

Even if you are starting later in your child’s school career, this system is quick to set up. It only takes a few materials from Amazon or Staples and you are ready to start. Chip away little by little and it will come together faster than you think. I hope this How to Organize Kids’ School Papers guide helps you to feel less overwhelmed.

Materials

Bins

Clear plastic bins are great for this project. The last thing you want is to start with a heavy container before adding paper. I chose these clear, stackable bins with easy-access split lids. The split lids allow you to view whichever half of the bow you’re looking for, without removing the whole lid for faster access. I did buy a 5 pack since I needed two for this project and used the other 3 in closets for easy access to throw in outgrown clothes.

Hanging Folders

Splurge for sturdy hanging folders since this project is going to take 12+ years to complete as your child progresses through school. Flimsy folders that break or tear will become annoying over time. Assign each child a different color hanging folder to make it a bit easier to quickly identify the bins at a glance. I love my Smead Hanging File Folder with adjustable tabs and have had no issues in the 5 years I’ve been using this system.

Manila folders

These don’t have to be fancy as they will be in the hanging folders. Choose folders with a readable tab so you can see them at a glance. I use these basic Pendflex file folders.

Steps

Label a hanging folder with each grade or age if you are starting with daycare. These are the main dividers for your bin.
Go through ALL of your child’s papers and decide what to keep and what to throw away. This may be the most time-consuming part of the process. I keep the following as it paints a picture of my kids at that specific age:
- Stories/Journals they wrote
- First/last day of school art or project
- Report cards and Parent/Teacher Conference notes
- Papers/art with your child’s photo on it
- Anything with handprints/footprints
- School photo/Class photo
- Cards/Letters from teachers or school staff
- A worksheet or two or writing letters/numbers when they are little
- Physical/medical forms from their doctor
- Your favorite drawing or art pieces from that year (with little kids I advise writing on the back what they intended the drawing to be for cute memories)
Divide the papers you are keeping by grade or age. If you do this at the end of each school year, you can skip this step as you are only working with one grade at a time.
Organize what you want to keep into categories.
When you see the categories you have, label a manila folder for each category and add it to each grade. For example, you will need a “school picture” manila folder within each grade/year hanging folder.
Add the papers to their respective manila folders. Then file the manila folders within the designated grade/age hanging folders in your bin.
You did it! Pat yourself on the back because that was a huge organizational project!

*Mom tip* Anything you are throwing away should be taken out of the house as soon as possible. The last thing you want is for your little one to see their precious art in the garbage and make you take it all out!

Maintenance

Once you weed through hundreds of papers (or more) at the end of the school year a time or two, it will likely get old. It did for me! Make a designated space that only adults have access to for papers to keep. I use a double drawer on my desk that my computer screen sits on.

One drawer is for Little A and the other is for Baby J. They aren’t huge, so I have to be picky, but they easily hold about 100 pages each so plenty for the school year.

As art comes home, I give it up to a week on the counter. If no one is looking for it after that, I put what I want to keep in the designated drawer for that child (write the date on the back first) and trash or recycle the rest. At the end of the year, this leaves less to organize.

For the Future

In the future, you may look through the big bin and weed out additional artwork as kids get older. Once they are in high school you may not need 5 drawings of the cat from preschool. But better to keep it initially and toss it later than toss it early and wish you’d kept it!