Clean Sweep, volume 2

The paper recycling bin runneth over

Been working away in my classroom, bit by bit.  Made a lot of joint progress over 4th of July weekend--with the help of my oh-so-tidy-and-organized Sweetie.  Since then, I have been spending about an hour and a half each weekday SORTing and TOSSing.  Getting curriculum materials put into file drawers.  With labels.


I swear, sometimes even the most basic accomplishments (files with LABELS!) seem to me like discovering fire.  Or inventing the wheel.  Sheesh.


But today...

Today was the last big push.  Final weekend day of the month of July.  And the deadline for getting the classroom tidy is July 31st.  Starting in August, it's time to start thinking about new classes I will teach in the next year.  (No time to process the past while I am planning the future.)

This is the stuff that goes away (not including trash)

TEN hours.  On a sunny July Sunday.  When the pool, and the garden, and the hiking trails all beckoned.  Ten hours in my classroom!  God Bless Sweetie.  She stayed with me, worked her fingers to the bone labeling and sorting and tossing.  And, most of all, kept me on task and focused on the parts that only I could do.  (Like the giant tote with mixed materials and notes from every math conference I have attended since 2001.  Gad zooks!  Did NOT want to go thru that tote.  But I did.)

The results

 The above pictures show just a bit of the excess baggage I was hiding in my cupboards (and drawers, and file cabinets, and boxes-shoved-in-corners).  We estimated 200 pounds of office paper are in that blue recycle bin.  (Wonder who gets to dump that out...)

 Oh my goodness.  So much room in those cupboards!

 I can find things!!! The file cabinets are equally lovely (although nowhere near as photogenic).

In Summary

I chose this photo to describe the transformation.  At the beginning of the total CLEAN SWEEP this summer, my paperclip storage was empty.  I had even asked a colleague for more paperclips, because I was totally out.  I had no idea that my paperclips were all being used up holding together USELESS bits of paper.  Ditto for my file folders, hanging file holders, 3-ring binders, notebook dividers, etc.  I have an excess of basic office supplies now, because they are not needed to contain or corral JUNK.

Flylady quote that seems most appropriate to the occasion:
"You cannot organize clutter.  You can only get rid of it."

Thank you, Sweetie!  I am years younger and pounds slimmer because of this.