Day 9 of 12 Days of Back-to-School Prep: School Paper Storage & Labels
Posted on September 19, 2026
Happy Day 9 of our 12 Days of Back-to-School Prep series! We’ve covered so much already — the fridge, my yearly refresh list, my drop-off-to-gym outfit, breakfast burritos, washing the lunchboxes, backpack SOS kits, our snack bin, and the homework drawer. Today, let’s organize the school paper clutter!
Day 9 of 12 Days of Back-to-School Prep: School Paper Storage & Labels
If you have kids in school, you already know the paper avalanche is real. Between report cards, permission slips, worksheets, art projects, and everything else that comes home in that daily take-home binder, it can feel like there’s a never-ending stream of paper flowing into your house with nowhere to actually go. For years, that’s exactly what happened in ours — piles on the counter, random stacks shoved in a drawer, good intentions to “deal with it later” that never quite happened.
Preschool Through Senior Year, All in One Place
These bins hold my boys’ entire school history — Preschool through senior year. I’ve been doing this system for years because I was always drowning in random school papers… can you relate? Report cards, art projects, awards, random notes sent home — it all used to pile up with nowhere to go, until I finally built a system that actually works.
And my label maker is the trick!! Here’s how simple it is: print off a label, add it to the folder — one for every school year.
The label maker connects to your phone through a Bluetooth connection and an app and it prints labels in seconds!
It sounds almost too simple, but that’s really the whole system. One bin per kid, one labeled folder per school year inside it, and every single thing that’s worth keeping has an obvious home the moment it comes through the door.
How the System Works
Every day, I go through their binders, pull my favorites, recycle the rest, and file the keeps. That means:
Funny notes they write when they’re little
Unique art pieces
Report cards
Awards
Papers where they write out something thoughtful or meaningful — a sentence, a paragraph, a little glimpse into how they’re thinking or what’s on their mind that year
That last one has become one of my favorites to pull out of the pile. It’s not the flashy stuff — no gold star, no ribbon — but there’s something about seeing your kid’s actual handwriting and their actual words at seven, or ten, or fifteen, that hits differently than almost anything else in the bin. Those are the pages I know I’ll be the most grateful to have kept once they’re grown.
Not every single paper that comes home makes the cut — just the ones actually worth holding onto. This keeps the system manageable instead of turning into an overwhelming pile by the end of the year. I’m not trying to save everything; I’m trying to save the things that actually tell the story of who they were that year.
The Payoff
By the time they graduate, each of my boys will have their entire school history in one simple bin. Easy to start, easy to keep up — and honestly, one of my favorite systems in our house. There’s something so special about knowing that all of it — every funny note, every proud moment, every glimpse into who they were at each age — is saved in one place I can hand them one day.
And I love that this isn’t a project that requires a big weekend overhaul or a Pinterest-perfect setup. It’s a daily, five-minute habit that quietly builds into something so meaningful over the years. If you’re feeling behind on years past, I promise it’s not too late to start — grab a bin, some file folders, print a few labels, and just start with this year. Future you (and future them) will be so glad you did.
Shop My School Paper Storage Essentials
Click on any of the thumbnail images in the gallery below to shop the bins, folders, and label maker I use for this system!
This is Day 9 of our 12 Days of Back-to-School Prep series! Follow along @thisisourbliss for the rest of the series, plus everyday boy mom life, style, and family adventures.
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