Okay, fine. Here’s the AFTER picture of my messy bookshelf. And no, smarty pants, I didn’t just move everything out of view of the camera! Here’s what I did, because I bet you have a messy bookshelf, too, especially if you homeschool:
1. I got rid of some workbooks or stored them in a homeschool tub in the basement.
2. I put the dictionary, thesaurus and writing books on my desk shelf instead.
3. I put the scrapbooking projects in my bedroom closet until I can devote a chunk of time to them.
4. I called my mother-in-law to see if she has any coloring books at her house for grandkids who come over. She actually needed some!
5. I put the tin of games in our hall closet with other games.
6. I could only part with 2 books, but moved a few to another bookshelf that had some room on it.
7. I realized some of the stuff belonged solely to the boys (Pokemon books, Zoobooks magazines) and put them on a shelf in the boys’ closet.
8. I put the worksheets I’d been storing in file folders on the bookshelf into the file cabinet (had to clear space out of that first, of course).
9. I put things I want to work on with the kids into their respective homeschool baskets and set a goal to teach those things before the end of the school year.
10. The magazines now live in my overflowing writing drawer (a project for another day).
11. The Christmas folder got moved to my computer desk since I do need it from time to time to jot down ideas for people.
I was even able to add their art kits and a box of Legos. Ah, my bookshelf can BREATHE now! And I don’t feel so overwhelmed. Now, on to the project of getting new pictures printed for those frames on the top shelf …
