As I sit here and type this I have piles of laundry that need sorted and put away, dishes overflowing, dust bunnies to tackle, and piles of homeschool clutter everywhere. Is this normal? Yep, I suppose every mother has dealt with it. Do I like it? No! Am I going to tackle it? Yes, eventually.
I've always felt that homeschoolers have a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to organization. There are literally homeschool books and papers strung all throughout my house. I even found last weeks vocabulary assignment in a bathroom counter the other day. I'm pretty disorganized and I'm not to trilled about it. Oh sure, I remember the days of organization. Those were the days before children and homeschooling. I don't want to go back to those days. I absolutely love homeschooling my children. What I do want is my organization back though. I've read through article after article about doing this and doing that and honestly they're not helping. I have however devised my own little list.1) Gather it all up and burn it. C'mon it's a great idea, the clutter will be gone and then I could cry over all the money lost. Okay, so not such a bright idea.
2) Gather it and have a bonfire. Oh, I already said that. Well it just seems so easy.
3) Donate it all. Yeah, that's another catch 22. On one hand, I could make someone pretty darn happy and then on the other, I would need some of it.
4) Gather it, sort it, donate what I don't need and organize the rest. Oh! Do I have to? It's the best option, the smartest it seems. I'm just not motivated to do it right now. Oh, but I did just realize, I could have a bonfire with the trash pile. Yep, that's a win!
You know the thing about all this homeschool clutter that amazes me the most though? I feel so blessed to have lots of homeschool books and such. What? I know I just said I wanted to burn it all. I don't really want to burn it. I'm actually very thankful that I have resources to teach my children. It's great for me to look at all this mess with a different perspective and it might just make me tackle it sooner.
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I’d love to hear your organizing ideas. Leave me a note in the comment section and let me know what things have helped you stay organized.
This could have been written by me. I love books and supplies but haven't been great about organizing them..
ReplyDeleteOver the summer, I spent a lot of time eliminating homeschool clutter. It's best to eliminate clutter than to organize it, so I tossed many pens and markers that didn't work (yes, I tested them ALL!), and pulled out anything we wouldn't use. Getting rid of books is hard for me, but I managed to fill many boxes with books I knew I wouldn't need. They will soon find new homes. Then, I organized what was left. This step is still in progress.
One of the best things I did was to buy plastic shoe boxes and sort like items in them. Then I labeled each one accordingly. This has already proven effective! Smaller quantities of items went into the pencil boxes that contained all those dried up pens and markers, and again I labeled the boxes.
I still have a long way to go, but at least I'm on the path to better organization.