Schools Out - Organize the Backpacks

My boys have been out of school for about a week now.  When three boys with backpacks and bags FULL of paper, books, school supplies and such come home it can be a LOT.

A LOT of mess, that is!! 

My boys literally dumped it all into their back entrance cubbies.  Some of it ending up on the floor. 

I'm thankful for the cubbies, at least it's not ALL on the floor,
BUT ummm, yeah, I can only handle this for about a day, at the MOST.

 See what I mean?  These bins are large too, so that means there is a LOT of stuff in them.
I had some work to do...

So I dumped it all onto my kitchen counter.  By doing this, I'm forced to go through it, because there is NO way I can leave my counter like this ;)  To get organized and clean up a space, often times it becomes quite dis-orderly, BEFORE it becomes orderly.

 See the two garbage containers? I threw out a BUNCH!  you just can NOT keep it all.

I created piles of "like items" and then decided what to do with it all.
Memories worth keeping got filed into each of my boys school paper file boxes.

I previously showed you how I've organized their school papers...

 

 ... if you missed that post (VIEW it HERE)  

Having these file boxes finished, made the job of organizing their paperwork SO much EASIER!  I simply slid the papers behind the grade and closed them up.  Simple as that, which is what I LOVE - Quick and EASY organization.

AND...

To my wonderful surprise, there was quite a bit of un-used items, which got me thinking...

I decided to create a school supplies bin:

and I decided that when I'm out and about this summer, I'm going to pick up things that I know will be on their list for next year and add it to the bin.   I'm excited about this, because, come August/September I hope to have a bunch of their supplies already on hand, thus creating a smaller school shopping bill.

Here is my back entrance all cleaned up:

Do you spy those Chores Charts?  I sell the printable charts in my Etsy shop.  They've been one of my most popular sellers!  My boys have been using the charts for a number of months and I'm telling you - It has been SO awesome!!  View my original Chores Chart post (HERE) OR find them in my ETSY shop (HERE.)  If your curious about those bins they are Awesome too!  I got them from Walmart. 

These are my future plans for the back entrance:

I do have a LOT of future plans in a LOT of rooms in my home.  Hopefully I can get this one finished soon.  

How about you - have your children finished school yet?  Did they bring you oodles of papers and such?  If so, what have you done with all of it? OR if not, what do you plan on doing with it all?  

*Part of this area in my back entrance has been updated.  VIEW the NEW Homework Message Boards HERE.*

Have a beautiful day!!

:)

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