Back to School Clean Sweep Organizing

Quick! Their back in school and now's your chance. Whether it is their normal day care routine, preschool, or big kid school, you've been waiting all summer for this moment. You've been tripping over sports equipment, prying leggos off the bottom of your bare feet, sweeping endless glitter from under the fridge where way too much child artwork has been hanging, and finally, you've been jamming the new school clothes into overstuffed drawers. You've been waiting till they were back in school so that you could get busy and clean out, but you know that if they were to witness your ruthless clean sweep approach, there might be tears over the trashing and recycling of so many treasured items.

Well, here are some tips to just keep you focused on the "Back to School Clean Sweep" and to prevent "stuff separation anxiety" when they get back home.

1) Child Artwork: Post it all up on the fridge in shifts, if needed, and take photos of their artwork. Then trash all but your very favorites. I keep my faves in a tub and only for the purposes of possibly scanning and converting into future art gifts for grandparents, like mugs, and tote bags etc...

2) Closets and Drawers: Pull it all out of there and sort it into three tubs: 1) Keep, 2) give away 3) tag and sell at consignment or e-bay. If it is really cute and or meaningful, you can possibly use it for a doll or big stuffed animal. We kept some VBS camp t-shirts that had their hand prints on them for this purpose. I also put a few really meaningful clothing items in a "future grandma" tub. Just in case I am blessed to become one in the future. : )

3) Toys: Sort the same way as the clothing. Once you've filled the "keep" box, divide it into type and size of toys like: puzzles, games, cars, Barbies, etc. I also take all the older fast food restaurant toys and put them into zip lock bags and store them in travel bags kept out of site. I also give these away to other moms getting ready to go on a long road trip vacation. We keep the more recent ones into the "stuff-stuff" drawer. Once this little drawer or box is full, we clean out into the baggie system.

4) Equipment: Gather up all the sports, pool, or outdoor fun gear and put it into bins in the garage. You can also sort costumes and dress up gear this way. I have also used an old shoe organizer for dress up accessories, like shoes, magic wands, crowns, necklaces, veils, etc...

5) When kids come back home: When your kids return home, you can show them all your hard work and give them a tour of how much more organized their rooms, closets, garage space, and toy boxes are. And before they morn the loss of any personal items, you can show them the pictures of their artwork that will go in the family scrapbook, tell them about the lucky children that will inherit their outgrown clothing, and even show them how Teddy can now wear their favorite VBS t-shirt. You can also emphasize how much more room they have in their spacious toy-box for the new toys that will inevitably be arriving with birthdays and holidays. OR, just enjoy the new order and if there are tears, tell them Daddy did it. : )

© 2007 Kathy Kline Danner

www.PBandJAHM.com become a joy @ home mom.