I can't believe that we are here again - nearly a month into the school year. And I also have to tell you that I can't believe Gia is a high school senior this year! Where did the time go? 

It seems like yesterday that she was sporting her first backpack and waving goodbye at the classroom door. Now we're looking at colleges.

Throughout this time, one of the things that has surprised me about school is how much paper is generated in a single year. Artwork, quizzes, report cards, valentines and birthday cards from classmates really add up. 

Now that Gia is older and technology has taken over, it's slowed down a little. But, when she was younger, we were constantly buried in school papers.

Fortunately, my friend Allison shared a wonderful system with me that I want to pass along to you. At the beginning of every school year Allison would take a trip to the Container Store and buy each child a special box. 

They would label it together with the child's name and grade. It was an outing that Allison and her kids looked forward to every year, wondering what new colors the boxes would come in. At home, each child kept their boxes stacked on the floor of their room, with the newest one on the top.

Allison also set up a refrigerator gallery to show off her children's most current work. Each of her three kids had a special spot on the fridge, with a favorite magnet to hold the papers. When they came home from school with a new treasure, the kids would put their new painting, quiz or favorite card up on the refrigerator. 

Allison would place former treasures in a box for safekeeping, and any papers that came home and weren't "fridge worthy" would go directly in the box.

In Allison's family it became kind of a rite of passage as the kids got older to add another box to their collection each year.  

I loved and adopted the idea because it kept our house neat and organized, but the hidden benefit was that we could take a box from the stack anytime we liked and reminisce together, much as we would with a photo album.