How To Organize School Papers

Happy Monday! :)

How are you doing today?  Are you ready for Thanksgiving?  Are your kids off this week? My kids have school until Wednesday this week.  

This is a great time to get organized for Christmas and the new year.  

One the hardest things to organize can be PAPER!!!  Right?  We always get to much of it that it can be overwhelming.

Today, we have Krysta here to help us out. 

Please welcome Krysta from KrystaSteen.com.

How To Organize School Papers

If you have kids in school, you know how many papers come home!  Then the decision becomes what to keep and what to throw!  I’m not one to keep every little drawing my kids do, in fact my husband will tell you that at times I get a little too “trash-happy”.     I once threw out a very large check we were expecting because I thought it was junk….yeah, Oops.

Anyway, without further ado!

I started this after my oldest had been in school for a couple of years, so I went back through piles of stuff and it felt so great to get it organized!

I bought 3 storage bins at Office Max: a large one for each child and a smaller one for my son’s gymnastics programs.  I used hanging folders and labeled them with their name, grade and teacher.  I just labeled the fronts with their initial to keep them straight.

I decided to choose a couple of special art projects along with test scores, report cards and the yearbook.  It’s fun to go through the older folders and looks at their old projects!

In the smaller bin, I have organized my son’s gymnastics competition programs by level.  You could do this with just about any sport to keep pictures, scores, etc. organized!

This way we are able to go back and look at his scores from the previous years and see how much he has improved!

Hope this helps!  How do you keep school papers organized?

Thanks Krysta! :)

Visit Krysta for more ideas.

How do you organize?  What system do you use?
Please post a comment.

Have a great day!
Bonnie :)

8 Tips for a Simple, Fun Holiday Season

Let it all hang out this holiday season!

“Good Enough IS the New Perfect”

Is the mere thought of the upcoming holidays making you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, guilty and quite frankly stressed the hell out? Does the idea of escaping it all and landing in a remote island appeal to you? 

In a world jammed with cutesy DIY projects, photos of gift wrap themes and scrumptious recipes that are posted all over the internet it’s no wonder our holiday To 

Do lists have gotten out of control!

Professional organizers, Grace Brooke and Jennifer Ford Berry are known for their tough love approach to simplifying, organizing and being more productive in less amount of time. 

Here is an inside peak at some of their favorite tips for keeping it real and maintain your sanity during the holidays:

1.    Get real about your expectations.

Turn off the HGTV channel and hide your Martha Stewart subscription until January. Design your own holiday experience without the pressures of the media.

2.    Quit being a grouch and start being grateful. 

Stop complaining about what still needs to be done and start being grateful for all of your blessings and accomplishments. 

3.    Develop a holiday vision that is unique to your family.

Sit down as a family to discuss the things you want to do during the holidays and more importantly the things you don’t want to do.  You may include: movies you want to see, old traditions, new traditions, places to visit etc. Write up a list and post it where your family can be reminded of it daily.

4.    Stop cluttering up your friends’ and family’s homes!

Give them the gift of an experience, a memory that they will enjoy and cherish forever. It can be anything from gift certificates to memberships to services for your home.

5.    Opt out of the “Perfect-Holiday-Card” contest.

Do you notice how everyone is trying to come up with the designer holiday card (you know…the one that is professionally shot, where the family is in coordinating outfits, the hair is perfect and everyone is full of holiday cheer).  A snap shot from last summer’s vacation is good enough! (The NEW perfect).

6.    Stop being Martha Stewart and start getting drunk with the rest of them!

This holiday season pass on the sit down dinner and plan a fun, simple cocktail party with appetizers.  Make it more about getting together and less about weeks of 

preparation.  Good food and good company is what it’s all about.

7.    Let the “Fifty Shade of Gift Wrap” go and just get it done.

Keep it simple.  For example: recycling your kids’ artwork to add a personal touch to your gift wrapping. (And this is a great way to get rid of more crap).

8.    Cut down on your holiday storage and decorate your tree with natural ornaments.

Make clean up and storage a snap by using popcorn, berries, cookies, pine cones, bird nests, oranges, candy and other disposable items.

For more great ways to organize and simplify your holiday season check out Grace and Jennifer’s 65 Day Holiday Organizing Challenge that begins on October 29^th.

Declutter in 5 Minutes {guest post}

Hello! :)  I am so, so, so excited to share this new blogger and personal friend with you.  Michelle is here today to share her story how she saved on the grocery bill!  She is a very passionate and loving wife and Mama!  She is a hard worker with lots of talent and wants to share all of it with you on her blog.

As a full-time working mommy, who is also markets health and wellness products part-time in the nooks and crannies of our life, I need a home that is clutter-free.  It's especially important because I work both jobs out of my home and have a less than 1100 sq ft home! And I might be a bit of a neat freak...but my husband is NOT, nor do I expect him to change on account of my likes :) This was a HUGE undertaking for me to commit to 31 days because I work days, my husband works evenings, so I really don't have much time to clean.  However, I promise you that even thought it seems overwhelming at first, now that I'm on my third day I feel like my whole house is completely doable to become decluttered!! And it's much easier to keep a decluttered space clean, as long as you have proper organizing materials and tools. 

Whether you work full-time, part-time, are a full-time student or a stay at home mommy, follow my series and I can help you with with your decluttering needs!  In addition, everyone has financial clutter.  I can help you with that too! 

~Enjoy~

I don't think I realized until today that this whole area was a problem area! It took up three days of decluttering, but that is what 31 Days of Declutter is all about-taking just five to twenty-some minutes a day to declutter your home in baby steps.  So, without even realizing it, I took one whole area, broke it down to smaller areas, and tackled them one at a time. And today was the final smaller area.  You will see the total area below!

Remember the boxes I used yesterday for the magazines and books?

I used the middle box to store our wedding and baby cards that I previously had just sitting in gift bags, which are not very cute when used as home decor.  

I put my paper shredder back over by my full-time job working space where it belongs.  Then I hid the lampshade behind my plant stand.  If you look closely, you can still see it.  But, I really have no place to put it right now, and it's pretty well hidden.  Sometimes you just have to be creative for the time being ha ha! And then I put the dog bed on top of his kennel for storage, and then if he wants ot lay on it, I will lay it back down on the ground for him.  I like his doggy bed, I purposely picked out colors that would look good with our decor.

So here it is! The final decluttering done.

While decluttering this space, I found a safety pin. 

If you didn't catch my Organizing a Small Laundry Room/Space blog, click here.  Then it will make sense that I had this to put the safety pin in!

Reusing glass jars is a GREAT way to create functional decor! And keep your home decluttered at the same time.

Here is the entire area that I have now decluttered in three days. 

Well...almost decluttered...

Until I tackle decluttering the decor on my walls, those will stay for the time being.  Well actually, it could use some straightening, and perhaps I could find a cute way to cover them for now...hmm...see what else you accomplish by doing 31 days to declutter??? You find more areas you can declutter and straighten that you overlooked every day :)

Happy decluttering!

And if you are just starting, here is Day One and here is Day Two.  You can also follow along on my menu on the right.  Just click what day you are on to get some great tips and ideas, pick your cluttered area, and get started!

What are you going to declutter today?

Thanks so much for sharing Michelle!!  Isn't she great?  What did you like about this?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Organizing Bins

Today we are getting ready to move. We started to organize our bins so we can start using them to pack. Ekkk! We have a lot to do!

What are you doing?

Bonnie :)

How to Organize Necklaces

I have really been into organizing lately! 

Today,  I am showing you my organized necklaces.

  

I wanted to organize my them so I can see them but use stuff that I already had that wouldn't take up a lot of time to craft up.I put a lot of my long necklaces on a hanger so I can see them.

I found a hanger and hung them from it.

I love how I can see them!

I kept them separated with twist ties.

Now, they won't get tangled. 

This is simple, easy, and free!  

I can live with that, lol!

How do you organize your necklaces?

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Have a great day,

Bonnie

Organizing Jewelry

Hello!! :)  How are you doing today?  How was your weekend.  We went to the city yesterday and had a very much needed family day all day today which included games, food, reading and more!!

Thanks for all your sweet comments about my closet organizing post!!  Today,  I wanted to you how I organized all my jewelry.  I LOVE jewelry but I don't wear it as much as I would like because I am always holding a baby and it doesn't seem practical, ha!

I dedicated drawer into a jewelry drawer!

Here, I took some plastic containers from an old "RISK" game and added some bracelets in them.

I used the tops for some earrings.

I just placed my hoops here.

Here are some more earrings.

Here is some more bracelets. 

I also got the jewelry insert for my real jewelry.

I got these from my Grandma.

I put a lot of my long necklaces on a hanger so I can see them.

I put all my sunglasses in a bowl that I just picked my from a garage sale for 50 cents!  Score!!!

So, there it is, my organized jewelry!

I love my organized accessories!!

How do you organize yours?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

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