Clutter-Free Classroom 2013

Yay!  I am excited to get started with

A problem I am running across is the fact that I am not actually in my classroom due to the snow.  

This means I cannot do challenge 1 (before photos) and challenge 3 (surface clean) until I am actually in the room.  

That leaves Challenge number 2:

Develop a plan for decluttering your space and compose a list of "non-negotiable must purge" rules. 

So here goes:

1. If it is not yours, find whose it is. Give it to them.

2. If it is being stored in your room for a reason (since we are a small Catholic school and we do share each other's space for lack of other space) give it a designated location and only that item can be in there.

3. If it is an item for art projects not being used this week, put it in the art closet (DOWN THE HALL-not in your room in another cluttered location)

4. If it is a seasonal item, put it in its seasonal box in closet.

5. If it is a lesson plan idea, put it in file cabinet in its correct file.

6. If it is for a thematic unit, put it in a bin, label it, and put it in the closet under the corresponding book box.

7. If it is not going to be used in an already defined plan, but "could be cool one day" or "could be used for some kind of art project," put it in the art closet  (DOWN THE HALL-not in your room in another cluttered location)

8. All bins that students put toys in need a picture and word label so they can do it themselves.

9. Reteach how to play the games on the game shelf and how to clean up store.

10. Have a more effective way to store students' games/folder games so they can do it themselves.--Reintroduce the Uh-oh Bucket.

11. If it is broken and to hard/expensive/useless, throw it away.  If it is a danger to a student, throw it away.  If it is not serving a purpose in my room and can't anywhere else, throw it away.

12. If it survives the garbage, the donation pile, and the relocation pile: IT MUST GO IN A LABELED (photo and text) BIN.

13. Print this page and put it in the white binder (that you know is just sitting on a  shelf and needed to be used or gotten rid of anyway!)  Use this binder as your clutter free-classroom organization binder. --print all this stuff on the one-side-already printed-on-paper-but-can-be-used-for things-not-going-to-students-or-home-paper to further recycle. ;)

You, too, can get a clutter free classroom!  Click on the image to take you to this challenge, and get all of her weekly challenges!