I’ve seen it hundreds of times as both a teacher and a parent: by December, even our best organizational systems can start to fall apart. The holiday break gives us a perfect opportunity to reset and figure out what’s working — and what isn’t — in our kids’ backpacks.
Start by grabbing a large container or box. Instead of dumping everything on the floor, empty the backpack into the container. This keeps things manageable and contained while you sort.
Before involving your child, consider doing a quick pre-sort to remove obvious trash — those crumpled papers and old snack wrappers that everyone agrees can go. This is a great time to put their backpack into the washing machine!
Working your way through your kid’s art
When it comes to school papers and artwork, we’re faced with a daily stream of our children’s creations. Every worksheet, every drawing, every painted paper plate represents a moment in their day. But keeping everything isn’t just impractical — it can actually make it harder to treasure the pieces that matter most.
Think about a typical school day. Your child might color a quick picture during morning arrival, complete several worksheets during lessons, craft something in art class, and doodle during story time. These activities all serve important purposes in the moment — they help with transitions, reinforce learning, or provide creative outlets. But not every piece needs to become a permanent part of your family’s collection.
Learning to be selective about what we keep helps us focus on the work that truly represents our children’s growth and creativity. Maybe it’s the story they worked on for three days straight, carefully sounding out each word. Or the art project where they mixed colors again and again until they got exactly the shade they wanted. These are the pieces worth saving — the ones where you can see their effort, determination, and pride shining through.
This doesn’t mean other work isn’t valuable. That quick morning coloring sheet helped your child settle into their school day. The practice worksheets helped them master new skills. But once they’ve served their purpose, it’s okay to let them go. Consider taking quick photos of pieces that have a special memory attached but don’t need to be physically stored. This way, you preserve the moment without keeping every piece of paper.
Remember that our children often take their cues from us. When we show them that we can appreciate something in the moment and then let it go, we’re teaching them valuable lessons about what’s truly worth holding onto.
For deeply feeling kids, a softer approach
For deeply feeling kids, sometimes every piece of paper holds a memory or an emotional connection. These kids might see a simple worksheet and remember exactly who they sat next to that day, or what song was playing during art time. When your child forms these strong attachments, sorting through school papers can involve processing emotions and memories.
Timing really is everything. Avoid tackling this project after school when your child is already tired from holding it together all day. A weekend morning, after a good breakfast and some relaxed family time, often works better. You might even make it special — maybe spread out on the living room floor with some hot chocolate while you sort.
Before you even open the backpack, have a conversation about what you’re going to do. You might say something like, “This weekend, I thought we could go through your backpack together and make space for all the new things you’ll create next year. What do you think would be a good way to decide what to keep?” Let them be part of the planning process.
Together, develop some guidelines that make sense to your child. Maybe you’ll keep anything they spent more than one class period working on. Or anything they can tell you a story about. Some families take photos of everything before letting pieces go, while others choose one piece of art per week to save. The exact system matters less than having one that is developmentally appropriate for your child and works with your family.
Watch for signs of overwhelm during the process. If your child starts to get anxious or upset, it’s great to take a break or break the task into smaller chunks. Try a timer for 15 minutes and see what you can accomplish together.
Remember to validate their feelings throughout the process. “I can see this piece means a lot to you” or “It’s hard to let go of things that remind us of good memories” shows them you understand. Sometimes, simply acknowledging these feelings makes it easier for children to move forward.
The backpack reset helps your child develop healthy ways to process their attachments to their work while keeping what truly matters to them. When handled with sensitivity and respect, this process can actually strengthen your connection and help your child develop important emotional skills.
Creating sustainable organization
Once you’ve sorted through everything, you’ll likely have a collection of items that made the cut — but not everything needs to live in the backpack. This is where you can work with your child to create intentional spaces that make sense for how they actually use things.
Take a look at what you have and think about your child’s daily routine. Those sight word cards they practice every evening? Maybe they need a dedicated spot on the homework desk or magnet clip on the fridge instead of getting crushed at the bottom of the backpack. The special markers they love using for projects? Consider keeping them in your home art supplies and having a separate set for school.
Walk through a typical school day with your child: “When you get to school, what do you need first? What do you use during class? What do you need for homework?” This helps them think logically about what really needs to travel back and forth each day.
Create zones that make sense:
- A homework station for current assignments and frequently used supplies
- A reading corner for library books separate from personal books
- A “completed work” box for papers that need to be reviewed by parents
- A designated spot for permission slips and school communications
Let your child help decide how to set up these spaces. They might know that they prefer their markers in cups rather than bags, or that they’re more likely to remember their reading log if it lives in a special folder by their bed. When children help create these systems, they develop organizational skills that go far beyond just keeping a backpack tidy.
Like any new routine, your organization system will evolve as you put it into practice. The first few days back to school, watch how your child interacts with the new setup. You might notice they consistently forget to check a certain folder, or maybe that homework station is in the wrong spot for their after-school flow.
Observe what’s actually happening, not what you hope will happen. Your child might surprise you with their own creative solutions, or they might quietly struggle with parts of the system that seemed straightforward to you. Keep those communication lines open: “I noticed you’re not using the homework folder we set up — what would work better?” Small adjustments now can make the difference between a system that falls apart by February and one that grows with your child.
Final thoughts
The holiday backpack reset is a moment to pause and reset, to figure out what’s working for your family and what isn’t. Sometimes the most powerful changes come from these small adjustments: moving the homework supplies to where they’re actually used, creating a simple system for handling school papers, or finding a better way to track library books.
Remember that every family’s solution will look different. Your version of “organized” might mean a color-coded filing system, or it might mean a single folder that actually gets checked every day. The best system is the one that your child can maintain and that makes your family’s daily routine smoother.
As you head into the new year, keep in mind that organization is an ongoing conversation. Be ready to adjust and adapt as your child grows and their needs change. The time you spend now, working together to figure out these systems, builds skills and habits that will serve them well beyond their school years.
And if you open that backpack and feel overwhelmed? Remember: start small, stay positive, and take it one paper at a time. You’ve got this.
