Memory clutter has always been my downfall. Growing up, I didn’t just save birthday cards and letters from loved ones, I used to save notes friends and I passed in class. (Remember those?!) I was still scrapbooking into my 20s and 30s, and by then it was about things like mission trips I’d taken or marathons I’d run. When I became a mom in my 40s? OMG. The clutter finally caught up to me. The main culprit? School artwork.
I have three boys, twins who are 6, and a 7-year-old. Until a few weeks ago I was still trying to figure out what to do with the ever growing pile of artwork from school.
With my oldest, I thought I had finally figured it out. I collected my favorites in a big box and after he finished preschool and was about to start kindergarten, I shipped off a box of his preschool artwork and photos to one of those companies that’ll make a scrapbook for you. The finished product was amazing, I’ll be the first to admit. The problem, though? The book could not hold up to the scrutiny of a kindergartener flipping through it. Its pages are falling out all over the place. Secondly, how many of those books am I going to need to get made? With two brothers behind him, and however often I figure out to get one made, these were going to get expensive.
Besides, as much as I tried to resist the temptation, my Type-A tendencies were still coming through when I was “delegating” scrapbooking to someone else. I organized the artwork and photos chronologically. So I was still putting in quite a bit of work myself, which meant the thought of having another one made, and another one after that, was just paralyzing enough that the piles started growing again. Those companies give you the option having the box of stuff shipped back to you with the book, which I did because my husband hadn’t greenlighted me to throw away some of the stuff that was meaningful to him. So between the two of us, we are quite literally a mess!
The top of my piano became the easiest place to toss the latest creations. And it got so unsightly and awful, that my mom – who lives nearby and is kind enough to help me keep my house in order – finally bought some bins to put schoolwork in, but there was no rhyme or reason to what was going where. So it was just a growing stack in bins! I was still procrastinating.
At one point I thought I had my solution, when a friend told me about the three-ring binders she compiled for each year her children were in school. She gave me advice on how to sort what was sentimental and special, while tossing glorified coloring pages, worksheets, etc. But I still had a hard time envisioning punching holes in artwork and loading up a shelf full of finished notebooks.
That’s when I came across Colleen Bane, who was introduced to me by a mutual friend on Facebook. She’s been an elementary school teacher for 23 years. She’s a mother of two. She understands kids and clutter, and she has come up with the cutest way to stay ahead of the crazy. Through her side business called “Buzzy Bee Crafter by Colleen” she has created school memory tubs with a child’s name on the outside and a series of folders inside, one for each age group – from baby, toddler, preschool and pre-K on up through 12th grade. Each folder has a grid on the front where you can attach a school photo from that year, list teachers names, etc.
I was intrigued.
“I tried to be organized, and I know how important it is to save the stuff from school, but I had no idea how,” said Bane, when I first spoke to her on the phone and she was explaining how her bins evolved from ideas she saw on Pinterest and Etsy. “Now if I’ve got something that I want to save for my son’s folder, I instantly file it. It doesn’t stay in a pile or in a bag for years. It’s just instantly filed. And the lids are waterproof. My sister had a flood years ago, and the only thing that did not get damaged was the memory bin from her son who passed away.”
At first blush, you might think, hey it’s just plastic bins with folders in them. I can just do that myself, right? But let’s be honest….Will you? And when? When I ordered my three bins from her, and they came beautifully personalized and with folders and labels in the colors and fonts of my choosing, I was totally inspired. I finally had a place to go with all our artwork and school stuff that made sense to me. And here’s why:
- I could sort artwork by time period but it didn’t have to be in perfect chronological order, or by season. You could just put it all in a folder. No need for it to sit somewhere, waiting to be sorted.
- If I am being weak and extra sentimental and hold on to too much, I can always go back later, pull out the folder from one year and toss a few items.
- The folders aren’t big enough to hold much more than 8.5 by 11 pages, so they forced me to narrow down. My rule became, if it’s three-dimensional (think glued buttons, or Q-tips) or has glitter that’s just going to make a mess of everything, I toss it.
- If there are bigger pieces of art that don’t fit in the bins, I put them in one of those long bins my mom got and don’t sweat it. There’s a lot less of it when you have a place to put smaller stuff and a system at work.
- If I want to display some art on the refrigerator or a bulletin board or on a child’s bedroom wall for a while, it doesn’t throw off the whole system and give me another reason to procrastinate. I can just take it off the wall when that holiday season is over, for example, and file it right in the bin.
I could go on and on. the long and short of it is, I now have adorable bins and a system and the top of my piano is clean! I have found my answer. And if I ever decide to go back and scrapbook something, or to have a professional album made – I can simply go to a folder, pull things out and have the makings all sorted and ready to go.
Colleen Bane lives in Warrensburg, Missouri, a town outside of Kansas City. She’ll custom design bins and ship them to you. Just message her on Facebook. The bins are $40 with standard folders or $50 with colored folders. She has seven designs and four fonts to choose from. You can also choose the color of the folder tabs.
Bane also creates family tubs where you can organize important family documents, insurance information, wills, warranties etc. That level of organization is much more important than school artwork, and it’s next on my list, which is no long so daunting!
You can find her and order bins on Facebook.
