I seem to recall one or more of you fine, upstanding homeschool moms posting about a newly-organized & decorated school space in your home not that long ago. (Okay, with my memory, it could have been a year ago!) Anyway, I have dedicated far too much idle time searching this forum for the thread(s) that linked to your blog article(s) on this to no avail.
Can any of you recall possible threads that I might be thinking of? Looking forward to your replies….
Sue, mine has been completely redone with built in cabinetry & desks for my four kids. We also turned our loft into our library. If I can get some decent pictures, I’ll post a link.
Okay, I’m going to “come clean” so to speak….my daughter has been asking about having a sleepover for her birthday, and our house is just plain nasty in some areas. We don’t have a good system of chores beyond meal prep, doing dishes & laundry, and the old “lick and a promise” attempt at dusting, vacuuming, etc. I’ve been thinking again about decluttering and then some deep cleaning.
When we moved into my elderly Dad’s house about 6 years ago, you couldn’t sit on any of the living room furniture because of his crates & piles of “stuff,” all of the bedrooms were basically like overgrown closets, and nothing had been thoroughly cleaned since Mom died about 10 years prior to that. No walls had been cleaned, the floors rarely swept or vacuumed, no tables or lamps dusted, and my Dad’s idea of cleaning the bathroom was to wipe off the sink with a wet paper towel and swish the toilet brush around. To him, if cleanliness is next to Godliness, then they are both on a really, really long shelf with yards of space between them, LOL.
So, we have cleaned up his clutter from the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and our bedrooms–mostly–but we haven’t been on a regular schedule of washing walls, mopping, and dusting often enough to keep things nice. Also, it’s an older home and a lot of things (wall coverings, light fixtures) have not been updated since my parents & siblings & I moved in when I was 7….which was 46 years ago! So, I have to get over this notion that I live in a shabby home. (I plan on looking at pictures of how the street people live in Kenya where our missionary friends travel, and then our home will look like the cover of House Beautiful by comparison….will make me more grateful for what I have.)
Today my girls decided to start decluttering and cleaning their messy room. I was inspired, so I’m sorting through some things and working on organizing things pertaining to school because that seems to be one of the worst areas of control in our house.
I love your play on words! As I read your post, I am sitting in the midst of a hundred boxes that are 1/8th unpacked. This morning I read in Romans 15 that our God is the God of endurance, encouragement, and hope. May He be that and more to you while you declutter. Deep breaths and long calls on Him.
Here are my posts on both Homeschool Organization and Neatness and Order. I love Charlotte’s words in these areas. Though that house is no longer our home, there are lots of pictures 😉
We just moved into our new home and are in the process of preparing a finished attic space as our dedicated school room. I’m very excited about it! It will probably be several weeks before we’re completely finished with it, but I’ll blog and post pics when we are.
My favorite way to declutter is to grab a laundry basket, a box, and a trash bag. Into the laundry basket goes things that need put away. Into the box goes things that need donated to Goodwill. Into the trash bag goes thing that need thrown away. As soon as one is full it is dealt with. Trash bags go to the curb. Boxes go to the back of the van. Full laundry basket gets put away right away, before I gather more things.
And I’m ruthless. I want things OUT of my house. We just don’t have a lot of space (1200 sq ft for the 9 going on 10 of us) and clutter drives me nuts.
Another of the Maxwell’s books that helped my family is Managers of Their Chores, the kids really thrived with chorepacks to get good habits ingrained. We don’t use them now, but for a long time they were a key part of building our chore habits. I blogged about the chorepack idea a few times if you want me to pull up those posts to get an idea of how it works. We started without the book once upon a time.
I was actually working on a post related to how clean makes up for not having house beautiful. I’ll try to finish it up and share it today or tomorrow.
@Tristan, I’ve noticed that I get stressed out and overwhelmed if the living room is not cleaned up every evening before scripture reading. I feel like everything is out of control if that one room is not tidied. And, usually, if we are all on clean up patrol that tidiness runs over into the kitchen and dining room/school room floor. 15 minutes is all it usually takes since everything has a designated home – we’re simply putting it there. Thanks for sharing real life! 😉
I go through the same urge to get life my house and life in order — usually right after Christmas. This year I tackled my school room with a vengeance, and I think maybe I won. 🙂 Here’s a link to one of my blog posts on my school/craft closet organization, as well as art supply organization. Hope it helps. Best wishes in your quest for bringing order to your life!