No doubt your children bring home loads of schoolwork, papers and artwork each school year. School paperwork can quickly become an unorganized mess. Artwork, projects and pieces of schoolwork you want to keep end up left in piles because what are you really supposed to do with all of that? The sides of your refrigerator can only hold so much.

Don’t get buried under a pile of papers and projects from your child’s school year. What you need is a custom storage solution. Now is the perfect time of year to organize everything from the 2011-2012 school year and get a system set in place before the next school year starts.

Here are some storage ideas for organizing and keeping your child’s schoolwork:

Sort everything by child. If you have more than one child, organizing school papers, projects and artwork can easily become double or even triple the headache. Create a storage area — be it basket or filing drawer — for each child. Label each area for each child, or select a different color of files for each child.

Designate files. Sort work by school year — this is the best way to keep track of your child’s memories. Additionally, you may want to designate a file for paperwork that needs to be signed and returned to the school.

Everything goes in. When your kids come home from school, collect any schoolwork they brought home. Sort through what you want to keep and toss what you don’t want to keep. Don’t let a pile build up — sort everything immediately.

Preserve artwork. One guaranteed way to protect your child’s artwork is to frame it using acid-free matting and UV-filtering glass. Consider designating a wall in your home — perhaps in a hallway or your child’s room — to hang your favorite pieces of art from your kids.

Deal with the big stuff. As much as you may want to keep them, there’s really no good way to store oversized pieces of schoolwork like that cardboard display of your child’s science fair project. Instead of keeping these large items, preserve the memory by taking a picture of your child with his or her project. Keep the picture, not the project itself.

Use this simple organization system to eliminate the mess of school papers and projects. At the end of each school year, sort through papers again, tossing anything you don’t need or want to keep. Put everything for that school year away and clear out your organizing system to make room for the upcoming school year. Contact California Closets for professional and creative storage solutions for your home.

Do you have a system for organizing your child’s schoolwork and projects? Share your ideas with us in the comments below!

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