Organizing Homework

I figure that there must be a lot of mom's (and dad's) out there that have the same dilemma I do with homework. HOW DO I KEEP EACH CHILDS HOMEWORK SEPARATE, AND IN GOOD CONDITION TO RETURN TO SCHOOL? Now I’m not necessarily talking about the “quick” homework they get every night, that goes right back the next day. I’m talking about the packets, or spelling lists, or items that need to be used over the week or even the month. Nothing that stays in the backpack, or especially the counter looks good after about 12 hours. So, I’ve tried to figure out an inexpensive way to solve my dilemma.


Well, at Target today I found my inspiration.

(sorry, camera phone!)

The only problem is these little babies are $10 each (with 7 kids, that wasn’t going to happen, and to be honest… if I only had one I still wouldn’t have spent $10 on it) And they really have no “design” to them. To put it bluntly, they are blah…

Once I got home I got to work. I cut apart a fairly stiff box into 10” x 12” pieces.

I used my spray adhesive to adhere some neutral fabric onto the cardboard.

Now put that aside while we work on the folder part.  Take a regular manila file folder and cut it down to 7 ½” x 11 ½” (basically I cut off the top)

Next ou want to measure out both on the front & back 2” & 5” from the bottom on both sides

Cut 4 pieces of elastic (I used 1/8” elastic) into 1 ½” pieces and adhere them with hot glue to the back of your file folder.

Now you want to adhere the file folder to the fabric covered backer.  I just stapled mine right onto the back

Now using your decorative paper, you want to cut 2 pieces, one that is 2" x 11 1/2" and another that is 7 1/2" x 11 1/2".  Glue the 2" piece along the top edge of the back of the file folder.

Now close the folder and glue the ends of the 4 pieces of elastic to the front of the folder

Take your larger paper (the 7 1/2" x 11 1/2") and adhere it to the front of the file folder, over the top of the elastic straps.

Now you can hang these where ever you want,  I chose in the laundry room right next to the backpack/coat hooks.

The entire cost of this project was ZERO, everything used I already had in my stash or garage.