Organizing History

I love to throw a party, I love to decorate my house, but I think the thing that gets my heart beating fast is organizing.  I love for every cabinet, drawer, closet...everything to be organized.  Now, don't go look in my closets and drawers and judge me, because at this stage of my life there is not a lot of time to organize.  I thought that I would share with you how I have organized all of the special memories from my kids:

1.  Each child has 1 large tub and 1 small tub for all of their "special" things.  Someone told me a long time ago that you should limit all of your child's things to 1 tub.  I think that is a good principle because as parents we can get carried away with saving everything.  The truth is, when we pass it along to our kids they will probably only have room for 1 tub of memories.  The large tub holds special things like:  their outfit coming home from the hospital, their first blanket, or their favorite pacifier!  Each of them are put in a ziploc bag and labeled.  Doesn't everyone have a label maker?  I have 2!

2.  For all of the special things that they do throughout the year, I store art projects, writings, etc. in this file folder throughout the year.

Inside of this file box are file folders with each child's name on it and a manilla file folder inside that says "Information".  The "Information" folder holds any special notes, schedules, etc. for the year.

2.  At the end of the school year I go through the folders and decide what items I want to keep.  I try to keep similar items for each child.  I use a new folder each year.  As you can see, I have different colors for each child and the folders are labeled with their names and their school year/age.  Once again, I love my label maker!  

3.  Each item is stored in a plastic sleeve and they are labeled with what it is.  For instance, if it is art I print a label that says "Art" or if it is for Mother's Day I print out a label that says "Mother's Day".  Below are just a few examples of things that I save.

I always save things like:  report cards, Mother's Day & Father's Day cards, Birthday invitations or whatever would represent the theme, a few selected art projects, writings, journals, etc.  I started this when the kids were babies so I also have things like their baby footprints and certificates from the hospital.

4.  Once I complete all of this for the year, I store them all in a small tub (1 for each of my children). 

Don't worry...this will have a label on it soon!  

Every once in awhile, the kids ask for me to pull all of their stuff out.  They go through each page and enjoy looking through each book.  It also takes me back too.  These kids grow so fast and it helps me to remember special times.  I thought that I had would for sure remember all of these special things, but I don't, so I am glad that I have this!