I am going to share what helped me get organized when I was a kid. I was awful in elementary school about forgetting things at home.
When I was in middle school (grades 6-8) the principal decided to start of school wide focus on organization. It was a little crazy at first but it really seemed to work.
All students in the school were required to have a black three inch three-ring binder. The binder had to have a cloth or plastic pencil bag, a divider for each subject and a slim hole punch that was kept in the binder. The pencil bag had to have pencils, pens, a small pencil sharpener, hole reinforcer stickers, erasers, and a small pack of map pencils - basically all the supplies needed for middle school.
It had to be taken to every class and every piece of work had to be put in the binder. So if worksheets were handed out, they went in the binder. If graded tests were passed back to the students, they went in the binder. After a few weeks, the teachers would do a quick binder review or put it up on the board "You should have these ten papers in your binder in this order"
At the end of a grading period, you cleaned it out and started over.
It was a big undertaking and I think it was a rocky start but the principal made it a big deal, the teachers were behind him on it and I think it helped a lot of kids.
My guess in looking back, it seems like it might have been an "intervention" strategy for kids with organization problems but this guy just thought it would be good for everyone.
I remember when moving into high school we were all so excited to not have binders anymore. They were SO uncool. After a while a lot of people (including me) went back to them because it helped so much to have all our school supplies, homework and graded papers for every class in one spot that went home every night.
We did something like that at university. Every assignment sheet was dated and put in a folder then removed when completed. Every printed handout was actually glued into the book I took notes in. The books had holes so when they were full they went into a folder. If I didn't I lost stuff all over the place and couldn't keep track.
