Back-to-School Organizing: Tips for Managing Kids Keepsakes & Communications
As the end of summer approaches, it’s a great time to make a back-to-school game plan, including how to deal with all the stuff your kids will bring home throughout the year. How do you make sure you see important papers & emails? What do you do with all of the artwork, report cards, and projects your littles bring home? And how do you decide what to keep and what to throw away when it’s all so precious and meaningful?
In this blog post we’ll talk about how to manage the papers and projects your kids bring home every day, how to deal with the emotional dilemma of letting go of your kids’ keepsakes, and we’ll share ideas and links to products to help you store what you do decide to keep.
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How to Make Sure You See Important Information
First, let’s start with the “easy” stuff – or at least the stuff that doesn’t carry as much emotional weight as your children’s crafts, and academic or sports achievements may carry. This includes things like important information your kids’ teachers and coaches send home/email for you to see and read. Many parents know the frustration of finding out their child was supposed to bring a snack, wear a special themed outfit, or get permission at the last second or, even worse, when it’s too late to do anything about it. Here are some suggestions for how to manage the physical papers as well as the deluge of emails.
Keeping Up with Take-Home Papers
This family command center utilizes vertical file organizers - one for each child - located right next to a family calendar, making it easy to add new events as school sends home notifications.
The way to avoid this is to designate a spot where your children put those items when they get home at the end of a school day and follow these three rules:
Pick a container. Any container. This could be a paper tray or basket on a countertop, a bulletin board, or even a wall file holder. What you use as a container doesn’t matter as much as ensuring you do not just place papers on an open countertop where they can easily get lost amongst other papers and clutter.
Use this container for important school information ONLY. Nothing else should go in this container. This will help you easily see when new information has come home.
Teach your child to unpack their backpack as soon as they get home EVERY DAY. At first, this will take you reminding them every single day. For many kids it will eventually become habit and you won’t have to keep reminding them. Some kids may require consistent reminding, but the extra support will be worth it to help your child avoid the stress and embarrassment of missing out on important activities due to a missed communication.
Keeping Up with Emails
First, set yourself up for success by sharing the responsibility of reading and taking action on school emails. No one parent/guardian should have to manage this on their own. To help with this, I recommend creating a family email address that all household adults have access to and make a gameplan for reviewing and assigning action items/adding to the family calendar.
Pro tip: Your kids can also share responsibility for age-appropriate action items. For example: Friday is School Spirit Day. At a certain age, your child should be able to keep track of days of the week and know that on Friday they should pick out school apparel (if they want to participate).
Second, make sure school emails don’t get lost in your inbox by creating a folder for all school emails. I’m a big fan of automating what you can, and setting up an email rule to send all emails coming from a school email address into your school folder will save you a lot of time over the course of the school year. This folder storage will also make it easier if you want to find a past email to look over details you may have missed.
Keep or Toss? Dealing with the Emotional Dilemma
Okay now on to the emotional stuff. Creating and preserving memories is one of the most fun aspects of parenthood. From the first pair of baby shoes to school projects, each item holds sentimental value and tells the story of your child’s growth and experiences. Letting go of them can feel like you’re also letting go of those memories. But managing and storing these items can become a burden as time goes by.
A few years ago, I worked with a client in his 70s who had not only every report card, art project, and newspaper clipping from each of his three children’s school years, but he even had all of his own schoolwork from grade school through medical school. By the time he called me to help, he was completely overwhelmed. His cherished keepsakes had become a crushing weight emotionally and were even taking a toll physically due to the stress of dealing with so much stuff.
So how do you strike a balance? How do you decide what to keep and what to throw away?
Prioritize and Select What to Keep
One of the first steps in managing keepsakes is to prioritize what to keep. Not every single item your child creates or uses needs to be saved. Focus on items that hold significant sentimental value or represent important milestones. For example:
Firsts: First outfit, first pair of shoes, first drawing, first report card.
Milestones: Certificates of achievement, placement tests, graduation memorabilia.
Handmade Items: Handprints, crafts, and art projects.
You should not keep ALL handmade items. Pick one or two from each school year that you like the most. Better yet, get your child involved. Let them know you don’t have space to keep everything and ask them to pick two projects that they are most proud of or had the most fun creating. It gives them ownership of their memories and teaches them valuable organizing and household management skills.
As you make these decisions, it can be difficult to separate the physical item from the memory or accomplishment it represents. It can take some practice but remind yourself that by getting rid of the item, you are not diminishing or eliminating that memory. It happened. It was meaningful. And nothing will change that. You are simply making room in your life and your physical space for other things that are also very important like having room to host and entertain and make new memories as well as being emotionally present in a way that being bogged down by stress and clutter can make difficult.
Keep Some Items on a Strictly Temporary Basis
Whether it’s a prominent place on the fridge or a dedicated kids art frame, giving your kid’s art or achievement a place of honor let’s them know you’re proud, while allowing you to replace with another item and quietly dispose so that you don’t continue to accumulate.
If the idea of throwing away your little one’s precious artwork or A+ test paper as soon as they bring it home feels a little too drastic or cold, create a temporary storage system. You could store everything through the school year in a memory box then go back at the end of the year to choose your favorites. The problem with that is you may get busy and never go back to purge excess items, so set an appointment on your calendar to remind you to whittle down your yearly keepsakes.
Another option is to display their artwork or milestone item in an easy-change kids art frame that can hold up to 50 pieces of paper. It puts their work in a place of honor and keep it tidy before you eventually part with all but your favorites.
Periodically Review and Edit
Not only should you select only your favorites from each year of your child’s life, you should go back and reevaluate periodically. Maybe after a few years you realize how much space these items are taking and decide to pare down your keepsakes. Additionally as your child gets older, share with them what you’ve been saving. Make sure these are things they see as valuable and emotionally important.
Another great time to review what you’ve saved is when your child eventually moves out and into their own home. Go through these keepsakes with them, enjoy sharing the memories together, and ask if there are any items that are meaningful to them that they would like to take for themselves. Next decide if you still want to keep the items they chose to leave behind. Ask yourself how often (if ever) you’ve gone through these keepsakes over the years. Are you regularly looking at them and enjoying the memories or are they simply taking up space?
How Should I Store My Keepsakes?
Now that you’ve done the hard work of paring your keepsake collections down to the MOST important and sentimental items, it’s time to make a storage plan. There are A LOT of options for storing your children’s keepsakes long term. Here are a few of my favorites.
Create a Keepsake Bin
You can buy pre-made bins on Amazon or Etsy, or you can choose to make your own. Choose a sturdy bin that makes organizing and filing easy such as a heavy-duty plastic hanging file bin and hanging file folders. We recommend organizing your bin by the first five years, then by school year.
Still feeling overwhelmed by the idea? We can help you sort through and make decisions as well as help you assemble your very own keepsake bin for each child. Contact us to find out more.
Create a Memory Book
Another option is a more structured do-it-yourself approach using templates and guidelines from an expert. We recommend Class Keeper – a brightly designed keepsake binder with sections for preschool to college. Each section includes:
"Words of Wisdom" page
First Day/Last Day template pages
Placeholders for fun facts & favorites
Photo pages
Pockets for keepsakes
Go Digital
Hands down my biggest recommendation for keepsake storage is to go digital. Why take up physical space with bulky bins when you can store everything digitally? Here are some of my favorite options.
Get the Class Keeper App
The folks behind the Class Keeper binder also offer an easy-to-use app that still offers all the structure, templates, and beautiful designs you get in the physical binder. What’s more, you can assign editing rights to others if you’d like family members, friends, or even your professional organizer to help you make updates.
Learn more about the Class Keeper App
Standard Digital Storage
If you’re not sold on using an app, for now you can just use some smart digital storage. Take photos of all those physical memories/keepsakes and organize in albums and folders. Use categories that make sense to you including grade levels, sports, holidays, and academics.
Invest in a Digital Display (or Several)
I love Skylight. It’s a super easy way to upload photos and even videos to display on a digtal display screen connected to your account. It’s not only an awesome way to store memories for your own enjoyment but an easy way to share with grandparents and other family members. We gifted my parents Skylight a few years ago and gave access to all of my siblings and their families. We love surprising them with new uploads. It’s especially great for families that are spread out geographically.
In Conclusion
Managing and storing children’s keepsakes allows you to cherish and preserve the precious moments of your child’s life. By being selective, organized, and creative, you can create a collection of keepsakes that you’ll treasure for years to come. Whether through physical keepsake boxes, digital memories, or creative displays, the key is to find a system that works for you and your family. Embrace the journey of preserving these memories, and enjoy the joy and nostalgia they bring.
