It happens every year!   We leave for a vacation right after our kids get out of school for the summer.   The last days of school are especially busy for our family but I schedule time to pack and prepare for our vacation in hopes we will have an organized start to the summer. Just when I start to feel prepared, it happens!  The kids come home from school with all of their school shoes, extra clothes, supplies, schoolwork and artwork.   I won’t be overwhelmed this year and you don’t have to be either!  Here is my plan:

Follow the “Touch It Once” Rule

I try to follow the “Touch It Once” rule and handle household items a single time.   When the laundry comes out of the dryer, I fold it and put it away immediately.   Handling household items more than once leads to piles around the house. 

I am planning to use the “Touch it Once” rule when the kids come home from school for the summer.  I’ll ask them to put their extra clothes, backpacks, lunch bags, etc. into the laundry (preferably already separated into lights, whites and darks – but I digress).   Together, we’ll put the shoes in the closet and the pencil cases in the office (in preparation for all of those hours when they ask me to tutor them through the summer – but I digress again.)   These are items that are easily put away and the “Touch It Once” rule applies. 

Find the Masterpieces  

There will always be items you have to sort through at the end of the school year.    Place these items in a bin for each child.    When your Canada Day sunburn forces you inside, put time aside to sort through these items. 

1)      Create three files for each child – “Report Cards and Certificates,”  “Artwork,” and “Schoolwork.”    The “Artwork” and “Schoolwork” files should have the school year on the label.    Use the same “Report Card” file to collect all of the report cards through the years.

2)      Gather the report card into the “Report Card” file

3)      Sort the bin into two piles:

·         Masterpieces – All children are artists in their parent’s eyes but even Picasso had a few duds.   Put the duds in the recycling bin.  (I have learned the hard way, it is best to put artwork at the very bottom of the recycling bin to avoid hurt feelings.)

·          Useful schoolwork – This should only be work that you think you will review with your child or a younger sibling.   This work then goes into the “Schoolwork” file.  

4)      The artwork that remains is special.    Take digital photos of these pieces.     You could create a photobook for each school year.   If you don’t have time to create a photobook, a digital file still accounts for one less bin in your basement.    Sort the artwork again into pieces you cannot part with.  Place those pieces in the “Artwork” folder.  

Prepare for Next Year

In September, label a bin for each child.  As schoolwork and artwork flow in throughout the year, place it in the bins.

This year, I have a plan and I will not feel overwhelmed when the kids present me with the treasures they have collected and created throughout the school year.    This year, we will open my daughters back pack, we will remove all of the shiny rocks she has collected from the playground, put the backpack in the “Darks” laundry pile and start to enjoy the long weekend.