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At the end of the school year, there are three things that are a given.

1. It only takes a day or two to hear, “Mom, I’m bored.”
2. Water play of any sort makes the long days more fun.
3. There will be papers, papers, and more papers sent home from school.

Here’s help for all of those papers:

Just because your kid’s papers come home in one bag doesn’t mean there is just one single type of paper. There are a few different types of papers, and each one needs you to do something different to them. Let’s break it down.

• Proof Your Kid Did Something, aka Homework. Chances are, this is just not that amazing. Most of it is probably worksheets. Review and recycle ASAP.

• Official Looking Stuff Parents Need to Know. These flyers are usually printed on colored paper. They are not usually remotely important. Do a quick sort and purge to get down to just a handful of items that may truly need your attention. These might include school-issued passwords to online programs, which sometimes apply throughout the summer and into the next year. A three-ring binder for you, the parent, is a great place to keep the true, official notices and numbers handy.

• Report Cards and Other Official Stuff. The truly official papers should be filed in a safe place, with your child’s permanent records. Most families put these in the same room or filing cabinet with the household files. If your child has an Educational Assistance Plan (EAP), you’ll keep assessment findings and other support documentation. When your child is young, if they are on track at school, their records probably aren’t critical, to be honest. But once they reach high school, every report card, activity they participate in, award they earn and reference letter they save could be part of their college application process. Help your kids learn to keep important papers safe in file folders or a file box.

• Original creations. Your pint-sized Picasso will come home with finger paintings. Your budding engineer may create entire villages from Popsicle sticks. Your author-in-residence may have written a prize-winning poem. Your kid creates work that is uniquely theirs, that showcases their own talents, that they show pride in. Take the time to praise, display and digitize it. You can create a coffee table book or other tangible work of art that will last a whole lot longer than it will if it’s stuffed under a bed or crammed into a plastic box. Digitize their creations using a scanner or take pictures with your phone right away. Or find a personal photo organizer at the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (www.APPO.org) to digitize for you.

Can you think of any other types of paper that you need to keep?

Don’t bother keeping school papers to pass down to the next kid. When their time comes, their teachers will have their own way of presenting a learning concept.

I recommend keeping recent school directories with #2 above and older school directories in #3 as keepsake items or not at all.

The half-pile I mentioned? I also end up with summer workbooks or skills packets. These might be things you buy or things that the teachers send home. They might include summer reading lists and reading tracking charts. Do yourself the favor of telling your kiddos about them, setting goals, and letting them work through them at a regular pace during the summer. We’ve had a routine of doing a couple of workbook pages each day. This year, we’re giving our kids a weekly packet to complete at their own pace. Either way, I’m grateful for the unused learning resources that the teachers sent home.

How long does it take to get through all the school paperwork? Realistically, it can take less than an hour per kid to sort into these categories and purge. It might take up to another hour to select and digitize the artwork that you’ve saved all year. If it takes much more time, you might be overthinking it. Your child — even elementary school children — can help you with this task. They’ll love telling you about all the amazing stuff they do at school.

If you haven’t unpacked that backpack yet, now is the time to dive in, sort the papers into the categories above, and reclaim your kitchen counter from school papers that have built up all year long.

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Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? An Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, first talked about it roughly 100 years ago, when he observed that 80% of Italy’s wealth was in the hands of 20% of the population. Since then, the “Pareto Principle” has been found to have widespread applicability: in most situations, 80% of the benefits come from 20% of the causes.

There are many everyday examples of the 80/20 Rule.

• We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time.
• We spend 80% of our time with 20% of our friends and acquaintances.
• 80% of the benefit comes from 20% of the tasks we need to perform.

The Pareto Principle is enlightening to me when I apply it to my clients’ complicated relationship with paper.

• We get 80% of the benefit from 20% of the mail that floods in everyday. The other 80% might as well go straight into the recycling bin.
• We get 80% of the benefit from 20% of the papers neatly organized in filing cabinets, i.e., 80% of which will rarely get looked at again.
• 20% of the documents strewn across our desks will give us 80% of what we need. How much clearer would our space be if we could identify and dump the other 80%?
• 20% of our family photos capture 80% of our happy times together. What if we let the rest go?
• 20% of our children’s school creations illustrate 80% of their talents and abilities. What if we tried to distill this 20% into scrapbooks for them and stopped wrestling with the other 80%?

I think Pareto was onto something here. Could it be that in any stack of ten papers, roughly two of them are truly valuable? Could we train ourselves to zero in on those vital two and let the other eight go without agony or regret? What do you think?

Still struggling? Professional organizers are compassionate helpers skilled at guiding their clients to zero in on that valuable 20% worth keeping, whether it’s paper, household clutter, or excessive time commitments. Use the Find An Organizer feature on this web site to locate an organizer near you.

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Most people want to do the right thing and recycle, but sometimes it’s not easy. Outdated electronics, cans of oil-based paint, and piles of unwanted confidential documents take up valuable space in the basement or garage because you don’t know what to do with them. These things need to be discarded — but how?

There is confusion about recycling. Which things are considered household recycling and which are hazardous waste? You may be surprised to learn that nail polish is hazardous waste. Cellphones are hazardous waste, too. To add to the confusion, companies that pick up your household trash differ in what they accept: some take plastic containers marked 1 through 3 and others take 1 through 7. It’s no wonder people may be reluctant to recycle.

To help make it easier to get rid of your unwanted stuff, follow this list for electronics and hazardous waste recycling and shredding events through the fall in the Greater Philadelphia area. Events are either free or low-cost.

Note: Household batteries can be tossed with regular trash. However, for those with terminals on the same side (such as 6V, 9V or 12V) and button-cell batteries (used in watches, greeting cards and hearing aids), it is important to cover both ends with masking tape to reduce the risk of short-circuiting and fire. For the more common batteries (AA, AAA, C and D), cover the positive terminal (“+”) with masking tape.

“I’m just a paper person!”  Do you ever hear or say that when it comes to keeping a calendar, to-do list, or records? I know I have been saying that for years, always preferring to collect my life and thoughts on paper.

The reality is, if we dare open our mind and heart to try something new, there are numerous apps for our phone that will truly make our life so much easier. Yes it does take a small investment of will and time to learn them, but in the end — I promise it is worth it.

To start my own journey in breaking through my paper comfort zone, I investigated the benefits of using a calendar app on my phone, instead of using a paper calendar. Below is my comparison chart showing reasons it might be worth making the switch. If you already embrace the paperless possibilities in today’s world, this may be the perfect article to pass on to a not-yet-tech-savvy friend!

Now it’s up to you to try a calendar app for yourself and move past the paper person persona! Challenge yourself to try it for a week, starting today, and see how it can revolutionize your life!

No Need to Hold onto Things for the Next Generation

When I give workshops, I am asked over and over again about what should be saved for children; if you don’t have children, you may be saving these things for friends or other family members. Many parents seem to think their children want what they have, so they hold onto items for when these children will appreciate these things. Items range from baby clothes to games to books to schoolwork to china to sterling silver and include tons of paperwork.

I have a client, with whom I have been working, whose father saved every personal and business record. He had checks from 1949 to the day he died. He had his and his wife’s medical records from the 1960’s (both of whom are now deceased), 8 estates that he had settled, and business records back to the 1960’s (including his stationery and business cards – from long retired positions). While everything was very organized and labeled, sorting through it has been a tremendous burden on his daughter.

Two 4-drawer file cabinets, one 2-drawer file cabinet, 2 desks, book shelves, and chairs had been used to store this paperwork. We are shredding and recycling 98% of these records. My client wants to go through everything to make sure there is nothing of value hidden away. We have talked about why her father would have saved all of this and cannot come to any satisfying conclusion.

Not only is there paperwork, but there are also items from grandparents and other relatives. Again, my client is going through all of this to figure out what she wants to keep and what she wants to donate or sell. Since her brother does not live in the area, she has to go through all these things by herself and save some things for him to go through, including his own items.

If you are saving things for your children/friends/other family members, please ask them if they want anything. If they say no, then either sell, donate, recycle, shred, or trash the items.  There is no reason for you to hang on to this stuff, unless you really want it. If it is packed away and not being used, and no one in your family wants the items, give them away now so someone else may really be able to appreciate them.

Also, keep on top of your paperwork — shred or recycle old records. Settling an estate can take a lot of time. You can significantly speed up the process by getting rid of paperwork and any unused or unwanted items now.

This type of activity will not be one of your more fun things to do, but it sure will save time and heartache in the future. The lesson my client learned from all of this is to purge and continue to get rid of those things now that she no longer needs or wants. What are you going to do now with your unwanted and unnecessary items and paperwork?