A Decluttering Post for Teachers

This is not my usual post and I can tell you many that read my blog will have not one bit of interest in it, so feel free to tap out and come back tomorrow for a stitching post.

Basically, the question of the day is... do you just pull the band-aid off when decluttering or do you do it nice and slow? I have done both.

This is the RIP the bandaid portion of decluttering.

I was inspired to write this one after reading over at Field Lilies. She has been on a decluttering mission. This was me six years ago. She did a month long declutter that was fun to follow along.

I have always been a neat and tidy person and my closets are always organized however I am a sentimental ole girl and don't like to get rid of things. It was never more apparent that when I about to retire in 2014.
I had to deal with the 31 years of teacher hoarding before I could ever tackle the house.

That particular school year was one of the most traumatic years of my life; personally there was good and bad going on at the same time and my health gave out as that year was kind of a final straw, but we will just talk about the decluttering of school! I started this blog in the midst of that which goes to show I am an optimistic person. Just thought I would share that!

As the school year was closing I realized it was time to let go of the hoarding. I call it that now because it was a huge load of stuff. I would not have called it that at the time!!!!

Let's backtrack a wee bit to year 28. I was given an opportunity to step out of the classroom to manage a huge science grant for our district. I had a teacher who had already retired but worked volunteering see me toting boxes to the car one day. She asked me why in the world was I doing that. Her advice was to leave or take to the teacher's lounge and let others go through it.

I couldn't do it. You see I had tried one other time to do a job outside of the classroom and hated it and lasted all of 18 weeks before I had promptly taken myself back to the classroom where I am a natural and at home!

So I might need it, but the truth is I was so close to retiring that I knew I would make this work this time!

I brought it all home.
A classroom library filled up the guest bathroom which is like the size of a small bedroom. You could just squeeze in to use the toilet.
The math and language arts items were all around the room with the pool table.
Science and social studies went downstairs to the big room.

There were plastic bins everywhere. Mind you they were organized in those bins and I am sure anyone would have said I had one of the most organized classrooms around. I could find anything quickly.

The problem was 31 years worth of stuff and I had become a self sufficient machine in that world. If funding wouldn't provide me with what I needed I got it on my own.
I could have opened a private school for grades 3-6 easily!!! I even had my own copy machine for which I still have downstairs.

It wasn't long before I felt like I was suffocating and Jeff was asking what my plans were.

I gave up the classroom library first. I called a teacher who was a bit older and had gone back to school to get her degree. I had taught her daughter and I knew she could use it. She was extremely grateful. She took the library and some teaching materials.

Bathroom cleared --- all good.

Not nearly enough to soothe my uneasiness. Over the course of some very stressful months, little by little I would take it into the science labs at each school and send out a notice to teachers to come and browse.

This is the result.
Older teachers had the same problem --- stuff everywhere and the young ones didn't want anything. They were in fact all digital.  They weren't interested in a hard copy book that you would take to the copy machine.

To sum it up,  a lot was left. On the last week of school, after losing my step dad (really a parent since he was with me since age 11) I walked with tears in my eyes and just through most of it in the dumpster.

The truth was I was emotionally spent and my health was failing and I just gave up. I was chunking things. Beautiful bulletin boards that I had drawn and colored with pastels (that is where my creativity went for those years), tons of teaching books that I had spent so much money on. All my work and treasure!
Fortunately no one saw the mess of tears flowing. I am not even sure I can describe the feelings that went with it all into that dumpster.

I read how people feel better after getting rid of stuff. I can't really say I did.

It had to be done was all I can say!

I was retiring and it was causing me angst at my home. I wasn't going to be using it all and it pained me that no one wanted it.

Now, here I am 5+ years later and I am glad it is out of my house. I will say that I miss only one thing I threw away.

So I guess the moral of the story is my life is better without the clutter, but doing it like that wasn't easy.

That is why the house clutter has been approached with a slower methodical method. Each year I tackle every area of my home again. I get rid of a bit more each year. It has been a bit easier on my heartstrings.

HOWEVER, if I am honest it is time to do some bandaid ripping again.

So what got kept.
Here are the final things that were saved with pictures.

One tub of teaching materials. A hodgepodge materials that have great memories attached to them. I have a book autographed with a lady who taught creative writing. I wish I could bring myself to tell the story of her. It is a deeply personal story, but that book should really come out of there and onto a shelf in the sewing room:)

AND One tub of science tools that even though some might be outdated I think grandkids might like to play with one day.

One sleeve of posters that are either vintage space related or the patches that my students designed for our space plays. That was my big deal and niche as a teacher. No picture.

Two shelves of books that I used for teaching or reading aloud.

They are now mixed in with other books.

Now this is the sentimental part. I had a sleeve from every classroom of letters, cards,  pictures, etc the kids gave me each year. 28 of them. I decided to scrapbook the 31 years but allowed myself only so many pages per year. I have two scrapbooks of that and then one that is devoted to the science portion of things.

That my friends is 31 years of teaching in a nutshell that the kids will have to deal with when I am gone.

The only thing I have missed is a set of calendar strips for the months. They followed me through the entire career. I think they would have been fun to put out in my sewing room as a memory.

The scrapbooks are a great show of fashion and aging!

In case you can't find me, I am the far right back row!

This is when I quit coloring my hair. I cut it short and cut the dyed part off. Kind of ripped the band aid off there as well.

2020 may be the year to rip the bandaid off in some closets at home.
Sandy