Step 6: Sorting Fillers By Age Groups ~ Organizing a Spur of the Moment OCC Packing Party

I thrive on organizing things so I loved being able to help my daughter sort her goodies for the 125 boxes to be packed by the AWANA kids at church Wednesday night for Operation Christmas Child.  What I don't thrive on is last minute anything.  But when you have less than two weeks to plan, buy for and prepare a packing party for kids, there is much last minute preparation.  Thankfully I was in possession of dozens of banker boxes to use to sort the fillers.  They hold a lot and are easy to handle.

Over the past couple of years Office Max has offered the banker boxes free after MaxPerks and I purchased them whenever the deal came up.  They came in handy when we moved last year.  They were stored in the attic just waiting for me to use them for one of my giving projects.  I must admit, I did
empty a few that we were using so I could have all matching boxes for the 5 to 9 and 10 to 14 year old fillers.  Hopefully Office Max will offer them again soon so I can replace them...I plan to keep these labeled ones for storage of fillers as I acquire them throughout the year.

So I found the boxes and my daughter labeled them with post it notes of the ages and began sorting, counting, counting again, and counting once more for good measure.  I made the labels and attached them afterwards...sort of backwards, but once again the time factor played into it.

Once they were all ready my husband filled the van with all the boxes...except for four that we still need to pick up some items for.  We will be setting up tonight, as tomorrow someone else will be using the room and we didn't want to be disruptive to their program...but the set up boxes will not be in their way.

These are the 2 to 4 year old fillers.  I ran out of boxes. 

I will not be able to be at the packing party, but I can't wait to hear all about it. And....I am already making plans for next year (and we have already begun shopping for it).

Follow along with our family as I share our journey of The Spur of The Moment OCC Packing Party of 2013.