This year I have a first grader and a kindergartner, and they bring home enough paper to make Treebeard weep. {The Ent? Lord of the Rings? Anyone?} I am recycling more paper than I ever thought possible, and that’s from someone who routinely gets a ton of “Explanation of Benefits” forms in the mail from our insurance company.
The truly tragic part of this story is that all of the worksheets and busy work, anything that they have put their names on is so precious. Seeing the evolution of their handwriting and their drawing is priceless. Visions dance in my head of displays highlighting how the signing of their names has changed from preschool until later on in elementary school. I guess that’s the pack rat {read: hoarder} in me. And the sentimental mother. Also, the straight-up psychopath who can’t throw anything away.
It all “sparks joy!”
The Marie Kondo craze has come home to roost in our house, like in so many houses apparently. I have caught a modified version of the bug, which means that rather than whole-hogging it like Marie suggests, we are doing it piecemeal. I realize this is not true KonMari, but it will just have to do.
For me, the biggest obstacle {at this point, anyway} is papers. I am just like that guy in the episode who is drowning in paperwork and paralyzed by indecision. Like I said above, my children bring home enough paper to have leveled the redwoods. And since I squeal over a properly formed lower-case “a,” you can imagine my dilemma.
The Solution
The SolutionI happened upon the solution by accident. I am a habitual loser of important items, like appointment reminder cards, so I have begun taking pictures with my phone of anything that I will probably not be able to find at the crucial moment. This began when I signed up for parent-teacher conferences or to bring food for a party when my oldest started preschool {like I am going to remember those dates}.
And while I was wading through the morass of papers in my house, this came back to me. Why don’t I just take a picture with my phone? Then, I will have it forever, and it will take up zero physical space in my house. Then, the originals are surreptitiously smuggled out of the house in a paper grocery bag on paper recycling day. I have every intention of designing and ordering Shutterfly photo books at some point. Please, keep me accountable! Since I have three children, the idea of a photo book of artwork for each school year, for each child sounds like a lot of photo books, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
The Exceptions
I do have exceptions. I am absolutely saving every Mother’s Day card that my children give or make me. And anything that has handprints or footprints on it is not going to be properly represented in a photograph. The size is the precious thing on those. There are also a handful of paintings from art class that I want to hang on to, and I think that as long as I make these judgments in moderation, we will all be okay.
Are you drowning in papers? Please share your solutions or your commiseration below!
