Decluttering and downsizing materials!

Happy Friday!! Today we had an unexpected two hour delay and it worked out so nicely for my decluttering plans! I finally committed to getting rid of the materials you see to the left. :)

I got in early (well, not too early, I have to admit I did sleep in a bit!) and started sorting through my files.

I mentioned before that I have been working on decluttering for quite some time now. All in all, it will have taken me two years to go through everything completely! That's mostly because I try to do it in small bits when I have time (ha! What's time??).

I've also found that I've needed to go around the room several times in order to really convince myself to get rid of certain items. Pretty bad, huh? Well, at least the third or fourth (or fifth) time around I have finally gotten rid of some old things.

Actually, today's decluttering was really hugely thanks to Jodi, from Clutter-free Classroom. This brilliant girl posted a fabulous freebie: A Plan to Declutter. It is just so perfect! It is a cute little printout that has rules that really make you think about your items and whether you truly need them. I used these rules all day as I sorted and downsized.

So...I tackled the professional materials in my binders today. Don't get me wrong. You know this girl loves her binders. But these are those the jumbo larger-than-they-need-to-be-to-hold-the-contents-inside ones we get from various workshops. And they don't really match (which drives my type-A self crazy). And they take up A TON of space, which is the worst!

I threw out a few that were no longer necessary (well, recycled the papers and gave the binder to a student). But I did have a handful with some great resources. They were just too big and bindery...

So I took my first one (it's a bit old, but has some really nice information). It was all paint splattery and gross...
Took it apart and bound it with the book binder...
And now it looks much nicer! And MUCH smaller! It even fits into my file drawers, where I don't have to see it until I need it...
I got a couple of them done before my students arrived (much to their chagrin, they did indeed miss gym today due to the delayed opening, poor guys!)...
And I have one more visual, to show all the space those book-bound packets save versus the binders! (do you ever worry that one of your coworkers is going to suddenly walk in while you're taking photos of a pile of resources? I do...they must think I'm crazy, taking a picture of old binders on a table! They don't know I blog. It's my super-secret alter-ego!).
Kind of a little thing, but it will make a huge impact on saving space in my classroom.

Are you decluttering along with Jodi? How is it going??

If you're already fabulously organized, perhaps you have a super-secret blogging alter-ego too! Do you?!? I would love to hear if so! :)