You might be wondering, "What is an accordion folder?", well in the process of writing this article , I discovered that I didn't actually know what the official name of these divider organizer thingys was either. This was because they have many names depending on where you buy them from. So I asked my English teacher and she calls them vertical accordion folders. However when I bought one from Target, they were called backpack organizers. Whatever you want to call it, they are fricking helpful.

Last year I used two different binders, one for odd classes and one for evens and that arrangement worked well for me. So this year I started to do the same thing but for some reason that system of organization was just stressing me out. Maybe I just needed a fresh method. I already had the accordion folder but I was just using it to hold random stuff and I wanted to actively use it. So I decided to give it a try and switched out the binders for a vertical accordion folder.

Before, when I had two binders in my backpack, my backpack zipper would keep breaking from being over stuffed but that hasn't happened once, since I transferred to the accordion folder. Now I feel much more organized because each one of my classes has a labeled slot in the folder and I use the labels to remember the order of my classes so now I know what homework is due the next day. Also, because the folder is of a vertical style, I can consistently leave it in my backpack during the school day and whenever I need to get papers out, instead of dragging out a whole binder and taking up desk space, I just reach into my backpack. Another useful thing has been that now I don't run the risk of ending up with a side pocket full of out of order papers like I did when I was using binders.

Using an accordion folder has been a nice change of organization for me, the trick is I wonder how long before I end up changing to an entirely different organizational method.