Day 4 of Decluttering and Closing Out Your Homeschool Year

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[Day 4] 5 Days Decluttering and Organizing Your Homeschool Books:
Spend 15 minutes at a time decluttering and closing out your homeschool year

    

Dear Friends, 

Welcome to Day 4! How are you today? Send me an email with your progress at Tami@TamiFox.com. You can even share pictures with me!

Today I share my progress report with you and show you inside of my school cabinet and drawers. I even share where I keep my secret stash of chocolate. (Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone!)

The top drawer of my school cabinet is my catch-all drawer. I spent two 15-minute sessions decluttering and organizing that drawer. It looks so much better!

I also decluttered and organized the other two drawers, but I was able to do that in less than 10 minutes.

I shared a little bit about the bookshelves in my home, and tomorrow I will talk more about them.

Remember that she who has the most books is not necessarily the best homeschool mom. You want to teach your children to read, research, and write papers, but you do not need to be drowning in books to do that.

Here is the link to today’s video:

Your Zone Mission today is to mop the main bathroom.
Your Home Blessings for today are to take out the trash, sweep, and mop.

Have a wonderful day!

Day 3 of Decluttering and Closing Out Your Homeschool Year

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[Day 3] 5 Days of Decluttering in  Your Homeschool:
Use a timer and declutter and close out your school year 15 minutes at a time

    

  

Dear Friends, 

How are you doing today? Update me at Tami@TamiFox.com with your progress this week. Are you getting rid of clutter and getting your school area organized?

By designating a specific place for your children’s school books, you are setting them up for a successful school year. You can train them on where to put their books each day as they finish their work. This will help greatly in keeping up with school books. I know children have a tendency to “lose” books when they do not like a subject. (smile)

Today, I used two 15 minute sessions to set up my teacher resource shelf. This will make it easier for me to pull out teacher manuals and answer keys.

When you declutter, keep it short and sweet. Set the timer for 15 minutes and STOP when it goes off. You can always go back later to work in that area some more.

At the end of this week, our school year will be over. Testing will be done. My school cabinet will be decluttered. We will be ready for our summer break.

Here is the link to today’s video:

Your Zone Mission today is to declutter items from the medicine cabinet.
Your Home Blessing today is to declutter paper and magazines.

Day 2 – Closing Out Your Homeschool Year

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Dear Friends,
Did you get started yesterday with decluttering your school materials from this year?

In today’s video, I give you a progress report on my school cabinet. I spent 15 minutes sorting the books from the boys’ stacks of books.

Some books went on the bottom of each boy’s stack to use next year. On top of those, I put some review books for reading and math.

If I had books that I was not going to use again, I put them in the give away box. If I had books that I wanted to hold on to, I put them on the bookshelves in a different room. I spent about 5 minutes doing both of these things.

The give away box will be added to daily, and I will take it to donate on my errand day at the end of the week.

Remember to use your timer to keep you from spending too much time at once decluttering. I do not want you to get burned out.

Here is the link to today’s video:
Your Zone Mission today is to check your bathroom supplies.
Your Home Blessing today is to wipe the windows and mirrors.
Have a wonderful day!
Siggie - Tami Fox

Day 1 – Closing Out Your Homeschool Year

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5 Days of Decluttering and Closing Out Your School Year:
End your school year, so you can be ready to start your new year later.
tami-5-days

    

Dear Friends,
This week I am traveling to a conference in Lansing, Michigan. I am sharing a series I wrote last May on Closing Out Your School Year. There are 5 parts to the series, and you will receive one per day in place of my normal emails. If you scroll down to the bottom, I will have the Zone Missions and Weekly Home Blessings for you. I will not post a menu plan for each day since I am on the road.

Thank you for joining me this week to close your homeschool year out and declutter in small steps.

As a homeschool mom of six children over the past 17 years, I have learned a lot about creativity, organization, and planning. The years that I took the time to declutter books and papers at the end of the year, set me up for an easier start of school the next year. I learned the hard way, that if I put it off, I had a more stressful start to my new school year.

By closing out your school year now, you can enjoy your summer without the thoughts of cleaning out books and paper hanging over your head. I will not tell you to dump everything and sort. I will guide you to use a timer and work in small steps.

If you have a lot of things to go through, you can use the timer for 15 minutes at a time for your decluttering sessions. When the timer goes off, you can take a break and do something else. You can always go back for another 15 minute decluttering session later in the day.

After you declutter, you can make a list of books and supplies that you will need next year. Then you can start placing your orders now instead of waiting until August.

You can give away the books you no longer need. Find some other homeschool moms in your area who would like to have a book exchange. Set up a day and place to meet and have a used book swap.

You can do this!

Here’s the video I prepared for you. You can see the inside of my school cabinet and my progress throughout the week.

Your Zone Mission for today is to shine your tub or shower in the main bathroom.
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
Have a wonderful day!
Siggie - Tami Fox

Where will you choose to declutter this week?

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Dear Friends,
Did you enjoy some fun with your family over the weekend? We enjoyed seeing our young adult children and my mom. We celebrated over the course of three days. That’s my favorite way to celebrate!
This week we are decluttering and detail cleaning in the main bathroom and one extra room. You get to pick the extra area.
If you don’t have an area in mind, spend 15 minutes a day decluttering homeschool items you are no longer using.
Where will you declutter besides the Main Bathroom?
Here are your missions for the week:
Zone 3 Missions: The Main Bathroom and One Extra Room
Monday – Declutter Bathroom Counters and Wipe Down
27 Fling Boogie anywhere in the house
Tuesday – Shine the Tub or Shower
Hot Spot Fire Drill – Declutter those Flat Surfaces
Wednesday - Declutter Items from the Medicine Cabinet
Declutter 1 other area
Thursday – Check Bathroom Supplies
Declutter 1 other area
Friday – Mop the Bathroom
Declutter 1 other area
Set your timers and then take a break when it goes off!
Do you or the children have spring fever? Plan a field trip and get outside for the day!
On Friday, we had field day with our homeschool group and enjoyed being outside for a few hours. Children need more time outside playing, and as homeschoolers we can provide that time to our children.
Many things happen in our children’s brains when they play. The brain processes things they have learned while children play. Outdoor play also helps them physically. For children who are active, they will be better learners if they have plenty of time to play and use their large muscles.
Spring is also a great time of the year to take your homeschool outside. You can do nature journaling. You can read outside. You can go outside and just play!
Getting outside is a great way to learn and deal with spring fever! Let me know what you are doing outside this week.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for today is to declutter the bathroom counter tops and wipe down. You can also do a 27 Fling Boogie anywhere in the house.
My menu plan for Monday is chicken and rice for the guys and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!

Start Closing Out Your School Year

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Dear Friends,
How did you do with the Zone Missions this week? I want to see your progress in the kitchen. Email a picture to me at Tami@TamiFox.com.
Last year I did a series of five videos on Closing out Your School Year. When talking to homeschoolers about how they end a year and start back up, I have found that many of them just stop doing school. They wait until they are ready to start again to declutter and get rid of things. For me, I think it’s better to take a week at the end of your school year to purge. Then you are ready for a fresh start right after your break.
You can read my first post and see a video here:
The first step is to pick your ending date for school. Then start going through the materials your children used this year.
What needs to be trashed?
What needs to be put away for another child?
What needs to be given away?
Some of you sell your materials each year to offset the cost of purchasing the next year’s books. Our local homeschool group does a yearly book sale to help bring buyers and sellers together. This is a great way to sell your books.
If your area does not have a used book sale, see if there is interest for one. This group has used a park with a large shelter. The picnic tables were used to display materials. A local college allowed us to use the cafeteria. A church allowed us to use their fellowship hall. There are many ways to find a location.
Don’t hold onto materials that are not working for your family. You have guilt that you spent money on the materials and have not used them. Let them go and bless someone else!
Go through your arts and crafts supplies. You can declutter a lot of it. You have been collecting things for years. It’s time to purge.
Go through the pens, pencils, and notebooks you have collected.
Organize your bookshelves one at a time. Only spend 10 minutes at a time on this, but you need to get everything in its place, so you know what you need to order for the next school year.
Toss the papers your children have completed that you do not need to keep. Set up a box for each of your children for artwork that you do want to keep.
You will be happy when you start school to have all of this done!
Don’t forget to send me a picture of the area your Kitchen! Email me at tami@tamifox.com .
Today’s Zone Mission is to wipe the stove top and the microwave.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Are you dreaming of summer break?

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Dear Friends,

Thank you for sharing your progress with me this week. We have been decluttering in the kitchen and detail cleaning. Yesterday, I asked you to declutter in an area of the kitchen that you have been avoiding. Tell me where you decluttered.
Your testimonials and pictures encourage me. It is also a way to encourage yourself. You can see the progress you made, too. You are making progress one baby step at a time.
We all start with one step toward decluttering and taming the chaos monster. When I started following the FlyLady, I needed her encouragement and simple approach to decluttering. I needed the baby steps, too.
As my family grew, I taught my children their routines. I used a lot of praise and encouragement. I did the routines right along with them. I did not expect them to do something I was not willing to do myself.
If you are not getting dressed each morning and making your bed, how can you expect your children to do it?
I am not a fan of pajama school. You and your children will be more productive if you get dressed down to the shoes and make your bed each morning.
We are approach the summer, and that is a great time to focus on routines for everyone if you have been slack in doing your routines. The summer is also a great time for a decluttering project when you are not trying to fit in school work, too.
Some of you are even debating on whether or not to take a summer break with your kids. I want to encourage you to take a break. All of you need it. You may not have covered all of the material that you wanted to cover, but it will be okay.
Take a couple of weeks off completely from book work. Encourage your children to play outside. encourage them to be creative. Provide materials for them to do arts and crafts. Play music. Play games. Have fun!
If you want to incorporate some reading, check out your local library for a summer reading program. Many libraries offer rewards for reading achievements. Find some math review sheets. Assign very light practice in math and reading. You just want to keep their skills up. You are not trying to finish a book. (smile)
Allow yourself some down time from teaching. Dream again about things you want to do around the house. Make a list of areas you want to declutter. Then make a list of rewards for finishing. The rewards can vary, but you can find lots of inexpensive things to do in your community as a reward.
Dream big and have fun with your family!
Your Zone Mission today is to declutter items from one kitchen cabinet.
Your Home Blessing for today is to toss papers and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is stir fry.
Have a great day!

What have you been putting off in the kitchen?

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Dear Friends,
Happy Anti-procrastination Day! Is there something you have been putting off dong in your kitchen? Today is the day to tackle it! Set your timer for 15 minutes and see what you can accomplish. Each week I talk to ladies from around the country, and they share with me things they have been neglecting in their kitchens.
Some of you need to declutter leftovers from your fridge. That is the mission that I gave you this week. Some of you have counters full of stuff, and you don’t know where to put it. Some of you have cabinets you are afraid to open because stuff falls out every time you open the cabinet. Some of you have not wiped your microwave out — ever.
Some of you need to desperately clean the top of your stove or inside of your oven. Some of you have food in your freezer that you don’t know it is. Purge that stuff! It really does not take as long as you think it will take. You build it up in your mind that it is a hard task, or you want to do it just a certain way (perfectionism). Meanwhile, you don’t declutter in that area and it really bothers you.
Your pantry or spice cabinet could be an area you have avoided decluttering. You can deal with a messy pantry a little at a time and make a huge difference in your meal preparations.
Some of you have procrastinated menu planning. You may have never even menu planned! It does not have to be difficult. It can be done quickly and easily once you sit down to do it. Keep it simple! Write down 5 ideas on your calendar in pencil. Take a look at what you have on hand for inspiration. Some of our more fun weeks in eating have been the weeks where we cleaned out the freezer or used things from the pantry.
Tell me where you have neglected decluttering in your kitchen.
Your Zone Mission today is to declutter leftovers from the fridge.

Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.

My menu plan for Wednesday is lasagna for the boys and zucchini noodles for me with a salad.

Have a great day!

What’s in your kitchen drawers?

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 
No more kitchen junk drawer
Dear Friends,

You probably don’t think a lot about your kitchen drawers and what is in them. Today I want you to open each one and take a look. I have a silverware drawer, and I have kitchenware drawers. I have a drawer for kitchen towels and cloths. I have a drawer with plastic bags. Finally, I have a drawer with “hot pads.”

Last summer I gave up my junk drawers. During our kitchen renovation, I decluttered items from two drawers, and then I spread out the other things that were jammed into the other drawers. My drawers have a nice flow to them now.

Your mission is NOT to empty and dump all of your drawers. I do want you to pick one drawer and declutter items from it that you no longer use. That means you need to throw some things away or give some things away. I don’t want you to simply relocate items to another drawer or box.

The purpose of your decluttering missions is to get the stuff out of your house that you are not using. This is hard for many of you. You struggle with making decisions on what to get rid of and what to keep. You are fearful of getting rid of something you will suddenly need.

When I am decluttering, I pull out things I have not used in the last year or more. I put it into a box and put the box in the car. When I do my errands, I drop off my donations. Sometimes I drop of donations weekly, and sometimes, it is monthly. I wait until the box is full, but it stays in the car or van.

If you are new to decluttering daily, you can start with 5 minutes a day. As you get it worked into your routines, you can increase it up to 15 minutes at a time. The consistency of decluttering a little each day is what will help you get rid of the clutter and stay that way. It’s like a constant force keeping the clutter from building up again.

Your kitchen is used a lot, and I know you have clutter. Spend your 5 to 15 minutes a day getting rid of clutter in the kitchen, so you have a more efficient space to prepare meals.

Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.

Your Zone Mission for today is to declutter items from 1 kitchen drawer.

My menu plan for Tuesday is Taco Tuesday for the boys. Veggies and salad for me.

Have a blessed day!

Declutter and Detail Clean in the Kitchen

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Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

zone-2-march-2018

Dear Friends,

 

This week we are going to declutter and detail clean in the kitchen. The kitchen is one of your most-used rooms in the house. Spend 15 minutes a day this week making it functional, less cluttered, and cleaner. The flat surfaces in your kitchen collect clutter quickly. It is the one area I deal with a Hot Spot every day.

 

Here are you missions for the week:

 

Zone 2 Missions: The Kitchen

 

Monday – Declutter & Wipe the Kitchen Counters

Tuesday – Declutter items from 1 kitchen drawer

Wednesday – Declutter leftovers from the fridge

Thursday – Declutter items from 1 kitchen cabinet

Friday – Wipe the stove top and microwave

 

Set your timers and then take a break when it goes off!

 

Have you started sorting and decluttering items from your school supplies and books. Many of us are wrapping up the school year this month. Start now with decluttering the items you are not using. Pull out the books your children have finished for the year. Make room for the new books you will be buying for next year. You just need to do a little bit at a time each week to get it done.

If you have some subjects that you know you want to make a curriculum change, start your research now. If you have a homeschool conference that is close to you, consider attending it.

This spring, I am speaking at two conferences. I will be speaking May 17-19, 2018, in Lansing, Michigan, at the INCH Conference.

Later in the month, I will be speaking at my home state conference in Winston-Salem, NC, at the NCHE Conference. It is May 31-June 2, 2018.

If you are close to either of these conferences, I would love to see you there!

Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.

Your Zone Mission for today is to declutter the counters and wipe down.

My menu plan for Monday is beef stew for the guys and salad for me.

Have a blessed day!

Siggie - Tami Fox