Week 3 - Let the Purging Begin!

Week 3 at the Clutter Free Classroom project meant purging. And though I didn't get much out I did get started! I knew I wanted to start with my two rolling carts, one that has my math items scattered all over the top. I'm hoping to eventually have all the math organized by concepts: measurement, geometry, patterns, number concepts, place value, etc.

My rolling carts are full of drawers which I somewhat organized when I started four years ago, and have tried to eliminate bits and pieces since. I have way too many linking cubes though! I have unifix cubes, snap cubes (at least that's wht I call them) which connect every which way and 'snap' together, and more snap kind of cubes that have a skinny nub that connects them. I'm very technical in my naming of manipulatives! I like using unifix cubes for math the best, but my kids love using the snap cubes for indoor recess. I had two drawers of them so I eliminated one. And during indoor recess this week (rain on top of snow turned the playground into glaze ice) I noticed that as usual no one way using the K'Nex. I don't think anyone has used them in four years. So I purged these:



I also got rid of two bingo games, addition and subtraction, that weren't great and I hated to use. One of our subs who is looking to get into a classroom picked those up in case she can use them in the future.

For now that is all I have done. Because during this week I was also prepping for Monday morning. I am in the last semester of my masters program and Monday is the beginning of a six week Action Research project. I've got a sub coming to teach while I gather data on my students' phonemic awareness and I needed everything ready to hit the ground running!

Hopefully I can carve out 5-10 minutes a day each week to keep purging. Head over to the Clutter Free Classroom for more inspiration. It's keeping me going.

Week #2 - a plan....

So the week 2 challenge over at The Clutter Free Classroom was to share your plan. Which is why I didn't really share. I can't think of a plan.

And now a week later I'm looking at the questions:

What do you plan to do with your "stuff" that you no longer want?
I know I will have lots of papers that will be recycled, some stuff will head to a landfill, but most of it will be donated: to Goodwill, the teacher's room with a 'free' sign, and to my husband's cousin who is just graduating and looking for a job. So if she can use it I will be happy to donate it.

What are your rules for purging?
This is where my plan just falls apart. For many reasons, the first of which is genetic. I think hoarding is in my genes. Second, in college my education professors made us memorize the phrase "free is for me." I haven't forgotten it. But the biggest thing is my first teaching position was in a Catholic school. I was there for four years and I learned there is a use for everything and nothing gets thrown away. My paychecks were put in one of those envelopes that comes with a credit card offer. NOTHING went to waste. But in that school I had the luxury of a large closet to store many of those things. Now I've been in public school for 4 years teaching first grade like I did in the Catholic school. So I know I can use the rule that if I haven't used it in 1 (or 2?) years it should go. But sometimes I come across those things, and think maybe I haven't used them because I forgot I had them. In coming to this school I also replaced my own retiring first grade teacher. She left everything, and was an amazing teacher so I'm afraid to get rid of things she left behind! But I'm trying to commit to this purge so here are a few rules:

1. If I can borrow it from someone else, I will eliminate it.
2. Will I ever use it? If I haven't and don't even know what it is, then it is out.
3. If it is outdated (like addition bingo that I may have used in 1987) and I can recreate it on the computer or smartboard, then I'm tossing it.
4. Go through areas twice. If I don't toss things the first time, I know with a second purge (or once I get on a roll with this) I can eliminate more of the clutter.
5. Is it something I even need to teach? Check the standards!

What have you gathered to make your decluttering task easier?
I picked up one copy paper box from the copy room to transport items to donate to the teacher's room. I hope to do just a few minutes a day so I don't want to bog myself down with any more boxes in the room. Even for the purpose of donating, recycling and trash!

Now I just need to stop picking up things that other people put out for "free" when they declutter....

Clutter-Free Week 1

The first challenge for the Clutter-Free classroom was to take pictures of the clutter.
I do not normally invite people into my classroom. I'm paranoid they will judge (hate) my teaching style. And it's a messy room. I call it organized chaos but it isn't so organized. I hate having substitutes unless I know ahead of time and can neatly pile things. Despite all that, welcome to my first grade classroom, my home away from home:

Notice those big beautiful built-in closets? That was my organizational task this summer. The before picture on this one was bad. And I know I can purge more.

My library/whole group/calendar area:

There are currently some empty book crates on my book shelves. And a pile of books in the back corner of the room that I can't figure out just how to organize. I love books, they are hard to purge:

And I've got an amazing Math cart full of manipulatives that are fairly well organized in the drawers below but the top level seems to be a landing ground:

And I've saved the messiest for last. My teaching table, though this is the state of it at the end of the day:

This year to keep it simple and keep from creating piles I decided not to use a desk. I have it but it is the students' computer area. And because of that I end up with piles on my table!

So the questions to think about were: What were your thoughts when you took your before pictures? Was your "current state of affairs" better or worse than you thought. What are you most excited about tackling?

I was pretty much thinking I can't believe I'm taking these pictures to share with the world. But I also knew that by doing so I would be held accountable to clear the clutter. I'm excited to tackle the bookcase behind my teaching table because I've got many SPOTS: Something Pretty On the Shelf. You know those books you HAD to have, the helpful handouts from a workshop, the collection of whatever that you might use down the road.

Thanks for sticking with me through all this mess!!!

Taking on a HUGE challenge

Its a new year and as usual I would like to get organized. Again. I hope this year will be different though. Last week I discovered The Clutter-Free Classroom. And here I am creating a new blog to (hopefully) follow my neverending journey to be clutter free. Finding out the day before that I should expect to change grade levels at least once, and maybe twice, in the next 5 years helped, too!

Here goes nothing...