Piles of school papers?

School started today at my house and in a few hours the backpack full of papers will be arriving.  I think out of all of the organizing questions that I receive, the most common is about paperwork and school papers.  There are a lot of options out there, but I will let you know what works in our house. 

When my daughter comes home from school, she empties her backpack into my in-box.  I have one small counter in my kitchen that I have as a designated area for my in-box my husbands.  I don't have an actual box, just an area that we keep the paperwork on the counter.  An in-box may work for you.  I found that I wouldn't go through the in-box as frequently as I do when it is on my counter.  We call it my "pile", but I really don't let it pile up because I don't allow enough room for the items to grow very far.

After I have gone through the paperwork, I put all items that were completed at school in my husbands in-box/pile.  He likes to see everything that my daughter has done at school too (I know, I got a good one!).  Once he has reviewed all of it, he puts it back into my in-box/pile.

I choose the items that I feel are the most important to my daughter, will have the most meaning, or have the best memories associated with them, and I put those into a folder in my utility cabinet (in my kitchen).  The others go right into the recycling.  My girls know that I do not keep all of their work, but they also know that I do keep enough of it for them to feel comfortable when they see things being thrown out.

I periodically go through the folder throughout the school year and continue to thin it out.  At the end of the school year I do a finally review and then put it into my file cabinet in my craft area.  These items are eventually compiled into a scrapbook for my girls.