September 13, 2016 by Sara Campbell 0 comments

Getting Organized: Music Game Folders

Today’s post is about organizing music games. (Some of you might have guessed that from the blog title, but just in case you needed further clarification… now you know for sure.)

But Sara, aren’t you organized already? I’ll be honest here. My studio does look pretty neat and clean on any given day. This might lead you to believe that I’m very organized.

… if you opened most of the drawers or cabinets in my studio, you would be in for a bit of a surprise. Let’s just say this: they’re a tad unstructured.

Chaos happens.

I’ve been in my current studio space for a little over 2 years now, and as the studio continues to grow and change, the organization within has slowly but surely unraveled before my eyes.

Sure, I know where (most) things are, but they are faaaaaaar from being organized! I would show you pictures, but that would just be embarrassing.

Last week I decided to take some small steps towards reigning in the chaos.

Before I get into the whats and how-tos, let me tell you where I got this wonderful idea: The inspiration for this post comes from fellow teacher, Amber Danielson, and several other teachers in the fantastic Piano Teacher FunMaker forum on Facebook.

(This is one of my very favorite FB groups, and if you haven’t checked it out… you really should!)

… and now, a little story about how I’m starting to get organized:

Every journey starts with a First Step…

Late-night Laminating Party

The first step was to assemble all my materials. So I printed out a handful of games that I wanted to use this fall, got all my tools together, and then brought them home for an exciting evening of laminating and assembling.

My life is really interesting, I tell ya.

What I Used:

Twin Pocket Folders – the kind without the brads.
Craft Glue (edit: or double-sided tape, if you have it! Thanks, Debbie!)
Best Laminating Sheets – cheap, but they work well.
A Laminator or two

… yes, I have TWO Crofton laminators from ALDIs. At about $20 a pop, they’re well-worth the investment. Unfortunately ALDI only carries them once or twice a year. Keep an eye out for them if you have an ALDI nearby! They will be listed in the “Specials” paper.

(Otherwise, there are lots of laminators on Amazon that are pretty cheap. One of my laminators is now 5 years old, and haven’t had any issues with it yet. Don’t be afraid of $20-30 models.)

About the Games:

The games you see in this post come from the Teach Piano Today game of the month club. My students enjoy the cool graphics and fun titles, and I love the convenience and price. For $8, you get 4 new games emailed to you every month. Worth. Every. Cent.

Once I started the process, it was pretty easy…

Laminating by the light of Netflix…

I will readily admit that I love to laminate things. There’s something very therapeutic about covering things in hot plastic. I’m not sure what that says about me, but… there it is. I love to laminate.

Please don’t judge.

What I Did:

Laminated all game materials.
Cut out cards/pieces and stormed them inside the folder pockets.
Glued the laminated cover page to the front of the folder.
Pressed firmly to make sure there weren’t any bubbles.
Wiped glue off of my hands, shirt, and carpet.

These steps were intermingled with Netflix, a bit of wine, and hanging out with my cat. Typical Thursday night.

Here are some close-ups of the end results:

When I saw my games the next morning (once the glue had dried), I was really pleased. They were organized AND they looked really cool. I have quite a few more games that need to go through this process… but thankfully Thursday night is just around the corner.

… SO, there’s my first step in organizing my studio games.

My next step will be to reorganize the game drawers and figure out exactly how to store these folders. They’re so “pretty” that I kind of want to find a way that both organizes and displays these games.

Edit: I’ve decided to use magazine holders to keep them organized! 🙂