Here’s Our Favorite Method to Organize School Papers (FREE Printable Labels Included)
Looking for a smart way to organize your child’s school papers and memories? 📚🤓
Storing keepsake papers, awards, report cards, artwork, etc can become overwhelming as a parent. Ideally you’d like to keep everything, but realistically that’s probably not possible.
I’d like to say I’m an organized person, but in all honestly, I’ve always struggled with paper clutter and what to do with my children’s “stuff”. For instance, I had papers stashed in my office, the kitchen, their rooms, and even the garage. With that said, I’m working on this organizing project to get myself motivated to identify the BEST pieces to hold onto, and so far it’s working!
This easy filing system of keeping only the very best memories of each school year, and storing them all together in a plastic hanging file bin for each of my kids, has been a helpful idea that’s working out awesome for us!
Today I’m sharing these FREE printable labels and cover sheets to print and organize a hanging file bin for your kids!
PRINT K-12 File Folder Labels HERE
PRINT File Cover Sheet HERE or Save .jpg file HERE
PRINT Bin Cover Sheet HERE or Save .jpg file HERE
Hanging File Storage Method for Kids Papers
Supplies Needed:
- Hanging File Box with Lid
- Hanging File Folders
- File Folders
- Avery File Folder Labels
- FREE Printable File Folder Labels
- FREE Printable File Folder Cover Sheets
- FREE Printable Front Label for Bin
Directions:
1.) Fill out the hanging file cover sheets for each grade including year, teacher, school, etc, and attach a school photo for each year. Glue or tape to front of a hanging file.
2.) Attach labels for each school year to file folders. If desired you can create multiple file folders for each year and separate in different categories such as schoolwork, artwork, awards, etc. File papers according to each grade level.
3.) Label bin with your child’s name. Feel free to use a marker, or save this blank label with school supply border and open it in an image editor to add text. I used PicMonkey.com, an online editing tool to add text to images. The font pictured is called Yesteryear.
I love that this school paper storage system is really easy to keep up with once you have it all setup!
Honestly I wish I would have done this years ago when my first child started school! I love looking back at all the special writing assignments and memories, and know they will to in the future.
Thank you for subscribing!
Written by Lina for Hip2Save. Lina is a proud mom of 2 kids who loves photography, all holidays, cooking, thrift store makeovers, bargain shopping, and DIY makeovers. Her goal is to create a beautiful life and stylish home on a dime! To see all of Lina’s DIY/Crafts created just for Hip2Save, click here.
I love this and NEED to start it now. My daughter starts K in the fall.
Yes I wish I would have!
I purchased six boxes from wayfair for around $50.
Thank you for this! My son started kindergarten last fall and I have been curious about a good way to keep his artwork. This is perfect!
Thanks for the tip. I do something similar but without the pretty labels. It’s crazy the amount of school paper we have accumulated and my daughter is only in kindergarten. It’s tough choosing what to get rid of and what to keep.
I did this years ago and SO GLAD I did. We had a house fire on Christmas Eve and the water damage was unbelievable – my kids’ School stuff was saved by being in plastic containers! Don’t wait to do this!
Oh this might be perfect for my homeschool portfolios!
What an awesome idea!! Thanks so much–I’ve got disorganized buckets full of papers, etc; the labels alone will be a terrific help!
This is awesome! Just today I was looking at all the kids’ art and ‘stuff’ and wondering how to organize it! Thank you 😊
Wow! Thanks for the post! My TK daughter has started accumulating lots of artwork & we weren’t sure how to organize it. Originally, I got the large memory books to file away the nice artwork, but this method seems more space-saving & practical–with cute labels. Thank you!
I did something similar….1 giant 3 ring binder per grade/year. Punched holes and inserted. The binder limited the amount, so I was forced to weed out (or I would keep everything)! I have heard of others who take photos of artwork/papers and make a shutterfly book also.
I do the binder system too, but start out with the crate. I just chuck it in a crate with file folders for each month of school. At the end of the school year I weed through it and the keepers go into the binder.
I did something similar to you. When my son was little I made a 12×12 scrapbook each year until he was in 5th grade. It really cut down on paper clutter but it was so time consuming. I’ll be doing this file box for my younger child 🙂
Great!
Thank you for this!
You’re so welcome 👍
My kids are almost middle school age I wish I would have done this earlier
Yes I do also!
I did this last year and love how i can keep it all organized!
Thanks for sharing!
I might get a bin half this size and do something similar to this for the mail. It is EVERYWHERE lol. That little mailholder on the wall just doesn’t cut it. We get the mail and don’t go thru it right away…just shuffle thru to get the important items and then toss it every place, living room, kitchen, dining room lol. Takes me awhile to go back thru it all when it piles around :-/
Yes I struggle with this also. Great idea!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing
Where did those cute hanging files come from?
Walmart! – thanks Whitney 👍
Years ago, I bought each of my kids a 20×26 inch expandable plastic art portfolio from Michael’s. I liked the larger size to accommodate the larger drawings and paintings from elementary school. I have their smaller papers (creative writing pieces and award certificates) in there as well, it holds a LOT! They are now middle school and high school.
Oh that’s a fun idea! Thanks for sharing 👍
Love this idea! I need to start doing this soon, my girls are gonna be in Preschool and Kindergarten this coming fall. Thank you for sharing 🙂
I do something similar but have a hard time choosing the “best” artwork. . . my solution is to take pictures of everything (and then toss the papers) and make an Art Book on Shutterfly. That way I don’t feel guilty about throwing something away that my child made.
Love this idea too!
What a great idea! I saved every single paper from my first child and now that he’s in 3rd grade and we’ve had two more kids, it’s time to de clutter. I’m going to make this my project to get their school papers organized!
Awesome! I need to add to mine again now that school is almost over!
My daughter is in 7th grade, am I too late??? Lol
No actually – my son is also in 7th and I went back through multiple boxes to file things for him. It made me feel better to have it all together in one and only kept the best pieces.
I have had this saved to my HipList for almost a year trying to get it together to do this! I’ve been searching for boxes, and then discovered you linked to Amazon for the ones you used. They’re not available from (shipped) by Amazon currently, and the cheapest vendor was selling them for approximately $18.00/box with free shipping. I copied and pasted the name of the ones you suggested and found them at Target for about $6.50 each! WOOHOO! I bought two! One step closer to getting this project going! Thanks!
yay that is wonderful! Happy Organizing!
I allow myself to keep 10 projects/papers only. The rest become part of a shutterfly book. I spend an hour or two (sometimes this can take awhile depending on time!) taking a photo of all the art work with my iphone, then upload it all to shutterfly and try to put like with like along with school photos and any handouts from concerts, plays, letters from teachers. It’s a little time consuming but the kids enjoy flipping through their books and it’s less clutter. I usually wait for the promo shutterfly coupon codes 🙂
that is fantastic! Thanks for sharing the idea <3