On Saturdays we normally spend a few hours cleaning house. This morning Henry found an old science fiction story that he liked. He decided to read it to the girls before we cleaned house. I had some time to kill before we started the Saturday chores, so I thought I would organize the homeschool shelves while I waited.Yesterday, I installed furniture straps on the tall bookcase in our kitchen as part of earthquake preparedness and for our foster care certification. I found many odds and ends behind the bookcases. This inspired me to sort the shelves all together.
I ended up taking everything off the shelves and emptying the drawers. The entire kitchen table and floor was covered with "stuff." Well, six hours later I finished in the kitchen. Sadly, I still have some odds and ends of homeschool "stuff" in the office and front room cabinets that I didn't touch.
Henry ended up directing the Saturday clean up without me. He also order pizza for lunch. I ate lunch standing up in the kitchen because there was no place to sit.
I threw out a bag of garbage, a bag to recycling and I have a bag of books to give away at homeschool park day. I still have "stuff" that we really don't use that I can't bring myself to part with yet. For example, I found that we have at least a half a dozen different kids of phonics flash cards which we never use. Now that I know I have so many varieties to choose from, maybe I will get them out once in a while.
Half way through the sorting, a neighbor came over and commented that if we installed tall cabinets where we currently have the bookcases, our kitchen would look like a kitchen again. Oh, well.
----------
Technorati tags: house, cleaning
I only have my daughter to homeschool, so we don't have as much -- but I still took awhile and went through our homeschool cabinet and decluttered as well!
ReplyDeleteIt does make a big difference when you are trying to find things! I found things I forgot I had as well.
Have a blessed week,
Sherry
www.homeschoolblogger.com/sherrydhoneycutt
I think I need some sort of catalog system to keep track of everything.
ReplyDeleteI think they look great now. You are quite welcome to come over here and do mine now! I'd like my kitchen to look like a kitchen too. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer, but we still have two more major areas to clean up. Our plans are to work through the study tomorrow, and then tackle the garage in a week or two.
ReplyDeleteIn general most of the house is in pretty decent shape. The garage is sort of a dumping ground. We find that once we get an area cleaned up, the maintained isn't too bad. But once it slides, it becomes a big job to restore to order.
Isn't it amazing what we have hidden in our piles of homeschool stuff that we have collected! Sometimes I am amazed that the floor doesn't fall through with the weight of all the books and materials we have sitting on it!
ReplyDeleteHey Janine and Henry, sorry I haven't been by in awhile. I got busy with other things, then ran into tons of technical difficulties with HSB new upgrades, so I have a new blog now. Come see me when you get a chance:)