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.
Slogging onward
Today I worked on sorting through homeschool stuff. This is a rather slow process, probably because I have not figured out a system for how I want to organize my homeschool stuff. I am hoping for a bit more help from my “expert” consultant in the next few days.
The homeschool room was one of my most overwhelming rooms because of the sheer volume of stuff in it. Now that I have put most of the stuff in the basement, the room seems more do-able. [I strongly suggest that you NOT start with your hardest space. You have to build up your decision-making-and-decluttering muscles by working on rooms that are fairly simple. You need an easy win at the beginning to give you encouragement and experience.]
I need to rearrange the furniture in here so I can get a feel for my final setup. This will allow me to see how much space I can use during the year in various areas. [This was something I missed when I was first setting up the homeschool room. My expert coached me in how to section the room into different “work zones.” Each zone had its own setup, equipment, and flow. The other thing I was trying to do was store everything in the room. Big mistake! If you cram a room too full of stuff, there is nowhere left to work. Make use of offsite storage (i.e. closets, basements, attics, etc.).]
Thinking About Homeschool Supply Storage
I need to follow through with all the things I put in the basement. I think the system suggested to me of putting like things together will probably work well. Once everything is grouped together, I will take inventory of what I have. This will help me plan for the year so I can pull things out that are required for a particular season/month/week. [Hmmm….inventory is a tough one for me. I still don’t have a good system for this.]
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I still want to work on the closet where all of my teacher materials are for making things. Somehow, I need a better way to store these things so I can actually use everything. I think I will have to install more shelves….[Oh my! I cannot believe how much teacher arts-and-crafts I did when my kids were young! You would have thought I was planning on being a kindergarten teacher for the next 30 years!]
When you rearrange a room, are you thinking about how you will use various areas of the room? Are you reducing the amount of stuff you are trying to store in each area? [Um, yes?….well, kind of….]