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Welcome back! We hope your Christmas was merry and bright, and that you are enjoying the break from the regular routine. Instead of a magical moment, today we want to address a more practical issue: decluttering after the holidays and getting ready for a new year. If you are still in relax mode, feel free to skip this post and come back to it another day! But if you are in the mood to be productive and get organized, keep reading.
There are holiday decorations to put away, new toys and gifts to make room for, and school stuff that must be dealt with. Conquering that clutter may sound either daunting or delightful to you, but it’s so worth it to tackle it over the break so you’re ready to start fresh. Here are a few tips:
– Help your kids clean out those backpacks and binders! Send them back to school clutter-free.
– Tackle one area at a time: Desks, drawers, bookshelves, workboxes, files, etc. Even if you only get one area organized, it’s still a step in the right direction. One useful strategy is to dump everything onto a table and then go through it, deciding what to keep, what to give away, and what to throw in the trash. It really helps to having a large surface to work on, so clear off a table, desk, or countertop.
– When sorting through school papers, you don’t have to keep it all. Really. Now that we are into trimester two, don’t hang on to all those math papers and spelling tests from trimester one. Keep some of their best artwork, writing samples or poems, and special projects, but if you’ve already turned in work samples with your progress report, feel the freedom to toss all the unnecessary papers from the first trimester. Designate a bin, accordion file, binder, or other area where you keep only those special papers, projects and mementos from the year.
This website has great tips on decluttering (click the link to read them all). Two of our favorites are:
– Spend a few minutes visualizing the room. Take a moment to look at a room, and think about how you want it to look. What are the most essential pieces of furniture? What doesn’t belong in the room but has just gravitated there? What is on the floor (hint: only furniture and rugs belong there) and what is on the other flat surfaces? Once you’ve pictured how the room will look uncluttered, and figured out what is essential, you can get rid of the rest.
– Create a “maybe” box. Sometimes when you’re going through a pile of stuff, you know exactly what to keep (the stuff you love and use) and what to trash or donate. But then there’s the stuff you don’t use, but think you might want it or need it someday. You can’t bear to get rid of that stuff! So create a “maybe” box, and put this stuff there. Then store the box somewhere hidden, out of the way. Put a note on your calendar six months from now to look in the box. Then pull it out, six months later, and see if it’s anything you really needed. Usually, you can just dump the whole box, because you never needed that stuff.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when trying to decide what to keep and what to toss, when it comes to toys or homeschool items (taken from Rhythm of the Home):
– Does it encourage imagination?
– Does it encourage learning?
– Does it get used?
– If it was gone for a week, would anyone notice?
And finally, here are a few clever storage ideas to help keep clutter down:
1. Need more small storage space? Try these “storage” chairs.
2. If you have no room for a wall map but you have a window, maybe this map window shade idea can work for you. Looks like some technical skills might be required, but it’s a great thought.
3. Here’s a tutorial to make a clothespin art gallery to deal with all that kid art piling up!
4. Cute or not cute? Use a dish rack and nice file folders to store papers that you want within easy reach. Pencils fit here too! This could also work to store different kinds of paper and markers, for a simple child’s art center.
5. If all else fails, put up a cute sign.
“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
Opportunity is waiting – Happy New Year, and happy decluttering!
What’s your favorite decluttering strategy or idea? Please share your tips with us!
