School is back in session and it's back to pulling several papers out of our child's backpack on a daily basis.

When Sporty started kindergarten, I was adamant about keeping and storing EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ARTWORK OR SCHOOL WORK HE DID!!! Yes, call me crazy, I just couldn't bring myself to part with it. He put his whole heart into these masterpieces, how could I hang them on the refrigerator for a week and then throw them in the trash can? I couldn't. So I saved them. Each and every one.

Then 1st grade! No big deal. A new Rubbermaid storage container, or maybe two, and I was set. He'd bring them home, I'd display them proudly and then tuck them away in the bin marked "Sporty - 1st Grade".

Then Peenee started kindergarten. His papers were just as important ... so I started saving his from kindergarten, and Sporty's from 2nd grade. As you can imagine, I found myself with MANY Rubbermaid storage containers filled with papers. There were so many, I could never see anyone wanting to even sift through them those precious memories years from now. Then I had an idea ...

Scheduling a Sunday afternoon with Sporty, I asked to have him all to myself. He agreed, not knowing why. When we sat down that day, I pulled out the 5 bins full of his school work from kindergarten to the then present. We made 3 piles and sorted each piece of work into the pile we both agreed on:

• # 1 - An absolute treasure - have to keep the original.
• # 2 - Something We Like - but don't necessarily need to keep the original.
• # 3 - Paper That He Did - but there is no reason at all to keep.

We take pile #3, as hard as it is, and throw it away into the recycle bin. We take pile #1 and store it back away into the storage container (should not even take up one container). Then, we take pile #2 and take digital pictures of each piece of work. We place the photos on a disk labeled, "Sporty's Kindergarten School Work".   After all papers have been safely placed on the disk, we take that pile (#2) and place it with pile #3 in the recycle bin.

This system alleviates A LOT of paperwork, yet at the same time, leaves you feeling good about the papers and art work that are important to one of you, yet not important enough to have to keep the original, are stored on a disk for easy viewing and/or printing whenever you'd like.