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The new school year is beginning, and that means volumes of paperwork! Every day, your child will start new assignments and bring home completed ones. School papers can include essays, term papers, math assignments, art projects, and much more. Other papers may include evaluations and awards from teachers and other faculty members. All of that paperwork piles up quickly each year and can quickly mount out of control! How do you go about organizing school papers and storing children’s artwork clutter? We have some great ideas for storing children’s artwork and assignments.

• Digitize it. This doesn’t work for everything; for a lot of original artwork for example, you will absolutely want to keep the originals. But for many other school papers, you can cut the clutter by simply scanning things and throwing out the paper copies. That way the work takes up literally no physical space at all, but you get to hang onto everything for future reference. This is very helpful for your child, especially for an older child who may want to retain an archive of finished work—including math assignments and similar projects which were not originally done on the computer.

• Let your child make decisions. Are you one of those parents who will cling to each and every drawing or school paper forever? One of the simplest tricks to reducing that clutter is simply to let your child decide what to keep or throw away or give to you. Many children will eliminate a lot of their school clutter on their own, retaining only the most precious items. The ones they choose to give to you are extra special because they believe that for one reason or another, you should have them. And of course, if there is something you really treasure, you should keep it regardless if your child doesn’t.

• What should you actually store the school papers and artwork in? There are a lot of options here. Good old-fashioned folders and binders can be great options. Simple and inexpensive options like old pizza boxes can also work! For really precious documents, plastic storage containers work great; these bins lock out moisture and help to protect the papers inside. If you have a filing cabinet, that is also a great place to store old papers.

When your child is young, you will probably feel an impulse to cling to each and every paper like it is a priceless relic. As your child gets older, though, you will quickly find that dozens of papers become hundreds and eventually thousands. Always ask your child whether a paper is special before you throw it away—you never know which papers are important to your child if you do not ask. Provide your child with clear plastic bins to store the papers he or she wants to keep, and set aside the most important papers that you want to keep in your own storage bins. Start on creating a storage solution right away this year, and you will have a much easier time preventing clutter!