I told you this would be a lighter subject. Lighter, but not necessarily easier! haha I have told you before that I am somewhat of a curriculum junkie. OK, I am a serious curriculum junkie. Have been since God led our family down the homeschooling path over 15 years ago. Becoming a product reviewer...well, let's just say it has not helped my problem.I love books. I love notebooks. I love workbooks. And flashcards and games and computer software and pens and pencils and you get the point. I also love seeing it all out- in full display mode. Well, I use to.
I have had a few cool homeschooling rooms in our many houses. (military, remember?) Think bookcases lining the walls filled with books that may or may not have been categorized and then organized by height. No snickering. And drawers of supplies and stacks of papers. What usually happened was for the first half of the year it all made me smile. Look at all this stuff. For the second half of the year it made me crazy. LOOK. AT. ALL. THIS. STUFF.
It is time to clear out the clutter in our homeschools!
Don't worry, I am fully aware that half of my homeschooling friends just quickly left the building. Get rid of curriculum and books? She must surely jest!
Nope, no joke!
Luckily we move often so my problem did not last for as long as it could have.
Unluckily, I am not a fast learner so every new house I would set up that fun school room and then just repeat the scenario.
Then we moved to a house with no school room and had to make some changes. Thank you, Lord, for changes. Out of necessity I bought plastic bins and labeled them by grades. Then I put all the curriculum into those bins and stacked them in a a closet. Yay me.
Of course, when doing so I found I could not fit all of one grade in some bins. I sorted and purged to make it fit. Yay me.
Then I bought a hanging shoe organizer and fit all of the supplies into it to hang on the closet door. I kept out a few things for immediate use, but the rest went in the organizer. Yay me again!
Then I put all of those not yet used notebooks and lined paper and folders and construction paper into a three drawer bin and promised myself to not buy any more until these were used up. More yay me!
And the extras, time to move them on to a new home. Just not mine.
Yes, I do have two white cabinets from Walmart where I keep reference books and art supplies and foreign language stuff etc. but I limit myself now to what will fit. Something new comes in, something old goes out. There are people out there who can use it and need it more than we do.
It is not a competition to see who can acquire the most curriculum. I promise. Yes, it is nice to have things at your fingertips, but gluttony comes in pretty packages sometimes. Let's don't be fooled by need versus greed.
Guilty here. And making changes- to clear out the clutter in our homeschool and bless others with the extras.
How about you?
If you missed the other posts in this series you can also read about-
Clearing out the Clutter of
our homes,
our heads,
and our hearts.
See you back tomorrow for our last day of this 5 day blog hop. And don't forget to visit some of my friends' awesome blogs also in our 5 Days of...series! Tell them I sent you!
Lisa @ A Rup Life ~ Our Favorite Books
Melissa @ Life Off the Paved Road ~ Fit From Home
Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Educational Apps
Jenni @ Conversaving ~ Homeschool Cooperatives
Lisa @ Home to 4 Kiddos ~ Celebrating Lent
Tawnee @ Adventures in Homeschooling ~ Spring Schooling
Crystal @ Crystal Starr Blog ~ Christ Centered Character Training
Blessings,
The COMPLETE series-
Clearing Out the Clutter- Our Homes
Clearing Out the Clutter- Our Heads
Clearing Out The Clutter- Our Hearts
Clearing Out the Clutter- Our Homeschools
Clearing Out the Clutter- Our Health
For a complete list of all 60 plus bloggers participating, click on the banner below!
Also linking up with Frugal Homeschool Family! Want some great ideas , freebies and inspiration? Check them out!
I'm a curriculum hoarder even though there is no possible way to use all that I have I don't want to let go. I'm *considering* selling some of it!! :gasp:
ReplyDeleteWe don't use a lot of curriculum yet (my oldest is only 7 and we're relaxed homeschoolers), though we are starting to collect things from the Crew! However, I do have a problem. It is called living books. Oh, and hands-on, manipulative type items. I've learned very quickly to be more selective about what I bring into the home, and more liberal about what can be passed on, though, and that helps so much!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your idea about putting items in bins by grade level. Right now I am collecting items on bookshelves, but it seems like I am running out of space. I have plenty of room in the attic so I might just have to try this! I had a friend come over a few weeks ago to help me decide on some things to get rid of. That made it so much easier having someone say, "Don't save that! You will use that again, etc"
ReplyDeleteIt must be spring! The big empty boxes are sitting in my school room awaiting the annual school room Sort-N-Shoot. Mostly we only keep essential work and any/all fiction and nonfiction novels. Everything else is recycled, burned, sold or donated.
ReplyDeleteI find that getting rid of unused curriculum is very freeing. When my shelves are lined with stuff that I thought would be perfect, or it was a good deal, or we never got around to it, it leaves me feeling very guilty. I keep the things that are working well, stick with them consistently and pass the rest on to other families. Sometimes I am able to sell items, sometimes I donate to our homeschool library. I'm also much better about what I buy than when we first started homeschooling! I also prefer to let the library collect books for me! :)
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