Do you know what is going on at my elementary school these last few days before summer vacation? Absolutely nothing. No homework is coming home. No tests are being taken. Certainly no learning is going on. I swear those teachers are just throwing parties and the kids are just watching movies while they collect up every last paper – drafts, notes, reports, worksheets, and quizzes – so they can send it all home to me in a paper bag.

Do you know what happens to that paper bag filled with a year’s worth of school papers? Absolutely nothing. It sits in my kitchen, or dining room, or office, or living room – depending on where we need to clear space. Sometimes that paper bag sits untouched all the way until the following school year begins! I am that much of a slacker.

I tell myself I am going to go through all of the papers and admire my child’s progress, but I don’t. Once, the paper bag was sitting in the basement when the washer overflowed and it got wet. Oh, too bad. I had to throw it all away. Didn’t even get to look at one thing. And – whoo-woo! – nothing bad has ever happened from this kind of slacking. So far.

The things that actually mean something to me are my childrens’ artwork. I love whatever they do – I am an over-praiser in this area. It may be giving them the wrong impression of their actual artistic ability when I gush and “ooooo” over their work, but I don’t care. Let someone else tell them they can’t draw. Isn’t that the school’s job?

Some artwork I just have to keep out because I love it so much (and it is nearly impossible to store), like the wire face in the picture above. I always have lots of kids’ artwork up all over the house, framed and unframed. I even tape it to my walls, with painter’s tape!

I clearly have a children’s artwork problem. I can’t stop. When I finally ran out of wall space, I had to find a way to store their artwork which would be easy for me to access (because lord knows I will NOT put it away if it isn’t easy!) and which would keep the papers from getting bent and ripped.

Here is my solution for storing some of the most troublesome items I have encountered – kids’ over-sized artwork. I found this portfolio for artwork on Amazon.com. It costs for $35.99 for one portfolio or you can get 5 portfolio’s for $192.27. They are absolutely worth every penny.

These portfolios have an internal frame made of wood, so you can stack them or store them sideways. I have a portfolio for each child and I just slide their work in – easy as pie.

Stock up now so you will have a place to put the important works of art that are headed your way on the last day of school. Once you have taken care of the important things, you can rest easy knowing that the bag of school papers will take care of itself. Or not. That is the plenty perfect way. Maybe you will be lucky enough to have your washer overflow and save you from the guilt of not paying attention to it!

How do you deal with the onslaught of papers that come home from school at the end of the year?