Project Organization: School Papers/Childhood Memorabilia

One of my New Year's resolutions is to unpack about 10 boxes/containers that we shoved into the bedroom upstairs when we moved here a year and a half ago. Out of sight, out of mind, right? :)

Well, I'm so tired of not enjoying my upstairs because of those blasted boxes, so this has been my big project this month.

I call it-
PROJECT ORGANIZATION

I've been through over half of them- organizing, DI-ing, and throwing away unwanted things. Most of the bins were full of things from my childhood- porcelain dolls, yearbooks, cheerleading stuff, books, binders, etc. These things I just reorganized and sent into storage downstairs...all things I want to keep and enjoy with my children someday. A LOT of stuff got thrown away though.

One of the big things I came across was my box full of schoolwork, special papers, etc. from my childhood. This box was chuck-full to the top!

I'm so thankful that my mom saved it all for me, but I wanted to find a way to organize it so that I could enjoy it and actually know what was in it.

Enter--- the most amazing blog for organizing!

www.iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

Via Pinterest, I found this amazing post about how to organize this giant mess-

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2010/11/school-paperwork-storage.html

Seriously, take a second to go look at it. It's awesome! I used her exact system (only I bought a plastic file box because I wanted something sturdier). Her pictures are very pretty. Mine are taken with my iPhone, but you'll get the gist of it.

I started this project by going through the box, paper by paper, and deciding what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to throw out. If it didn't hold special meaning for me or was important to me, it got tossed. It was actually really easy to do.

Next, the "keep" pile got sorted. I was first going to sort everything by category, but after going through it all, I realized it was easier to sort by year. Then after realizing that most of what I was keeping was schoolwork, it finally got sorted by grade.

Next, a quick trip to Walmart was in order. I purchased hanging file folders ($4 for 10 because I got the pretty colored ones since my box was clear) and a big file box ($6). I already had sheets of labels and standard file folders at home (extremely cheap).

Each pile (sorted by grade) got put in a standard cream file, then into a hanging file folder. I made labels for each file (using the FREE template on the blog above). They were labeled- Baby/Toddler, Preschool, 1st grade, 2nd grade....and up. I also added a few extra labels for my own needs- Elementary School Art, Junior High Notes from Friends, High School Graduation, etc...

I also decided to put the year and my age in small font below the grade just to make more sense of it.

Stuck the labels on the files and...

VOILA!

ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL!!!

(not the blurry pictures, but the system!)

This project was actually SO FUN and SO EASY and extremely INEXPENSIVE.

Which was exactly what I needed. It's actually very much like a scrapbook in a different form. It's easy to look through and I love having the original papers, certificates, and notes to hold in my hand and re-live a memory. Since I had extra room, I also threw my few childhood journals in the box so that everything would be together.

I just wanted to share because I'm so happy with the result and I think it's a fantastic thing to do for our kids!

I already bought a box and put this same thing together for Drake. I figured if I already had everything out, I might as well do one for him. It took me such a small amount of time. He won't even start preschool for over a year, but when he brings home that first piece of artwork that I want to save, I will have a slot to put it in. I'll have a slot for everything all the way up to graduation. Someday, I can just hand him the box and say, "Here is all of your childhood stuff. Organized and ready to enjoy!" His future wife better thank me. Haha!

This is the beautiful picture from the blog above-

Drake's box looks just like this. The darling cover sheets in the picture (where you can put a school picture and school info) are also available as a free template to download and print. So I did just that...14 of them- 1 for each year, and placed them in each folder for Drake.

It's just beautiful I tell you. Beautiful organization and SO easy.

Let me know if any of you decide to try it. I really think you will like it!

The best part is discovering old treasures.

Like this-

My silhouette from 2nd-ish grade. What a special thing to have!

(The term for those bangs is "The CLAW")

My favorite was reading the 2nd to last line of the poem-

"Who will someday be a nurse and a mom" 

Who knew I'd actually grow up to be what my 2nd grade self thought I'd be?

Another treasure I found-

This is a paper I wrote about my Grandpa Payne in 2001. I did an interview with him about his service in WWII. He passed away in 2003, so this really is priceless to me.

Another favorite (by far) was reading notes from my friends back in Junior High. They are so hilarious. Soooo hilarious. They are priceless to me and I refuse to throw them away. If I love reading them now, I'm sure I'll love reading them even more years and years from now.

They will be such a foreign thing for my kids to see someday. Writing notes to your friends is pretty much extinct these days. 

Here awaits the last of the dreaded boxes...

One of those being Rob's childhood box.

I'm so glad I have an awesome system to use for his stuff as well.

Can't wait to get started!