I hope you all rang every drop out of your summer vacation! Back to school is bittersweet, but after 3 months of summer everyone is usually clamoring for order and structure! Now that your back to school shopping is done, have you prepped your house for the incoming paperwork, artwork, trophies, ribbons, etc? It’s such a challenge to know at the time what will be special about your child’s school year.
Should I keep this participant ribbon?
Should I keep this 100% test?
Should I keep this picture they displayed in the hallway?
Suddenly, you have a stack of all your children’s memories, mixed together on the counter, not even sure what belongs to who!
It helps if you have a plan ahead of time. Here is my plan for the school year and beyond:
- Buy “Short-Term Memory Box” for each one of your children. It can be a cute box or just a medium size storage bin. Something that will fit on a closet, desk, or kitchen shelf and store it in a handy location.
- Buy a large tote bin for each child and label it “Long-Term Memory” and store it in the garage, basement, somewhere it can be out of the way.
- Week to week, go through the things your kids bring home. If it seems important or special that week, throw it in the Short-Term Memory Box. As the year goes on, you’ll have a better idea what to keep.
- Go through the Short-Term Memory box as it fills up. Throw away things that end up not being as important as you thought initially. Maybe your child has aced every spelling test so you just keep one. Maybe a participation ribbon is the only award your child received in an activity so keep it.
- Move the super-special things to your Long-Term Memory Tote. It’s my goal to only have one tote for each of my children’s childhoods. Maybe a little ambitious, but I know when they move into their own lives, they won’t want to carry 5 bins of papers and trophies around with them!
There you have it! Let me know if this system works for you; I’d love to hear your feedback! Now that you’ve made a SANE Haven, let Norwex help you create a SAFE Haven- a toxin-free home! I’d love to show you how!
~ Suzanne
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I never thought of having different boxes for saving projects! That definitely makes sorting through them later much easier.