Welcome back Brenda! It's good to hear that your family survive these past few months! How long have you been homeschooling? I'm here to tell you that putting my children in school (parochial) has been the best way for me to begin to manage our mountain of possessions. It was like Flylady said, that we were living in a landfill. It's very hard to keep homeschool gear organized. The only friends I have who keep it together, have a classroom in their homes with lots of closet and cabinet space, plus shelving, etc. If I were ever to homeschool again, I'd convert a bedroom or living area to a real classroom in order to maintain a certain degree of sanity. It was really these organizational challenges that pushed me to consider other paths for educating my seven children, but I'm straying way off-topic. In any case, I'm so glad you're back!

Brenda,

I'm glad that you bounced back in. I don't post too much but did see your post and wanted to say welcome back. I'm glad that everything worked out financially with the house and good luck with the new venture.

Cathy

LOL I love the Nixon is still President comment - you really had me goin' until I hit all that part! LOL

Sounds like you are one busy woman!

Hey, we've missed you--I sure have.

I'm glad you're past that hectic summer.

I don't know how in the world I'd homeschool kids. Mostly, I think I'd just knock their heads against the wall. But the space for the stuff would be hard.

You've had times your home was organized, I know you have. So you know how to get there--just slog through, a little bit at a time, ALWAYS making sure SOME of that slogging is "stuff going OUTOUTOUTOUT!"

You can do it--one area at a time (and less stuff, of course)

Thanks guys! We put the kids to work yesterday and they made some good headway while we were busy doing errands. I love the fact that they are now old enough to be somewhat useful!

We do need to find a specific "spot" for everything. Right now each kid has their own desk in their bedrooms, so they each work there. When we are "doling out" the assignments are doing group things it's on the dining room table or kitchen bar. Both look disasterous. Books are right now kept in a big ol' stack in DH & my bedroom. Not exactly the best use of space. We will get there though. It seems at night when I sit and think in bed the bright ideas come! Maybe I can figure it out then! Right now though my brain is full of antique show thoughts!

Brenda

Ah!...now this I can speak to! We have 5 homeschooled kids and are in the middle of a whole house remodel! In the past we have had a *school* room but since it was not near the kitchen ( where I end up so often) the kids ended up dragging their stuff to the kitchen so I am given up.. well not given up I have modified with thoughts from - - - Morgenstern ( can't remember her name).. store it where you use it! So since the dining room is the only bastion of sanity in our house that is where we school.. but it's also where we eat so I want it nice at night. The soluntion was to empty out and store the hutch and buffet.. the stuff in there I only use a few times per year so it was much better to use as storage for schooling stuff. At noon each day when we are done we put all the stuff away and it is again a place to eat.. this really helps!

The new kitchen is going to have LOTS of built in schooling space and storage.. I look forward to it getting done!

Maddiemom

Maddiemom,
I am thinking of doing something similar. I can't bring myself to empty my china cabinet, but I have room in the corner to put a narrow cabinet. I do have one with no doors that would fit, but then all the mess still shows, so I am going to start looking for something like a pie safe, as that is about the size I need. Mostly though, I just need to get organized! LOL~

Brenda