SORTING & ORGANISING CHILDRENS BOOKS AND ARTWORK AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

It’s nearly that time of the year again when the children arrive home with bags full of their school books, models and artwork that they have produced throughout the year.

It can fill many parents with a feeling of dread as everything is dumped on the dining table waiting to be sorted.

Here are my top tips to taming the school book/artwork mountain:

1. MAKE TIME TO SORT through the things that your children bring home from school as soon as possible. You’ll feel so relieved that you sorted this at the start of the holidays rather than having to sort it at the August, at the same time as planning everything for the return to school in September.

2. MEMORY BOXES If you don’t currently have somewhere to store your children’s’ artwork and memory items I would highly recommend that you purchase a large clear plastic box per child which you can use to store selected items from each year. This box should be large enough to store items from 0-16.

3. BE SELECTIVE AS much as its tempting to keep everything I would recommend that you only keep selected books and artwork. I usually recommend that my clients keep the things that reflect their child’s personality and point of view. Your child probably wont want to see their writing practice books again when they are 18.. For bulky items you can keep a photo record. In regard to artwork I recommend reviewing each piece and deciding which are truly keepers and those that were simply fun to do at the time.

If you find it overwhelming to sort the mountain of things that come home at the end of the school year or need support setting up a system to organise children’s memory items I’d love to hear from you.

Lets keep organising!

Tracy Ross
Professional Organiser
Blissfully Organised

Tracy helped my young girls and I declutter before a house move. In particular I was impressed with how Tracy got on well with the girls (7 yrs and 3 yrs) straight away and explained the sorting process simply. This has had a lastly impact on my children, getting them to appreciate you can’t keep everything!! I too enjoyed spending focused time with Tracy looking at my wardrobe. I will definitely be implementing the learnings for my clothes purchases such as reducing my tendency to buy some items in too many colour ways! Thank you Tracy for all your help. Jo

Joanna Dew
August 25, 2020
Tracy is exceptional at what she does and is generous in what she gives. Highly recommend.

Jayne reah
February 23, 2022
I first met Tracy in 2019. I live overseas and wanted to help my Mother clear a downstairs room to become a bedroom, I needed a gentle, trusted professional to complete the task after I had returned to my home. We all met and agreed upon a plan, but it was not to be as my Mother’s health deteriorated very quickly and she passed away. Although I did return to the UK a few times that year, decluttering wasn’t a priority. Then Covid put an end to my being able to return. Finally, in spring of this year, flight restrictions were lifted and I saw an opportunity to return to the UK, now faced with the task of clearing the family home. I contacted Tracy and thankfully, despite short notice, she had some free days to help me. We arranged 6 days throughout my 2 1/2 weeks to help me stay on track and motivated. Tracy helped me stay focussed and helped me believe we could achieve a fairly daunting task of going through a lifetime of memories, papers, photos and possessions. I had to be very disciplined about what was kept as whatever I chose to keep was to be shipped back to my Country. Tracy gave me time to tell a story about an item and why it made the “keeper”, or “think about it” pile, yet didn’t break stride in her work whilst listening. It was a very cathartic process. I felt like I was talking to a long time friend. She has a talent for putting you at ease, and for helping you see objects with a critical eye. Not once did I feel she was making the decision, more that she helped me verbalize my attachment, or not, and that really builds a bond of trust. After each session, I had “homework” to complete before we met again and a follow up email charting the successes of the day and the plan for the next session. As I was on my own during my stay in my family home, this could have been rather lonely, but knowing that Tracy was coming, both broke up the monotony of going through endless boxes and kept me on task such that the job was successfully completed.

Andree Stow
May 9, 2022
Tracy has helped me many times over the years, and I think I must have known her for 10 years now! When I first contacted her I had reservations about letting someone into my home, making judgments and telling me what I should do. But Tracy's service is NOT like that at all. She did a full home audit and we chatted about what I hoped to achieve. For years I'd been frustrated by our storage area, a large room under the house which was hard to access and full of things we hadn't seen for years. We agreed to tackle it and Tracy suggested that to start with, we took everything out. I thought she was completely mad at this point. Three hours later we had done just that, assessed what was there, got rid of some of it, sorted some and made plans for the rest. It was like a massive weight had lifted from my shoulders. After that she helped me organise rooms, and filter through boxes of stuff. More recently she helped me prepare for a big move. It's always an absolute pleasure to see Tracy and she is very thoughtful in her approach. Her service is life changing and I am very grateful that I contacted Tracy all those years ago. Contact her now, you honestly won't regret it.

Clare Suttie
June 11, 2020
Tracy is amazing. We were renovating our house and finally was able to plan some extra storage. Tracy helped us to plan out new fitted wardrobes and then came back a few months later to help me get into a system with my laundry ( one of the things as a family I find hard to keep under control! ). She is kind, non judgemental, motivational & inspirational! I would say most people could do with a bit of Blissfully Organised in their lives!

Laura Dannan
December 14, 2020