The Declutter Diaries is a series of posts I did for a former blog as a glimpse inside a real decluttering project [with occasional editorial comments from my present self]. You can start with Day One here.
Today I began the dreaded school room. This room is frequently used and has entirely too much stuff in it. I lack an organization system for keeping track of what school materials I have and a way of storing things I am not currently using. The setup is less than ideal because the children cannot reach most of the materials. Also, I have not figured out how to store my “teacher” things. In short, it is a chaotic, overwhelming mess!
[True confessions through pictures: eek! This was the room we were doing kindergarten in!]
I started by just picking up the floor. Here I found plenty of trash and scraps from children’s art projects, random stuff the kids have gotten out, and many things that really belong somewhere else. I barely started on the shelves. Once I sort all the loose stuff into boxes, I will remove the short shelves on top of the dresser so that we can move it into the newly reorganized bedroom. Then there will be more floor space for setting up the shelves so the kids can reach things.
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[O.M.G! This definitely makes me cringe. Too much stuff and nowhere to store it because there is so much junk in all the other storage areas in my house. I see some hoarder tendencies here. I have made progress in this because I do pass on homeschool materials that we are finished with now. There was a time I tried to save everything, thinking my kids might want it someday. Good grief!]
My goal this week is to get everything out of the room that doesn’t belong there. Then I will sort the remaining items by subject category into boxes. Depending on my time, I may also try to do some inventorying so that I know what I have for various subjects. This weekend I have an “expert consultant” coming over. I hope she will be able to give me some insight into how to organize my school room. Also, I need help with how to store items that will be rotated in at different times during the year.
[Rotation was an especially difficult problem when my kids were young. Young kids tend to have loads of hands-on stuff that is bulky and hard to store. Now that they are older, we mostly have books and papers to deal with. And the science equipment–that is always bulky and hard to store.]
Even if you don’t homeschool, you may have an area that serves as a homework center or arts and crafts area. Do you have any advice to offer on organizing “learning” stuff (especially hands-on or craft materials)? Feel free to share your ideas or questions in the comments.