School Mementos Keeper

Hi everyone! Just in case you missed it last week, I joined Orgjunkie as a monthly contributor. For my first post, I shared a simple and inexpensive method to organizing your kids’ school mementos. I hope you find it helpful. Btw, I’m still tickled that people actually read my blog!

Do you have a place where you store all your kids’ report cards, class pictures, extra school year portraits, cards, certificates, etc? I kept a plastic bin in the coat closet where I threw all these special documents and treasured pictures. I collected them in one place knowing I would figure out an inexpensive but practical way to organize them later on. 

See how I just threw them in there? I love organizing and being organized but sometimes it takes me a bit of time to tackle some of the smaller projects like this one. Well, I finally got around to organizing it and am so glad I did! Now that my third child will be attending preschool in the fall, I really needed to find a solution for all of the kids before it got out of control. 

 What you’ll need: Two inch binder, sheet protectors, and write on plastic dividers with pockets.

First, I emptied out the container and sorted everything between the two kids and threw out the items I felt I could part with. I really wanted to keep a few pieces of artwork, Mother’s Day cards, report cards, class pictures, and school certificates. After organizing all the mementos, I put one of their treasured art pieces on the front and back of the binders as cover pages. You can also add a label on the long side of the binder. 

I really love this piece of art my son, JJ, did this year. He drew a self-portrait at school and gave it to me for Mother’s Day. Spitting image right? Haha! Label your dividers by grade and place them among the pages. I made one for Preschool (it also included Pre-K), 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. Next, place your special mementos in the sheet protectors. 

Do you have extra school year pictures? This is a great way to store them. Sometimes the kids receive CDs at the end of the year from their teachers, so I placed them in the divider folders. It’s a perfect place to store them! I simply labeled the dividers with a sharpie.

I also kept really funny cards like this one. In Kindergarten, my daughter wrote us a hilarious story, “All about B(d)ogs. ” 

I also kept special programs from recitals, preschool graduations, and this Cinderella program when my daughter and I traveled to LA to watch my brother debut as Prince. 

For two binders, it cost around $20. You can keep it on a bookshelf or cabinet and continue to add these special mementos as the kids bring them home. I’m so glad I finally organized this! If you hold on to more items, you can always use multiple binders. I’m always figuring out ways to have less clutter so this has been another step toward that. I hope you found this little project helpful! 

<><yuni

I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. Psalm 77:11