Lurking in every room, corner, and table are piles of all shapes and sizes of homeschool stuff! Books, curriculum, supplies, learning aides, and all of that! Left unchecked, these piles can multiply and take over more of your home that you wish. Here are some ways to tame the mess.

If you have a dedicated homeschool room, this process is relatively easy. By pushing the books, papers, and miscellaneous “stuff” into this room and shutting the door will stop the stuff encroachment at least for a little while.

If you don’t have such dedicated space, You’ll need to work a little more diligently and train your offspring to also work a little more diligently to keep your schooling and living spaces tidy. In our homeschool, the primary homeschooling area is the dining room. The issue was that it is also used as a “normal” dining room. This is an area we frequently have to give extra attention to keep organized.

By organized, this isn’t “Pinterest perfect” organized with the latest shelving. I’m talking about keeping only what you really need. Did you know in reality, you need less “stuff” rather than more shelving or crates or decorative boxes to put “stuff” in? Ask yourself, do you really need 20 packs of filler paper? Enough crayons to choke a horse? A laminator that you bought two years ago that’s still in the box? If the answer is “no”, sell it or donate it! Don’t let stuff get out of hand and cause you additional stress. I had to follow my own advice recently with all supplies. After keeping only what I really needed, it was so refreshing and freeing to bless other families with what I didn’t need, or just toss the excess!

Are you a curriculum hoarder? Do you have a curriculum one child has completed with a gap until the next child is old enough to use it? Unless your next child is going to use it within a year or two, sell it, or find another mom who can use it this year with the promise of returning it to you. This way, you bless another family and have less “stuff” hanging around collecting dust.

As in life, less in your homeschool is more! While those dreamy Pinterest pictures of hanging pens separated by colors and fancy containers look nice, it’s just one more thing to deal with and keep clean. Keep it simple and turn your extra energies to your children!

Check out more homeschooling resources at Rainbow Resource Center!