Work At Home

Homework Organizer

Do you ever get tired of picking up your children's homework from all over the house?

Even when my daughter's schoolwork has made it to her room, it usually ends up in the corner, under her bed, in her bed, in her closet--wherever she can find a place to stash it. One time I let it go for so long that when we finally went through it we had literally filled a kitchen garbage bag full of discarded school papers.

When we were going through the pile of papers, we found a lot of things my daughter and I both wanted to keep. Some of the artwork I kept to put up at work. Some of the special projects she's done I wanted to put away somewhere where we'd be able to find it twenty years from now.

A lot we just threw away, but there were some things my daughter wanted to keep that we just didn't know what to do with. I needed to come up with a way to organize what was left so it wouldn't end up getting scattered to the wind again.

We looked around at an office supply store and found a file organizer that seemed to suit her needs. She selected a purple plastic filing box that is the right size for 8 1/2 x 11 hanging file folders. My daughter labeled the folders with the names of her different classes (e.g., Life Sciences, Health, Language Arts).

My daughter and I came up with this filing idea when she was in about fifth grade. A freshman in high school this year, she still has many of the papers she has brought home since the fifth grade. This has been great not only for papers and projects she completed, but also for keeping reference materials she still goes back to from time to time.

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. Visit her site www.organized-mom.com, featuring the Easy Organizer, loaded with tools to help you plan, schedule, remember events, keep in touch, get your family on an organized schedule, and prioritize.