Getting organized---the PAPER chase! Anyone want to share their tips?

[Michelle in MO]

:eek: I feel like I'm drowning in papers! We do school in our basement (carpeted, well-lit, so it's nice, not gross and dirty), but I feel like the paper situation is taking over the house! I clean up the tables every day, and so do the kids, but the papers are still all over the place! My oldest two girls currently are working on three writing papers: one for grammar (research paper), one for Omnibus (Macbeth), and one for the writing tutorial. There are folders for each thing they're supposed to do. We have plenty of bookshelves, notebooks, etc.

Does anyone feel like sharing pictures of their schoolroom, or tips on how they get themselves organized? I'm drowning in paperwork!

[Sue G in PA]

manipulatives, art supplies, pencils, office stuff, etc. We do school in our dining room (ask me how I hate that!) and have limited storage besides. One plus is the built in book case in the dining room which the prev. owner used for her collectibles but we use for school stuff (obviously!). Doesn't make for a very "pretty" dining room, but hey, people know we hs and if they don't...they'll figure it out! I'm interested in tips for corraling all the chaos as well. Specifically...how do you organize misc. supplies? Pens, pencils, crayons, markers, paint, manipulatives, clay, scissors, glue, etc. You get the idea. Hope you get some good ideas!

[Michelle in MO]

I will. I have plenty of space in our basement, but I still feel so scattered! Plus, I have to get taxes ready, and I spent at least 3 hours last Sunday afternoon making new file folders for taxes for 2008 and organizing our medical receipts. Now, this next weekend I really have to get those taxes done!

I would love to see or hear what others have done! Please share, if you can!

:)

[Ellie]

File--Don't Pile! by Pat Dorff. It doesn't deal with homeschooling, but I'm thinking that once you read the book and got your other household papers in order, you'd be able to figure out the homeschooling papers, too.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that you have to handle paper once. And you have to teach your dc to do that, too. When they are finished with paper of any kind, they have to put it away. Right now. Don't put it on the desk; put it in the folder/notebook/whatever. Just take the time to do it now.

[Shelly in MD]

Paper I do NOT have a handle on! I am trying really hard to handle it only once, and I'm getting better, but not great. One thing that has helped me is to have VERTICAL files, not horizontal (horizontal just increases my tendency to pile things). Somehow, I won't put a miscellaneous piece of paper in a vertical file, but I'll put just about anything on top of something horizontal!

As for the miscellaneous junk... I mean valuable stuff... like glue, markers, scissors, etc. - I use the clear plastic stackable boxes. The kind you can get cheaply at back to school sale time, or the $1 clear shoebox type for larger things (glue, colored pencils, markers, scissors), and smaller stackable containers (like the disposable Rubbermaid type containers from the wrap aisle at the grocery store) for binder clips, googly eyes, that sort of thing. Because they stack, they look somewhat organized on a shelf, and because they are clear, even the non-reading kids can find what they want. Now, if someone can steer me toward a container my 2yo CANNOT open, my life would be perfect! Haha.

Also, I go through the kids binders every 3 months or so to purge, and I put a few samples of their work into a hanging file which eventually goes into a binder at the end of the semester.

HTH!