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Purging and Organizing Children’s School Work {Part One}

#SparkingJoy copy

Good morning! I’m back again for one of the last official days in this series all about tidying and organizing and today I am talking about purging and organizing children’s school work.

If you have been following along for the past several Sundays then you know that I have been slowly working my way through our home decluttering and attempting to follow Marie Kondo’s method as outlined in her book “the life-changing magic of tidying up”…

Sparking Joy My Journey in Tidying Up at thehappyhousie

 I’m thrilled to be in cahoots with these bloggers on this #SparkingJoy journey:

A Journey to Sparking Joy:

Anderson & Grant
Making it in the Mountains
DIY Passion
Dwelling in Happiness
Zevy Joy
Cupcakes & Crinoline
The Happy Housie

So far on this journey to a life of magic, I have shared…

But today I’m talking about purging my childrens’ school work.

Following the Marie Kondo method for Purging & Organizing Children's School Work-2

This is a tough one. Kind of an emotional one.

Perhaps I should have saved it for the last week “momentos”?!?

And, in a way, I did.

Because frankly. I’m not finished.

Here is what I started out with:

purging and organizing children's schoolwork at thehappyhousie.com

If you ever saw my sons’ bedroom reveal, you may have spotted these adorable little bins in their closet…

Nautical Camp Style Boys Bedroom Reveal at thehappyhousie.com-16

And, until now, you never knew what was lurking inside of them…

Purging & Organizing Children's School Work-1

See, that’s the trick, right?

Put your stuff in cute bins and no one is any the wiser.

Purging & Organizing Children's School Work-2

No one knows that even though your oldest is nearly 8 and in grade 3 and your youngest just turned 5 and started Kindergarten, you’ve never actually sorted and organized their incoming school work.

This is how much there is.

And I have purged along the way, people.

Purging & Organizing Children's School Work-3

But I have six bins/baskets full of papers and art and books and… goodness knows what else.

And the worst part?! Some of it I can’t even be sure which one of them made it or when!!

AHHH!!!

Honestly – not being more organized with this is one of my biggest regrets. What a silly thing to waste regret on, I know. But I want to be organized with this! To have a place to file it and keep it – at least the important stuff.

And most importantly, I want to be able to make that call about what is important and what’s not. It’s so hard, right?!

Because, frankly, sometimes everything that your child makes #sparksjoy when it first comes home.

And now, going back to it, months or even years later it doesn’t all spark joy. So I can let some go.

The Process:

hold the piece

ask yourself “does it spark joy”

listen to you intuition

deal with it accordingly

Purging & Organizing Children's School Work-5

Does this hat with stickers and his name spark joy? Well, kind of, because I was so proud of how he could print his name…

See, this is what makes this topic so difficult!

And, this is why, I’m not done.

But I am determined. We have a long weekend this weekend (it is Canadian Thanksgiving). And it is my goal to have these bins and baskets completely sorted through before I head back to work on Tuesday. And then it is my goal to have a system figured out for how to store their important stuff from here-on-out.

I’m doing some pin-research on how to tackle that problem and I can’t wait to share the ideas I am finding with you next week.

I’m also going to share PART TWO on this particular part of this whole journey: How I finally ORGANIZE their momentos and school work.

A little more inspiration

Ready to see how my fellow #sparkingjoy bloggers made out with tackling their  purge this week?

I think most of them focused on their kitchen – I should have done that. It would have been way easier! But I will get there…


Have you been doing any purging and organizing this week? What area are you tackling??

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I may link up at some of these fabulous places below, for more info check out housie parties: Monday Funday , Inspiration Monday, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Project Inspire{d} , Inspire Me Tuesday, The Scoop, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Wow Me Wednesday, Whimsy Wednesday , From Dream to Reality, The Inspiration Exchange, Wow Us Wednesday, Live Laugh Rowe Live Laugh Linky, Thursdays Are Your Days, Inspire Me Please, Catch as Catch Can, Fabulously Creative Friday, Party Junk, Pinworthy Projects , Link Party Palooza,, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Spotlight Saturday, Suburbs Mama , That DIY Party

 

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8 Comments

  1. This is an area that I’m sure is hard to do some purging. I don’t have kids, but I know that there is still a pile of these old papers that my mom is storing of mine and it is easy to believe you need to keep it all. It is smart of you to take your time looking through these mementos! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend!

    1. Hi Jamie! My Mom still has all my stuff in a big box – along with all our family photos in another box. Isn’t that sad? I don’t want it to get to that point!! I need to figure it out and get it organized now, before it becomes even more overwhelming:)

  2. We do it once a year, in the summer. We purge the baskets and put our 10 favorite things in a labeled envelope (under my bed with our pictures). It’s simple enough and a fun record of what they did.

    My mother-in-law pulled out my husband’s old school papers the other day and we had a blast looking through it!

    1. This is brilliant!! I need a system like that!! I love the summer idea – and the envelopes! Thanks for sharing it!

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