Have you ever considered spring cleaning your homeschool area as part of your yearly spring cleaning routine?
Each year we have to spring clean our home and our cottages. After the long winter months, our homeschool area is always in desperate need of a spring cleaning as well.
As year round homeschoolers I find that we have to clean, purge and reorganize our homeschool area quite a few times throughout the year.
However, in the spring I find that we have a lot more clutter than any other time of the year. It seems that winter even takes its toll on our homeschool area!
We do not have a homeschool room, we simply use the kitchen table, after all, homeschooling is just an extension of our family life, so why would we need a separate room?
If we had an extra room to spare, I can think of quite a few ways I would use it before even considering using it as a homeschool room.
So for us, our homeschool area truly does need to stay more organized than it does because it is in the kids’ bedroom. When it becomes cluttered my kids have a harder time keeping the rest of their room clean.
For years, I spring cleaned our homeschool area on my own. When my kids hit middle school I decided that it was time for my children to help me with this project.
I had them start helping for a few specific reasons.
- They were old enough to take care of their daily homeschool materials
- I wanted them to see just how much work it is to clean up even a small area months after the clutter had begun accumulating.
- They were responsible for some of the clutter in our homeschool area.
The idea and process to spring cleaning your homeschool area may be new to you. You might not know where to start. That is ok! I’m here to help!
Follow these seven steps to get started. You may find that not all of them fit your family, that’s ok. You can simply add and take away steps to create your own method of spring cleaning your homeschool area.
7 Steps for Spring Cleaning Your Homeschool Area
1. Gather file folders, trash bags, Rubbermaid totes or boxes before you begin.
You’re spring cleaning remember? That means you’ll need to be prepared to get rid of things. So, you’ll need the right tools and a level head to toss things that you truly don’t need. Make sure you are ready to let go of papers and resources during this process, after all, letting go is hard for a homeschool mom sometimes.
2. Clean one part of your homeschool area at a time.
Most homeschool areas have at least one bookshelf, a drawer organizer and maybe a desk or two. Don’t try to tackle them all at once, pick one and completely clean that part of your homeschool area before moving on to the next.
3. Purge unneeded papers and resources.
As homeschool moms, we tend to hang onto resources for years. If you haven’t used it in the past 2 years and you don’t have any littles that will use it in the future, it is time to let it go. Whether you choose to create a box for your homeschool group, box it up to save for your kids to use as homeschool parents or toss it, the choice is yours. You’re likely to come across scratch papers from math class and coloring pages from your kids, these are unneeded papers, you’ll probably need a big trash bag for this step.
For homeschool moms with younger kids, I suggest putting curriculum/resources that you are not currently using into Rubbermaid totes until the next homeschool year. Make sure you label the tote so you can find it easily when you need/want it.
4. Sort and store this year’s homeschooling papers for each child.
Using file folders sort each child’s homeschooling papers by subject, then place the file folders into a Rubbermaid tote. This is a time-consuming process, but it will make your life easier when the end of the school year comes and you simply add the rest of the year’s homeschool papers to each file folder. This is also beneficial should you ever need to pull out your homeschool papers for legal purposes.
5. Throw away unusable school supplies.
This is one of our biggest clutter problems and I should do it more often, but it typically happens while we’re spring cleaning our homeschool area. Throw away pencils that are simply too short to use, broken crayons, crumpled notebook paper, dry markers, damaged dry erase boards, etc.
6. Organize your homeschool curriculum and resources.
Once you’ve purged your unneeded papers and resources, thrown away unusable school supplies, sorted and stored this year’s homeschooling papers, it is time to organize the remaining homeschool curriculum and resources for this year! You’re almost done! After you’ve organized everything, put all of your homeschool curriculum and resources back on your bookshelves, in desks and drawer towers.
7. Step back and smile.
Take time to remember why you homeschool. Recall all of the adventures your family has experienced on your homeschool journey. Be thankful for the opportunity to homeschool your children and give them the education that you know they need!
How do you spring clean your homeschool area?
