How do you cope with the MESS?

[Kidlit]

What I'm talking about here is actually just the kid-type mess that I'm sure everyone must deal with, but I'm thinking about how it must be magnified by homeschooling.

 

My eldest dd, who just turned 5, LOVES paper. Give her come paper and a pen or pencil, and she can entertain herself for a while. However, she wants to keep every. piece. of. paper. Every one. Sometimes it borders on the ridiculous. I have laughed and laughed about how much she loved the little mini books we put inside a lapbook we made last week. She wants me to make more minibooks for her, and when I asked her where she'd put them, of course she said she would HAVE to keep them with her (i.e. in her purse).

 

I'm hoping to set up a dedicated art center for the girls, with drawers for them to put their treasures in. Does anybody else have any btdt experience, or anything general about taming (or coping with) the mess that homeschooling must create?

[JudoMom]

What I'm talking about here is actually just the kid-type mess that I'm sure everyone must deal with, but I'm thinking about how it must be magnified by homeschooling.

 

My eldest dd, who just turned 5, LOVES paper. Give her come paper and a pen or pencil, and she can entertain herself for a while. However, she wants to keep every. piece. of. paper. Every one. Sometimes it borders on the ridiculous. I have laughed and laughed about how much she loved the little mini books we put inside a lapbook we made last week. She wants me to make more minibooks for her, and when I asked her where she'd put them, of course she said she would HAVE to keep them with her (i.e. in her purse).

 

I'm hoping to set up a dedicated art center for the girls, with drawers for them to put their treasures in. Does anybody else have any btdt experience, or anything general about taming (or coping with) the mess that homeschooling must create?

 

 

Make a place for everything. Our playroom has clear plastic bins on shelves and they are labeled (Imaginext, Legos, Cars, Little People, Pirates, Bakugan, etc).

 

Each of my boys has a plastic bin with a lid for their treasures. They can keep whatever they want as long as the lid goes on the bin. When the lid doesn't fit, it is time to get rid of some things.

 

I've also been known to clean when they aren't watching. Some stuff I just throw away/donate if I'm sure they won't miss it, but other things I'll place in plastic bags for a week or 2 or 3 and hide them in my closet. If these "treasures" aren't asked about, I get rid of them.

 

I'm homeschooling 5, and my home is pretty consistently picked up and the above is what I do. The older 2 pretty much put things away when they're done with them, the middle one is pretty good, and the younger 2 are learning.

[Stacie]

My boys are very prolific artists and I let them keep everything they want to...until they are not looking. :D

 

Each has a basket where they put their most treasured scribblings. When it is about 3/4 full I remove about an inch of work from the bottom, go through it for things *I* want to keep, and toss the rest. Otherwise, we'd be unable to see each other in the house due to the stacks of paper reaching ceiling height in all rooms. Did I mention they are prolific with their drawings? ;)

[Happy]

For Little Miss Paper...(she sounds perfectly adorable!) file or put everything in one box for the rest of this year. (Calendar or school, your choice.) Sometime next summer, go through it together with the stated idea that you will keep only the finest, bestest, most interesting pieces...limit 2. Toss the rest. Do this each year.

 

Time gives perspective, so its not as hard as it may seem.

 

You can always photograph her with some of her favorites, too. Digital photos don't take up much room.

[secular_mom]

To keep the abundant paper mess under control, I got my oldest (when she was younger) a plastic storage bin (a decent size for her, considering her output of paper 'treasure'). I told her that she could keep whatever fit in the bin, and that it was her responsibility to make sure her treasured items made it into the bin. If I found a mess of paper on the table, in the floor, etc. I would remind her ONCE that she needed to put the 'treasures' away. If I saw them again later, I would throw them all away.

The rule was: when the bin was too full for her to add anything new, she had to go through it and get rid of some of the older items to make room for new ones. Her writing/drawing/painting style/subject changed pretty frequently, so by the time the bin was stuffed to overflowing, she usually got rid of all of the older items. I did invest in some nice cloth-bound sketch books for her to draw special pictures in. I still have them... somewhere. So we have a keepsake of her early art/stories, but we are not overrun with boxes and boxes of paper stuffs. HTH

[Kidlit]

Thanks for you help and suggestions, everyone. We have baskets, but I suppose the problem is that she wants to stuff every purse she owns (quite a few) with paper, and it eventually makes it onto the floor, etc.

 

Another part of my problem is that I'm overwhelmed and overrun with books right now. That's another thread entirely, though. . . .:D

[jenL]

 

Each of my boys has a plastic bin with a lid for their treasures. They can keep whatever they want as long as the lid goes on the bin. When the lid doesn't fit, it is time to get rid of some things.

 

I love this idea!

 

Thanks to the op! I've been dealing with the same thing, and I'm overrun by books right now too!

[Cricket]

Make a place for everything.

 

It's amazing how simple this is and yet it has taken me 37 years to learn this. :lol: A couple of weeks ago I cleared out the kids' rooms. We went through everything. I took 3 loads out to the dumpster and a van load of stuff to Goodwill. For what was left I made sure it had a place. My girls are 5 and 3 and their room has been spotless since we did that. Since they know where everything goes, it isn't a struggle to get them to put it away. The kids are playing with toys they haven't seen in months because the toys have been buried under junk. And when they are finished, it gets put away. It's amazing how that works!!!