Too Much Clutter: Is It Hurting Your Homeschool?4 min read

As a homeschooling family, do you really need so much stuff at home?

Do you need an excess of papers, study material, pencils, paints and glue sticks?

What if it’s time for you to declutter your home and your homeschool?

Here are a few reasons for you to reevaluate how much clutter you’re allowing in your home, and how it could be hurting your homeschool:

· Too much clutter leads to overspending!

That’s right. Have you ever ended up buying two sets of the same curriculum because you forgot you already owned one (because you have shelves and drawers overflowing with curriculum and study material)?

Have you ever spent too much on books only to realize you did in fact already have most of them lying in your bookshelves?

It’s a good practice to get ahead and start preparing for next year’s curriculum. Here’s something to think about though: you’re not really prepared if you’re just buying duplicates of stuff that you already have!

Thus, this time instead of heading off to buy new stuff for the new school year, why don’t you take some time to sort out what you already have. Sit down and clear your bookshelves. Go from shelf to shelf, putting aside books and things that you have already tried but realized didn’t work for you or your kids.

Clear out all the duplicates that you already have (before ignorantly buying more duplicates)!

Also, clear out all the stuff that you bought just because you were getting a “good deal” for it, but let’s be honest here, you know you’ve never actually going to use it.

The bottom line of all this is that when you have a clear view of what you already have, you will have a better picture of what you actually need. And you won’t have to feel guilty when you’re back home because you know that you went with a specific purpose and you got what you needed and as a result, you didn’t overspend.

· Too much clutter definitely leads to a loss of precious time!

Again, we have a few questions for you.

How long did it take you to finally find that pencil sharpener?

Or how many minutes have you spent looking for a ‘lost’ exercise book that you were sure was kept on that shelf?

As you pile up more clutter in your home, you will find yourself ‘losing’ lots of things.

When stuff is all over the place, you will end up losing a lot of precious time looking for it.

Hence, try to keep clutter to a minimum. When you get rid of all the unnecessary stuff that’s filling your rooms, you will definitely spend much less time searching for things.

· Too much clutter leads to chaos and confusion!

We’re pretty sure you’re already very well aware of this. When you have too much physical clutter in your home, it inevitably leads to mental clutter as well. You will find your home becoming chaotic.

Your homeschool will also suffer due to too much physical clutter.

You may find yourself (and even your kids) feeling lazy and unmotivated because obviously, no one can study in a messy room.

If you want your home and homeschool to remain a peaceful and calm space, you will definitely need to eliminate excess clutter before someone goes crazy!

· Too much clutter breeds (much) more clutter!

Have you noticed that when everyone is too busy to keep up with things and you allow things to get messy and cluttered, your piles just seem to grow more quickly?

This is simply because the more clutter you allow, the more clutter you will end up having.

Clutter multiples clutter.

As a mom, when you slack off a bit, so will your kids. But when they see you picking up steam and working on decluttering stuff, they will make sure to follow suit.

And it’s easy to stay on top of clutter when you do a little bit every day!

After you finish with homeschool for the day, team up with your kids to keep away all the books, workbooks, notebooks, pencils, paints and highlighters that you used that day.

Set up a cleanup time just before or after dinner where everyone cleans up the excess clutter in their respective rooms – whether it is dirty counters, messy projects, toys, or books.

As you take time to clear the bare minimum on a daily basis, the more you’ll feel like actually keeping things that way.

However, letting piles stack up and allowing the mess to remain for the “next day” will only lead to lesser motivation as the clutter builds up. It’s much easier (and faster) to clean up when there isn’t much clutter, rather than when you have to clean up after a week of slacking off.

Also, remember to constantly pay attention to how much stuff you’re holding onto as well. If you’re holding onto excess and unnecessary stuff, you’re just making room for more clutter.