Managing School Clutter

This magnetic board is part of a system that I have found really works for me. When Zoe comes home from school, we empty her backpack and put any papers that we might like to "save" on it. This is usually artwork. Worksheets and classwork get recycled immediately because that stuff has a way of multiplying. Then, at the end of each month I take everything off the memo board and take a picture of what we have collected for the month. The pictures, one for each month of school, then get put in her school album.

Each girl has a school album which contains first day of school pictures, special artwork (we are very picky about what goes in), the pictures of artwork for each month, report cards, special events, class pictures, and handwriting samples (just their name, written at the end of the school year, to compare progress from one year to the next). The magnetic board gives me a reprieve from having to make any decisions about what to keep on a daily basis. The decision making, I think, is the hardest part of decluttering. It's mentally exhausting.

This is Annika's magnetic board. I bought both magnetic boards, unfinished, at Roberts Craft Store. I took the sheet metal piece out while I worked on the boards, and then sanded and painted them with leftover paint from painting the girls' rooms. At some point, probably late summer or early fall, I'll post pictures of their rooms and how I decorated, because that's another one of my passions. I just need to do some deep cleaning before I bare their rooms to the world.

After painting the boards, I used spray adhesive to attach pretty squares of scrapbooking paper. I affixed stickers over the tops of some of those, and adhered large letters with spray adhesive to spell out their names. To seal it all in, I applied a couple clear coats of an acrylic water based top coat. Finally, I tied ribbon along the sides and then put the sheet metal piece back in.

The best part about these magnetic boards is that they will grow with the girls. Only what is displayed on them will change.