an organizing idea for school papers

Is anyone else swimming in school papers and art projects?

I struggle with the organization of this stuff all year, but here, at the end of the year, it seems that everything has come piling in.

There is such a fine line between not being able to keep them all, and not crushing your kiddos' hearts by putting something so important to them in the trash.  I've done it so many times.  I've tried to hide them in the trash, and I've gotten caught.  Oh how it breaks my heart when they come to ask me why their paper or art project is in the trash.  But seriously?  It's not possible to keep all of these!  Right!?!?

 

I have tried to explain to them that realistically we really cannot keep all the papers they bring home or they would take over our house. And I've tried to have them be a part of the process when there are things that need to be tossed. They seem to get this, but they still have a hard time narrowing things down.  I am NOT good about how to really handle these situations while continuing to build them up and make them feel like their work is valued.

They do let go of papers a bit more easily lately than they used to.

 

But as many papers as there are that go in the trash, there are plenty of ones that I cannot let go of.

 Like these...

 

  So I finally got a system going (idea from IHeart Organizing)

I still need to label the outside of the boxes.

I forgot to take a picture of the cover sheet for each folder. Another free printable from IHeart Organizing that you can glue on one of their school pictures for each year, and record name of the school, grade, teacher's name, for each grade level.

The kids are so proud of their boxes, and think it's pretty crazy that they have folders that say "12th grade"! (they have a hard time even imagining that, and so do I!)   It's been a great place to stash notes they write me, cards from family members they want to keep, newspaper articles that they've been in, and anything other keepsakes.  

On another organizational note, I've also been using the ArtKive app on my iPhone to save pictures of art projects that come home.  Do you have a good way to organize them?  I like the idea of taking pictures of their artwork and then making a photo book out of them later on.  ArtKive allows me to name which child created it and put it under what grade they made it in.
Even if you don't use the ArtKive app - you could just take pictures of each of their artwork and make them into any type of photo book you want to.
It helps them not get so sad when they know I'm taking a picture of it and that we'll be able to "see it forever" in a picture.

Happy end of the school year organizing!
I'd love to hear your ways of organizing school papers, keepsakes and art work. It's easy to feel like I'm drowning in them sometimes.