Has your home run away from you?

[Bananas]

Has your home run away from you? Do you have major cleaning to do? Are the piles piling up on you? Are you in need of sorting, organizing, and pitching? Do you live with a packrat? Am I the only one?

Summer is here!

[Boxcar]

YES!!!

I am a packrat. This means that I have cartons and boxes of things from which I cannot bear to part. Many of them are sentimental or have stories behind them, but the other stuff might be useful in the future.

My desk, floor, and dresser are perhaps the biggest disastor areas. When the items landslide onto the floor, they stay there. They'll only fall again if I pick them up and put them back on the desk. Then, the floor becomes a really useful storage area. Why not? It is flat and spacious. Never mind that I end up stubbing my toes in the dark!

I so need to finish cleaning up the stuff... I'm not very organized and usually end up re-arrangeing mess.

[dsmms]

Have any of you seen flylady.net? If you need help getting clutter under control, this website helps you break it down to where it isn't quite so overwhelming. I have used some of these techniques for years. My house isn't perfect...never will be I'm afraid, but it is better than it would have been. They even have flylady for teachers. I know this sound like a commercial, but I have used it. Now if I could just get my teenagers to use it too! :)

[Karenrbw]

It is not my home that is the problem - it is school. I spent an entire day cleaning my office and trying to find my desk. I knew it was in there somewhere. I just can't bear to part with something because " I might need it one day." I have copies of all my worksheets and answer keys because I am always afraid that the network will go down and I won't be able to print it off from the comptuer. Hey, it happens more than you think it would. I found an old file cabinet in the hallway a couple of weeks ago. It had a note on it - free to a good home. Now it has one. I painted it to match my classroom and moved it in. It is an old one - all wood and foud drawers tall - jackpot! My two smaller cabinets are packed full.
I worked on my file cabinets and organized them right after school got out. I designated a drawer per class and culled items for a class I am no longer teaching. I passed it on to the next teacher. I feel more organized and the place does look better.

[David]

Even the dust doesn't come to my house anymore because there's no room for it.

[silvana]

I find cleaning therapy ....so everytime work stresses me my house gets a cleaning blitz so I am top of everything....at school even more so because there is so little storage space I cant hoard anything.

[Brit]

gee, my house gets a thorough cleaning 3 times a year -- at report time. Nothing better for procrastinating than housework!

[Ima Teacher]

I am the packrat of the house, but I'm also very organized. That means that I hide things well!

I cleaned the garage last week, and I threw out six bags of trash. SIX BAGS. I could have gotten rid of more, but the pack rat in me wouldn't get rid of too much at once.

[Just ducky]

The summer goal---to reclaim my home. That was already a priority, but became more evident when I had to move EVERYTHING out of my classroom because of construction. I did the storage unit thing, but still have a bunch of stuff here to sort through before ever considering carrying it back into school. Talk about a reality check as to the packrat I have become. I have already sorted through tons of stuff---pretty sure that is nearly literal--and have so much more to do.

I can come up with tons of reasons things have been let go and most of them legitimate, but the time has come to make a change!!

(Our dumpsters at school were often full during this moving out period. Imagine the announcement, "NOTHING ELSE IS TO BE PUT IN THE DUMPSTERS WITHOUT THE JANITOR'S APPROVAL." On one hand we are told to clean it out, and then there is a limit on the trash!!) It was quite interesting to see what got pitched. On the other hand, I direct Camp Invention in our district and we got some really cool, unique take apart stuff. (A neighboring corporation is consolidating their elementary schools from 9 to 6, so there were some great things from there too.) Strange what has been hidden over the years!

[Boxcar]

I can't clean out my stuff with someone else cleaning out theirs. I seem to "inherit" a lot of items. Oh, I do need help.

Actually, I'm getting ready for Round Two with my stuff. I will clean up this summer. It just takes a couple of cycles to really do it right...

[Mrs. Gangsta]

Spent the summer reorganizing my curriculum - putting everything in notebooks and files according to unit (now I have to haul it all back to school). I got so inspired I cleaned out my closet. Why is it I gave giant bags full of stuff to charity and I still have a full closet? I guess all teachers are pack rats by nature - you never know if you can use a tiny bit of something for a lesson...we are too creative for our own good.

[hweber]

I spent the first 8 weeks of vacation taking 9 grad hours and 2 weeks in science camp. Yes, my house and gardens have gotten away from me. I have spent many hours outside pulling thistles that are 3 feet tall! I think I could make a new dog with all the dog hair in the house. So, I have 2 weeks to finish it all before the chaos starts again.

[Dhe Poet]

Now since I found out what my GI Joe dolls would have been worth had I been a rat. I have lost everything I ever had. My house isn't the cleanest but one can walk through without stubbing their toe.