from the U.S. National Archives

Pencils, books, teachers’ dirty looks... And paper, paper, PAPER!

They're back to school!

The school year begins with pressed uniforms, sharp pencils and empty notebooks. But remember looking in that backpack in mid-November... yikes!

The periodic table lies crushed at the bottom, along with raw macaroni from some art project, right next to the never-signed permission slip for Cedar Point!

But the black hole backpack is not inevitable; you can stop the horror with a few basic organizing techniques.

STEP ONE: Analyze the problem. It’s the same reason a house gets cluttered, but on a smaller scale: too much coming in and not enough going out. You might even say it’s education constipation! Okay, maybe you wouldn’t...

STEP TWO: Since the amount coming in is out of your control, you must increase the amount going out. (And no, I’m not suggesting a suppository.) No matter how many binders and organizers a student has, he or she can’t manage a year’s worth of papers with one backpack. You need a system at home for those papers to stream into.

STEP THREE: Create the system.

STEP FOUR: USE the system!

Good luck!

Just kidding…. Back to Step Three. First, at the end of every day, empty out the backpack and take away all papers that are not needed at school. Depending on age, the student can do this him/herself during the school day, putting all such papers into a “Take Home” folder. The "take home" folder should contain returned tests and worksheets, art projects, old study guides — anything that won’t be needed at school from that day forward.

Now put all those papers into a big pile and take turns jumping into it! (Just checking to see if you’re paying attention.)

Seriously, these papers should go into labelled files. If you already have a filing cabinet with extra room, section off six or eight inches for school folder files — one for each subject; one for general school info; and one more for miscellaneous, because the real world never quite fits perfectly into our humble categories.

An accordian file folder can work, as long as you have enough sections and the sections are big enough for the papers you anticipate coming in.

Now you've attained the organizer’s nirvana: a place for everything and everything in its place.

Sound easy? It really is, if you follow Step Four! Must you do this each and every day? For best results, yes! Aim for every night, but don’t let a week go by without pulling out those papers and filing them.

You can take this further by using your trusty scanner. Many school papers are purely informative and need no input from the student. Consider scanning these and placing them in a virtual file.

Create a directory on the home computer for each child. Then create subdirectories, one for every real file folder you have. Then scan the periodic table, and put it in Jessica’s chemistry subfolder, for example. The school calendar goes into the general school folder.

And so on and so forth and so less paper! Get the kids get involved. It teaches taxonomy — a crucial ability in life and, particularly, in organizing.

You can do this!

Judy DiForte is a professional organizer for The Betty Brigade, a full-service personal assistance and concierge company based in Ann Arbor. Email her at Judy@BettyBrigade.com.