reorganizing the school bookshelves

Our school bookshelves have been in need of some major reorganization and decluttering. This was my big task this week.

The kids helped me take everything off of the shelves and up to the playroom where the mess could be out of the way. This would allow me to take my time over the week to get the job done, instead of rushing through it and ending up with a so-so job.

What a mess of stuff! My first job was to sort everything into categories (including school subjects or age ranges). While I did this I also de-cluttered. I had a garbage bag, recycling bag, and a laundry basket to put things in that needed a new home (not in ours!).

Once this was done the playroom was looking better, making the task of organizing all of this back on the shelves look much more manageable.

I did away with the bins the kids were using to store their school stuff in. They were just magnets for clutter, instead we will just use the binders they have been using and one common basket for the few things that don't fit in the binders. I also moved all of the loose paper over to a wall organizer, which freed up some more space.

I put most of the pre-school type things on a top shelf where they can't get into them. However, one of the lower shelves has just a few pre-school activities that I will let the girls get into during school time. Miss J spotted this shelf right away and let out a sweet little gasp of excitement. I'll rotate these things around regularly (not quite sure how often yet, I'm thinking once a week or so).

I'm happy with how this came together. Instead of cringing at the clutter and mess I've found myself smiling at the general order of the shelves. Now we just need to keep it up! I think I'll go over some of the basics of how I have it organized with the kids so they can help with upkeep!

*I'm linking to orgjunkie.com today