Clutter Free Update (paper-stacking)

Hey all,

I just wanted to share some pictures from my "Clutter-Free" efforts and some awesome supplies I recently bought. I had a rough day two Tuesdays ago and it was a Tuesday with no after school staff meeting or other engagement...Guess what I did to relieve some stress---started cleaning out my desk. And it looked like: BAM! 

 

Look at that baby, shining in all it's glory! I even had time to wipe it down and clean off some dust. Those *cute* little flower trinkets are crafty gifts from some of my kiddos. And that spinning supply organizer is a little something I coveted all summer before I grabbed it from overstock.com.

In Week # 7's Challenge, the Clutter Free Classroom encourages us to work on our paper clutter. I like to convince myself that I don't have a paper problem. I saw her handy method for organizing and filing papers in the teacher bag--a file-folio with labeled sections, and I thought "I don't need that. It's ONE MORE THING to 'organize' me, and I don't really have a paper problem." Ahh-hemmmm. Begin DISTRICT COMMON ASSESSMENTS here...OPEN ENDED, lots of GREAT components, and ahhh-hemmmmmm...lots of paperwork. Not to mention, I also assign student work out of my own choosing and would like to think sometimes I have the time to read it, grade it, rubric it...all that jazz (are you reading my hint of toooooo-much paperwork, end of quarter sarcasm?)

 Not too bad, huh? (whimpering a little as  I type here :( If everything has a place, where is the place for this stuff? I feel like I have too many containers, too many shelves, what to do that will work? (and not cost more money?? and not take up more space??? This sounds like a clutter-free dilemma!)

 I call this pic "paper stacks".

 I call this pic "more paper stacks," still whimpering! And yes, I strategically placed the stapler there so that we could all see how tall this one-of-ten paper stack is. Needless to say, all of these paper stacks went in my bag on Friday as I headed off for a weekend of sifting, grading, and preparing report cards.

And, in walks my common sense. Yes, I do need a "filing folio" for all of my paperwork. Although paperwork (like everything in my education world it seems) EBBS and FLOWS throughout a quarter, I really need a method for handling my TO DO, TO READ, TO GRADE, TO FILE, TO COPY, TO HOLD ON TO piles. These just get stuck into my bag until I get a chance (read--evening-at-home-not exhausted-motivation) to sift through them--almost never. BUT, I do find that when I sift through the papers, I keep shuffling them to "I'll need that again later, I still want to hold on to that." These papers obviously need a labeled section so that I don't have to constantly sift a whole pile but will know where to start when I want something or want to clean out all the paper.

I was even thinking it might help to have one of these file folders at school to house stacks of papers that need to be returned to students or need to be corrected by students. Unfortunately, I don't have the classroom space for student mailboxes and don't really love the look of them, so I do need baskets or something for organizing student stuff. I think it is a sign of insanity that I constantly carry the same things from home to school and back and some weeks I go until the weekend before I actually open my bag. (You must be thinking I'm a terrible teacher!)

And, hence, at 5:45 on a Friday, I bust into my favorite designer store, Tarjay, to find the perfect file-folio. And, they had one that matches my home office--bonus awesomeness!

In other Tarjay perfection news, I found file boxes in the dollar spot for--you guessed it--1$ AND the design also matches my home office.

Excuse the not-so-pretty shelf. Those file boxes made me pull it out from the garage where it's been for a year now. I think I'm going to paint it a pretty coral to spice it up. (Those baskets came from the dollar store a few weeks ago.) Next, I just need to figure out what else to store in the file boxes and make some cute labels for them.

Have you embarked on the Clutter-Free journey? If not, you should hop on over and catch up on the challenges! (I myself need to catch up on a few :)