How to Organize Kids Papers to Keep Clutter Gone

How many times have you cleaned off the table and found piles of your kids papers? From schoolwork to artistic creations, these papers can clutter up your home quickly. Take back your home and find out how to organize kids papers.

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[bctt tweet=”Are you sneaking stacks of kids papers out of the house? Keep your kitchen table and counters clear with these tips for how to organize kids papers.” username=”diyadulation”]

My kids love sharing their creations and worksheets from school with me. My kindergartner especially wants to share every single sheet, drawing, and Scholastic reader with me. I love that she is so excited about it, but she also fights me on getting rid of the papers.

Like most moms, I occasionally wait until she isn’t around and toss them anyway. The problem with that is she isn’t learning to discern what is important to keep and what is not. Right now it all seems important to her and she needs my guidance.

Now, you can guide your child and keep the clutter down with these tips for how to organize kids papers. There may still be the occasional behind-the-pack pitch, but most of the time you will teach your kids to start discerning for themselves.

 

Open School Journal Binder with Pens Scattered

Organize School Papers

Kids love sharing everything they learn during the day. Of course, do you really need 10 sheets of your child tracing letters or a year’s worth of spelling tests? My favorite way to wrangle these papers is with these DIY School Year Journals.

Place a folder in the back of the journal for kids to store the papers they want to keep. If your child tries to keep everything, eventually the folder gets too full. When that happens, teach her to go through what she has and decide what is truly important to her.

Organize Kids Artwork

Kids collect a plethora of artwork. In one crafty session at home we end up with 20+ new masterpieces. To cut down on the clutter, kiddos can pick their favorite creations to be displayed in one of these art frames.

These frames are the absolute best because they open up and have storage inside for additional artwork. When we replace the displayed artwork with a new one, the old one goes into the storage pocket. When the kids are older, they each get to take their frame with them and will have all of their favorite artwork from their childhood.

 

Kids Artwork Hanging on Wall

If you don’t want to buy frames, you can DIY this kids artwork display. Hang it on the wall in the kids room and let them display their creations. You can also add the rule that when they want to add a new piece of art, they have to choose an old one to get rid of.

Organize Kids Personal Documents

When it comes to organizing kids personal documents, they should be kept with the rest of the family’s important documents. There are quite a few options for organizing these documents such as a file cabinet, family binder, and digitally. Read this post about how to organize personal information now for ideas on how to organize those important papers.

 

Pile of School Papers and Coloring Sheets

Go Digital to Organize Kids Papers

If you’re ready to deep dive into decluttering your papers, go digital to organize kids papers. This is super easy. Get a large flash drive for each child. As they bring home papers that they want to keep, scan them into your computer and add the digital file to the flash drive.

Keep it even more organized and itemize files into folders labeled by year. Again, when your kids grow up and move out, the flash drive goes with them. It’s a beautiful memento for them to treasure in adulthood.

 

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Keep your kitchen table and counters clear with these tips for how to organize kids papers. Guide your kids to learn how to discern between the important papers and the ones they won’t miss. You still might have to sneak a few out but it will be so much better.

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How to Declutter and Organize Receipts

Once you tackle your books, it is time to declutter your papers. Today we’re going to focus on those little scraps of paper you have floating around your van, the kitchen, and your purse: receipts. Find out how to declutter and organize receipts with these tips!

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[bctt tweet=”Find out how to declutter and organize receipts by getting fewer receipts, updating your register nightly, and organizing receipts you have to keep!” username=”diyadulation”]

Thankfully, receipts are not a difficult clutter area for me. The worst of it is holiday gifts. I purchase gifts all year long to save the most money and that means having a way of organizing them for an entire year. Luckily, after the holidays, I can shred them and call it a day.

The rest of my receipts follow specific systems so that I’m not drowning in them. If your purse or wallet is overflowing with receipts or you struggle to find the ones you need when you need them then you’ll love these tips for how to declutter and organize receipts.

 

Pink Phone next to Ear Buds

Add Less Receipts

You can start decluttering your receipts by simply adding less to the pile. Every week you make purchases and likely shove those receipts in your purse. Instead, use your phone to take pictures of the amounts you spend or to make notes of ATM withdrawals. The gas station is an excellent example of a place you can easily take a photo of the pump instead of printing out a receipt. I also forgo a receipt at Starbucks or any other place where it is offered.

Secondly, pay with cash so that you don’t have to hold onto the receipts that you do get. When you pay with cash instead of your debit card you don’t have to worry about adding the purchase to your register. Then, when you get home, you can immediately place the receipt in the recycling.

 

Calculator next to Check Register and Pen

Create a System for Receipts

Once you start bringing less receipts in, it’s time to create a system for handling the ones you do. Start with the receipts you save simply to add to your check register. Place receipts in your wallet in front of where you store your debit cards. Each night add those receipts to your register and recycle them. Don’t let them pile up for weeks. Storing them in front of your cards helps as an incentive to clear them out nightly.

Storing and Organizing Receipts

For receipts you must keep for returns or warranties, add them to a small binder along with any other pertinent paperwork. Then make it a point to go through the binder monthly or quarterly to clear out receipts past their return window or expired warranties.

Receipts that you need for tax purposes should be stored in a file along with your other tax documents. After filing, keep everything together for the recommended number of years and then shred them when it is time to discard.

 

Wrapped Gifts Next to Planner and Phone

Holiday Receipts

During the holidays, you collect a lot of receipts. You don’t want to get rid of them in case a gift needs to be returned but you also don’t want to store these with the warranty receipts. Instead, I recommend storing these in your Christmas binder (or that section in your planner). Include packing slips from shipped items as well as gift receipts.

After the holidays, purge what is remaining in your Christmas binder to make room for the next year.

 

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Now that you know how to declutter and organize receipts you can move onto the next area of paper clutter in your life. Don’t forget to use your phone to get fewer receipts, add them to your register nightly, and organize receipts that you have to keep for a streamlined system.

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How to Declutter Books the KonMari Way

All the book nerds in the world cringe at the advice that you should keep no more than 30 books when tidying up with the KonMari method. The fact is, books spark an immense amount of joy. They aren’t just stories. Books contain some of our best friends, amazing adventures, and worlds of exploration. Find out how to declutter books the KonMari way from a fellow bibliophile.

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[bctt tweet=”Books contain our best friends, amazing adventures, and worlds of exploration. Find out how to declutter books the KonMari way from a fellow bibliophile.” username=”diyadulation”]

This is the part of the journey that I dreaded the most. I seriously love my books. None of them seemed dispensable. I’m committed to the process, however, so I gave it my level best.

As with all of the other areas of decluttering, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up tells you to find all of your books and place them in a pile. That’s what I did and it took up half of my living room. The only exception to the piled up books were the kids books. Each child made their own piles of the books that belonged to them and we went through those individually.

Admittedly, I learned that even decluttering the kids books was difficult for me. It’s so hard to see them go. These are the stories that they begged for night after night. They illicit memories of snuggling in their beds and taking them on an adventure. We persevered and got through it.

 

Stacks of Books next to Fireplace

Disclaimer:

Decluttering Kids Books

I believe it’s important to include your kids in this process as much as possible. For that reason, I didn’t feel comfortable going through their books and deciding for them. Instead, each child went through the house and collected all of their books. Then we put them in separate piles. Here are my tips to make it easier:

  1. Mom or Dad should sit with them to help guide them as they declutter.
  2. As with the clothes, pull out a toy or other treasure that brings your child joy. When they are having trouble deciding, let them give it a squeeze and remember the feeling.
  3. Define an area beforehand that will store the books. Let your kiddos know that everything they keep has to fit in the pre-designated spot.

 

Stack of Cookbooks with Fruit on top

Decluttering Cookbooks

Decluttering cookbooks was super easy for me because I use so many online recipes now. When you pile them all up, it’s easy to see the cookbooks that I bought with high hopes of trying new recipes but never got around to it. Let’s be fair, it’s so much easier to pull out my phone and look up a recipe on Pinterest than to dig through cookbooks.

When you go through yours, think about how often you actually pull out the book instead of looking up the recipe on your phone or tablet.

Some cookbooks only get used seasonally and that’s totally okay. For example, I have a cookbook that I pull out during the holidays to make all of our Christmas treats. Although I don’t really use it the rest of the year, it gets more than enough use in the months of November and December. Keep those cookbooks guilt-free.

Decluttering Manuals and Textbooks

If your husband is in a field that requires continued education, you likely have more than one textbook laying around. We even had some of my old college textbooks from 10+ years ago… for courses I completed… and got a degree. Why hold onto those items? I held onto literature anthologies, formatting handbooks, and psych textbooks for reference.

Other than my MLA formatting handbooks (which are no doubt out-of-date at this point) I’ve never looked at these since class. The same goes for a lot of my husband’s medical textbooks. He has a medical textbook for ski patrol from 6 years ago. Even he did start volunteering again, he would have to get an updated textbook to learn the most up-to-date treatments and procedures.

If this sounds familiar, these tips will help:

 

Role Playing Game Core Rulebook

Decluttering Game Books

We are super nerds so we also have a collection of game books. These include video game guides, role-playing game (RPG) core rule books or additions, and even card game books.

When decluttering these, automatically get rid of any game guides for games you don’t play anymore. For example, I still had the entire set of Sims 3 game guides but I only play Sims 4 now. These were an automatic toss for me.

The same goes for RPG books of games we no longer play. Sometimes you get one to try out and it doesn’t fit your style or you simply lose interest. Whatever the case, get rid of these ones.

 

Stacks and Stacks of Books

Piles of Books next to DVDs

Decluttering Remaining Books

This was soooo hard for me. We put all of our books on the floor and I sat down next to them and started sorting. At the end of it, I was trapped between towers of books and was attacked by a stack once but I came out alive. Luckily, I have some tips to help out all of the book lovers like me.

  1. Don’t make a decision on series until you have them all together. This is especially important if you have similar books tastes to your husband. We had multiples of the Harry Potter series because both my husband and I collected them before getting married.
  2. As with your clothes, don’t feel bad about having a maybe pile. As you go through your books it gets easier so coming back to a maybe pile is actually helpful.
  3. Always remember to think about the local library. For example, I had collected a ton of Janet Evanovich books and have still only read 1 of them. Clearly, I’m not invested in the series and it is popular enough that I can always borrow them from the library when I want to read them.
  4. Limit books that you are keeping for emotional reasons. For example, I have my grandfather’s old Purdue textbooks because they remind me of him. Instead of keeping the entire set, I chose 1 Pose and Poetry textbook with his name and note written inside. The rest, I don’t need to hold on to.

 

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It’s not easy to give up books when you absolutely love your books… okay, let’s be fair: You love all books. Learn how to declutter books the KonMari way even when you’re a book love with these tips. If this bibliophile can do it then you definitely can!

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