Planning

It sounds like you have been doing a lot of really valuable things. I wouldn’t beat yourself up for not having your home organized. I think one can always tell a homeschool home but the pile of books and project around. Our homes won’t look like everyone else’s because we are in them, doing things so much.  The workbox system with the magazine holders sounds like a great idea. I don’t know what your school year is like but maybe you need to give yourself an extra week this year to get up tp speed?

Nebby

What a great question, Sweet Marie! I agree totally with what the others have said so far, especially what Nanci said about trying to tackle everything all at once. I consider myself to be a pretty organized person…not to brag though…it’s just what God’s gifted me with, and I praise Him for it! 

First thing, take a deep breath. Release yourself from the expectation you have to compare yourself to others and find yourself lacking. What you may be lacking in organization, other of us might be lacking in patience or habit-training or any other area of our lives. Also like Nanci, I used to compare myself to the “perfect homeschool mom”, who has a spotless house, an alphabetized bookshelf, fresh bread out of the oven at 5:00 a.m., freshly clipped flowers from her own garden, and a cinnamon-vanilla candle burning all day long. That only made me feel even more deficient and down, and the Lord doesn’t want me to feel that way! 

Second thing, it’s a great goal to want to become more organized; but like any goal, you won’t meet your goal the same day you set it. It’s a process that takes time and patience with yourself. Start small, and work your way up. Even as much as I love organizing, I don’t ever try to tackle my entire house in one day. Pick a spot, like your junk drawer or your closet or your desk or the playroom, and start with that spot. Don’t quit and move on to another spot until you’ve finished the current one. It’s a much greater sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when you finish one thing at a time and see your progress than it is to have 15 half-finished projects. It is easy to get side-tracked, like when you walk to the kitchen to throw a pile of old papers away and stop to clean out your pantry and fridge. Resist the urge to tackle the pantry and fridge until you’ve finished the desk, or whatever project you start first.

Third, enlist your children. In my opinion, an organizer’s worst enemy are the kids who get things out and never put them back where they belong. Actually, I take that back. An organizer’s worst enemy is herself when she neglected to train the children to put things back where they belong! You don’t want to finish all your hard work and it be for nothing the next time the kids decide to have a craft day or a play date. They’re much more likely to work with you to keep things neat and tidy if they had to participate in the organizing process. Besides, the habit of orderliness and the habit of neatness must be taught sometime!

Last…purge, purge, purge! My rule for getting rid of things is if I haven’t touched it, seen it, or used it in the last six months, I don’t need it anymore. Same rule applies to the kids’ things. Same rule applies to clothes and shoes. There’s no sense in organizing and making room for things you don’t use. Simplicity is not only essential to staying organized, but our family has found a simplistic lifestyle to be our preferred way of life. Early in our family, we had a season where we made a lot of money and had a lot of stuff. Our circumstances have been different for the last several years, and we are happier now than we’ve ever been. We have less, therefore we want less. It’s easier to keep your house organized and clutter-free when there’s not a lot to clutter it up. Have a big garage sale, donate your clothes to a ministry or Salvation Army, give toys and clothes away to younger cousins or your friends’ children. Beware though–contentment isn’t something that comes naturally if you’re already used to having a lot of “stuff” around. It’s not just a mindset; it’s also a heart condition. If you have a hard time letting go of things, that will be something God has to change in your heart, if that is your desire.  

And one last thing about your school year planning: there is no rule written in stone that says you must start your homeschool in August. We don’t start until the Tuesday after Labor Day, which happens to be Sept. 7th of this year. Take the whole month of August off for vacation if you like, use some of your free time to plan next year and some of it to tackle your organization goals.

You can do it!

Hi,

I just wanted to mention a book that recently helped me get started on decluttering and organizing, though I’m nowhere near being done – it’s a slow process. 🙂  I stumbled on Unclutter Your Life in One Week while I was looking up another book on organizing recommended here not too long ago. It helped me think through small areas to work on one at a time: Cleaning out a closet one day, bathroom one day, took two days to do my room . . . I didn’t really follow her one week plan, but picked just one area to work on at a time. But I hadn’t been able to get past feeling overwhelmed by the whole house until I read over her plan. She also helps you think through your criteria for keeping and eliminating various items, like clothing. I found it very helpful, so thought I’d mention it. The author is Erin Dolan. Baby steps! We can do this! 🙂

Melissa

Truly, it sounds like you need that vacation!  Take it and relax.   Isn’t homeschool all about flexiblity? I heard of a family who didn’t start school until October because of their schedule.  That was refreshing for me to hear!  I am just now starting to order my curriculum, let alone work through it to be ready for our year.  I did want to tell you though that I LOVE your idea of magazine holders for each child.  I am going to use it!  (And, I just heard about someone cutting cereal boxes and covering them in scrapbook paper to be magazine holders instead of buying them.)

God bless you this year!

I highly recommend the book Managers of Their Chores by the Maxwells.  I implemented it a few months ago and it has made a huge difference in my home.  My girls have a morning chore pack and an evening chore pack, and we are about to create a lunch chore pack as well.  I’ve found that with the daily upkeep of the home being spread out between the 4 of us and not mostly resting on me, I have more energy and motivation now to tackle the clutter and those things that just never got taken care of.  And we are cleaning things on a daily basis now that were a struggle to even get done once a week before. 

Lindsey, wow you sound like me!  I do not generally get emotionally attatched to stuff.  My main problem is that I’m weak-willed and my children DO get emotionally attatched to stuff and they dont want to part with their toys and I have the hardest time actually purging their things.