If it’s not junk mail, it’s school papers! With four kids, we end up with so many papers from school each day, we could easily get buried! But we don’t.

Here’s why we love how easy this method is for organizing school papers.

Two weeks ago, I shared how I eliminated 95% of our paperwork and how I keep the remaining paperwork neatly organized. Read how I did it here: the easy method for organizing paperwork.

But kids’ school paperwork is separate from regular household paperwork. For one, the kids bring it home almost every day and if you have multiple kids like me, that’s multiple piles you have to think about. Then there’s homework and permission slips that need to be returned, weekly reading charts, notes from teachers, announcements, book orders, PTA fundraising paperwork, and general classroom papers that are done.

It can get messy quickly.

Before school started this year, I simplified things in a big way by implementing a new way to organize school papers. Four YEARS later, it still works great with four kids’ worth of school papers.

this idea now...

Here’s How We Organize School Papers:

As with any concept in organizing, the first step is to assign where things belong.

I designated four separate areas for my kids’ school papers.

1) Finished papers belong in my closet.

I purchased a six-shelf organizer from Amazon back in August. It’s not the prettiest thing and yes, it’s made of cardboard, but it serves it’s purpose quite nicely. I chose this organizer because it has 6 slots. Each of my kids has a shelf of their own, which I labeled with my labelmaker. {Labeling simplifies everything!}

The top two shelves are for me. One is for miscellaneous papers (because it’s good to have a spot for those random papers that would otherwise be left lying around) and another slot where I put things like special pictures the kids draw for me, birthday cards, etc.

When a slot becomes full, I prune down the pile. We don’t need 30 reading comprehension pages, so I throw out most of them and keep one or two. The remaining papers go to a more permanent home in each child’s school papers box in the attic. (More on that below.)

2) The kids each have a homework slot.

There is room in our family command center (read more about that here) for homework, reading charts, etc. Basically anything that needs to be finished or returned to school goes into their homework slot.

3) School paperwork that needs my attention goes in my wall organizer.

Permission slips, notes, or announcements that I need to handle go in my wall organizer next to my desk. This is my reminder to take care of it and there’s no clutter on my desk either.

4. Old school papers go in bins in the attic.

I use simple $2 plastic bins to organize old school papers. You can read more about how I did that, plus get the free printable dividers I created just for you here: How to STORE school papers.

Each child has their own bin, with simple file folders to divide each grade.

It’s not fancy, but it was free (I already had the plastic bins and folders). I considered trying one of the much nicer file folder box ideas for organizing school papers that I’ve seen around Pinterest, but with 4 kids, it wasn’t going to be inexpensive. Plus my simple bin method is just as effective.

I used to have one bin for each grade for each child, but once again, with four kids, that adds up quickly. My oldest alone would have 7 bins!

This past summer, I used the Marie Kondo method for organizing my whole house this summer and realized I can still save wonderful memories without saving every single paper my children ever do.

That’s it! If this method for organizing school papers can work with my four kids, have confidence that you can make it work for your family too!