Time to Re-Organize

Hello all, this poor baby has been so sadly neglected, however, that is going to change.  I am changing some of the features and turning this into a collaborative blog.  With the help of some of my fellow bloggers you will soon be reading about all the wonderful ways to stay organized at home, school and even in the kitchen.

Today I'm pulling over an older post from my other blog Time 4 Kindergarten  With the new year approaching it is a great time to start getting a handle on the pile of papers.

Finding a way to keep track of the papers you need to copy can be challenging.  Depending on how you keep your files can either assist or inhibit they way you plan.   Like most teachers when they first start out, I had the file cabinet.  You know the one, it's beige, has four drawers and can tip over if you open all four drawers at once.  Soon that file cabinet became one hot mess.  I'd pull out papers and place in my To Be Copied Folder, make my copies, then what???  I never had time to put them back, so I'd place them in a basket on top of the file cabinet to file later.  Eventually that basket became so full, that I had no other choice, but to shove them in a box.

It was a vicious cycle that I'd pay for at the end of each school year as I sat there filing all those papers. Thanks to a good friend and colleague, my paper chaos came to an end about 6 years ago.  With a small investment in some plastic sleeves and 3-ring binders, my mess became less and less.  Anything new goes straight from the printer tray to a plastic sleeve.

Now when I do my planning, all my resources are at my finger tips.  My binders are divided into themes, months, skills; you name it, I just might have it in a binder.

I use post-it tabs to tab the pages I need copies.  

This is only a small section.  I currently have 2+ shelves full.    

How does this keep me from piling up papers that need to go back in binders? EASY PEASY as my kids say.  I DON'T take the papers our of their sleeves.  Instead, I use post-it tabs to tab the pages I need copies.  After the pages are copies, I re-stick these tabs to the inside cover of the binder to reuse at a later date.

Yes, I might be bringing several binders to the copy room, (it keeps me from needing to go to the gym) and it keeps my file cabinet clutter-free.  Yes, I still have a file cabinet- old habits are hard to break and there are some things that just won't fit in a plastic sleeve.  I do find that I am using less and less of the contents of my file cabinet. Slowly I am weeding through it.

So where do I find my binders and page protectors. Costco.  They have the best deals on both.  I use the 1-inch binders for thematic days such as the Polar Express, 100th Day and certain holidays.  I use the larger 3-inch binders for my bigger packets like my predictable readers and no prep monthly packs. Yes, at first it is an investment, but the time I was spending on always refiling is so worth the money.
I didn't start this process all at once.  Each week, I'd take home a small section of my cabinet and while I was watching TV, I'd place the papers in the sleeves.  Little by little my binders slowly filled up.

I hope you found this helpful.  Please check back often to see what other tips and tricks my blogger friends have to share.