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Time to Clean Out Those Closets?!

I started going through my mess of papers in my classroom yesterday. Back at the end of the school year, I mentioned (as a tip) that teachers need to make sure they put those papers back where they belong....yeah, I don't do that very well :-)  So, I pulled all of the papers out of the random binders I had put them in and started sorting them into piles by topic. I decided that I'd finally break down and make myself create one binder per topic...they probably won't be as pretty as many of the ones I've seen on Pinterest, but they will be organized.

While I worked on the papers, my daughter helped me clean out my
closets....I guess technically she organized them for me, since I couldn't be convinced to throw much away. Our afternoon went kind of like this:

Daughter: "Mom, you have 4 packs of Geoboards that aren't opened. Do you really need them? Plus the overhead projector one? You don't even have an overhead projector any more."
Me: "You never know, they might be fun to use in 9th period; or they might change the curriculum again and I might need them."

Her: "Mom, do you need all these flashcards?"
Me: "Wellll, some of the kids don't know their facts, and they might not have cards at home, so I can let them borrow them. Someday I'll give them away to someone who needs them."

Her: "Mom, you don't teach this subject any more. Do you need this bulletin board stuff?"
Me: "I could end up teaching it again. People get switched around."

Her: "How old is this Scrabble game?!"
Me: "Well, it belonged to the teacher I replaced (24 years ago!)  and she retired, so who knows! Stuff in my closet could be 50 years old!"

Her: "Perquaky?" (game she's never heard of)
Me: "Yeah, that was the other teacher's too. Is there a date on it?"
Her: "1970."
Me: "See! I wasn't exaggerating! That's 45 years old, so 50 years wasn't that far off. I can't throw it away now...it's like an antique!"

She REALLY enjoyed questioning why I still have all these things....I just can't seem to throw them away...but I suppose, some time in the next few years I will.

Maybe I should go through the closet again, strictly following these 2 rules (it's only 2 rules - shouldn't be hard to follow...):
1) If I haven't used it in 20 years (or maybe 2??), it's safe to say I will NEVER use it and I should throw it out,or give it away.
2) If someone else can use it more than I do, I should give it away.

What do you have lingering in your closet??


Comments

  1. ROTFLMAO I'm dying here because I have been trying to get my master bedroom ducluttered this weekend and it's been quite an adventure. Yesterday I found 29 socks with no math. Now mind you I did have FOURTY-TWO matching pairs. These were just the colored socks, not including white ones. Today I found some other socks and matched up at least 20 more pairs, but I guarantee I have more than 29 that still have no pair. After about 2 hours of sock matching I opened one of my bottom dresser drawers to find MORE SOCKS. In addition to post-its and markers, apparently I hoard socks. I just cannot get over my self. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too funny! I'm not sure which closets scare me more - home or school :-)

      Delete
  2. You sound like me when my mother helps me clean my house. I have gotten better about it in my classroom. We had to pack everything up because of summer construction; I sold a bunch of old books on Amazon for new ones and threw out a ton of stuff from the teachers I replaced at the last two jobs...file folders full of old stuff. Thanks for sharing.
    Kovescence of the Mind

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have been working on getting rid of things...it's a work in progress!

      Delete

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