Kids’ School Papers

I don’t know about you, but we get volumes and volumes of paper from the kids’ school throughout the year. Math sheets, spelling and grammar worksheets, essays, art projects, social studies…it’s endless.

Last year we designated an armoire as the station for our kids’ school stuff. Before we did that paper ended up all over the house. There are cubbies at the bottom where they put their backpacks. Honestly, it’s great because we can shut the doors and don’t have to see what is inside.

Because this is what’s inside:

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Before the armoire got moved into the sunroom with all of our other furniture (while the living areas are worked on), I went through everything in there.

The majority of it went to the recycle bin. But, I did find a few gems that I wanted to consider more thoughtfully before I disposed of them. This one I just took a picture of before I recycled:

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This one came from The Boy’s writing journal that I kept to make decisions about later:

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I’ve been researching what to do with all of the artwork the kids have generated in their lives. There is a lot of it. More than what is pictured above. I have boxes and boxes of it. I don’t want to keep it all, but I do want to have some documentation of their childhood.

What to Do, What to Do

I’m not a scrapbooker, so that’s out.  I did have tons of scrapbooking supplies, mind you, but those all got donated. For several years I fancied myself a scrapbooker. Or a potential scrapbooker. I’ve finally come to terms with my non-scrapbooker status. It just made me feel guilty to look at the supplies and stacks of unscrapbooked stuff. So I let it go.

Digitizing Paper

I found a place called Scan Cafe. They will scan your photos, videos and, I assume, artwork and compile it into a CD or digital video frame. I’m thinking that once I get the artwork and other school papers down to a manageable amount, I can send them to a service like this. I also have tons of photos from before the age of digital cameras, so I’m considering having those scanned as well.

If I did it myself, it would take an eternity. And to be blunt, I won’t do it and I won’t throw them out. The stacks and boxes will just clutter up the house for years to come. I know this about myself, so I’m trying to find a solution.

Have you used a service like this? Do you have another solution to the kid artwork and photo challenge? Please let me know  in the comments.

This is what was left from the armoire after I was done:

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The clear plastic container holds school project related supplies (colored paper, push pins, etc.) and the pencil box has glue sticks (regular and the ones for a hot glue gun). The red plastic bins have the work I kept to go through later. There is a small stack of lined paper I kept, as well. Their school provides most of the school supplies they need, so we only need the odd piece of paper every once in a while.

The printer we had in the armoire (but haven’t used in over a year) will be sold on CraigsList, donated or Freecycled.

Once we put everything back together in the house, I’m thinking there will be a lot of empty space in that armoire.

Empty. Space.

Nice.