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15 Fantastic Ideas for Organizing and Storing Children’s School Work

I have put together 15 of the best ideas for storing and organizing your children’s school work.

If you are a regular reader then you may have seen my big confession a couple of weeks ago.

About the disorganization. And mess….

Purging and organizing children's schoolwork.

And the difficulty I am encountering with purging and organizing and storing children’s school work. Well, Maids.com also heard about my struggle with this comment problem and inspired me to find a great solution.

And where best to start when searching for a solution to an organizational issue? Pinterest, of course!

Now – don’t get me wrong. Sometimes Pinterest can be a nightmare. Too many beautiful, glossy, organized pictures that make me feel worse about my own lack-of-purging-organizing situation.

But you have to go there with the right mind-set, right? The “I’m-ready-to-tackle-this-problem-and-not-just-pin-ideas” mindset.

And today I have collected 15 of my favourite ideas for organizing and storing children’s school work, and I found that these methods generally fit within 5 key methods: bins, file systems, binders, portfolios, and digital albums.

5 key methods and 15 examples of how to organize children's school work poster.

 

Method One

Probably the fastest and easiest method for organizing and storing children’s school work is simply to place it by grade level into separate bins, boxes, or envelopes. While this method has the advantage of being quick and easy (and perhaps more likely to keep up with as a result of it being quick and easy), it also makes it more difficult to view the work again when you want to enjoy it.

Boxes with children's names on them.

A Manilla Folder/Box Solution and great tips for sorting, organizing, and displaying children’s school work at 733 Blog.

Plastic containers with the school work inside.

Organizing and Storing Children’s Art at The Artful Parent

Method Two:

Many of the solutions for organizing and storing children’s school work that I came across involved a filing system of some kind. The advantage here is that you could include all kinds of keepsakes and important documents in a file; and while it is easy to look things up by age or grade; files still don’t make for an easy viewing method. But it is definitely easy to put together and simple to keep organized and keep up with once you get it going.

File folders filled with the work.

I love this amazing filing system – plus she gives awesome details about keeping a photographic record as well at Honey We’re Home.

Labels such as kindergarten and pre-k.

A great filing system at The Simple Proof.

Plastic storage bins with photos of the child on the front.

Organizing into totes at borealis

The plastic bins stacked up in twos.

School Paper Organization at Just A Night Owl

Method Three:

The second most popular method for organizing and storing children’s school work that I found through my research was using some version of a binder storage method. This method has the advantage of being fairly easy to assemble and keep organized and also allows for very easy future viewing. The issue here is that all these binders could really begin to take up a lot of space. Also, larger pieces of art or larger projects can be difficult to store in a binder sleeve.

Binders filled with school work.

I like how easy it is to see the artwork and projects with this organized binder system – and she also gives some great tips about what to keep and what to purge at Davonne Parks.

Children's art in the binders.

I love the special additions that she made to this amazingly organized binder system at Make Life Lovely.   You’ll want to check out how inspiring her finished product is!

The binders stacked up.

Schoolwork Binders at The Idea Room.

Colourful labels on the binders.

Getting Organized with Keepsakes at A Bowl Full of Lemons

A page of the binder opened to the word kindergarten.

Back to School Binder with Free Printables at Martha Stewart

Method Four

One method that I came across and really loved was this idea to use Artist Portfolios. I especially like the idea of using these pre-made porfolios that allow you to store larger art pieces then a traditional binder would. They also seem like they would be fairly easy to keep up with once you got the system into place, but could also end up taking up quite a bit of space depending on how well you purged your selections before storing them.

A black portfolio with schoolwork.

I love this idea of using an expandable art portfolio from A Thoughtful Place Blog

Little tote bags with the names of the kids on the front.

DIY Artist Portfolios at Modern Parents Messy Kids

Method Five

The final method I came across for organizing and storing children’s school work was using a scanner and creating a digital scrapbook album of you children’s work. I absolutely love how gorgeous the finished product looks, and the books are definitely small enough that they are easy to store while also allowing for maximum viewing. But I’m not sure about actually getting rid of all the physical pieces. Isn’t there something special about actually holding the object in your hand?? It’s like that whole debate about books versus E-readers. There is something different about holding the actual object then having a digital image of it. While I love the gorgeous appeal of these types of scrapbooks, the jury is still out for me on whether I could actually purge the real-life-artwork. I might have to keep both the album and the original!

A keepsake book of school work.

A Book of School Projects at Zig and Zag Blog

A photo album of school work.

Kindergarten School Work Album at All For the Memories

Drawings-paintings-handprints-oh-my-How-to-celebrate-kids-artwork-without-drowning-in-it

Need more ideas for organizing and storing children’s school work? Check out these Maids.com tips for organizing and celebrating your children’s artwork.

Did you find a little inspiration??

 

This is awesome! Pin it to remember it!

5 methods and 15 ways to organize school work poster.

Although I haven’t quite tackled this issue yet, I do think I have a much clearer idea of where to go with this issue… and  I think I’ve decided what will work best for our family. I know that I’m ready to tackle this problem – it’s driving me bonkers!

But what do you think? Any inspiring ideas??

Next time that I discuss this topic I promise I will be sharing my solution! {Wish me luck on the process}

signature and quote

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Disclosure: Thanks to Maid.com for inspiring me to find a solution to this organizational challenge that continues to plague our home!

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17 Comments

  1. The method #5 is my favorite! Shutterfly or any other book printing would be a great gift for grandparents. Love it! I am currently using the binder and just save the best stuff in clear page holders. My daughter is now 12 and I think the longer it goes the more appreciative she will be that I saved her art. Another great idea, especially if you have multiple children, put the art in matching frames and just replace the pieces every month, have like a family exhibit of the month or quarter.

  2. Thanks for sharing kids storage ideas for organizing and storing children school work. It will be helpful for every mother.

  3. Krista, wow so many great ideas.
    Would love to add one more – The Keepy app – which helps parents to organize and save the artwork schoolwork and mementos even with voice and video narration.

  4. Hi Krista,what are your thoughts on 3D objects. Do u still keep ones that take up space. I have a foam object covered in felt.not sure what to do with it.Any ideas?

  5. Absolutely BRILLIANT Krista! What Mama doesn’t need a great way to organize it all? Because, let’s face it, I’m not tossing a thing 😉

    1. Hi Abby! It will make me giddy when I finally get my own kid’s school work tackled too!! Thanks for your visit:)

  6. I love the idea of scanning and making a book but I love the originals too! I get rid of most papers and small things but keep anything with hand prints, foot prints or really nice work. A few writing samples to show growth but that’s about it. Mine are in a box, sorted by age for the most part. Some are framed and hanging in various rooms.

    1. Sounds like you have it all figured out already! That is great. I spend so much time each year putting together a nicely organized scrapbook for my Kindergarten students to take home with all their key art pieces and writing, but I haven’t even done the same for my boys. Bad, right?!?

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