Pocket Chart Story 

A fun interactive way to teach your little ones about the five senses.

Color
The colors in the home living space where to visually stimulating.  It had to many bright primary colors which made the space chaotic in more ways then one.
 
Arrangement
The space was to tight with furniture.  The children could not move freely with in the space. Which caused conflict. 

Solution
*  Find smaller table for space.  Divide area into to different living        areas. (more like a great room would be)  Kitchen with family            area. 
*  I have missed match furniture throughout my classroom.  Find          another teacher that would be willing to trade so that we could        both have matching furniture.  Good thing is that most of the            teachers I work with like the colored furniture and I like the wood.
*  Find dishes in a softer color.

I was able to find furniture some from another teacher by trading and I found some wonderful finds at the school warehouse surplus. 

After setting it up we took a step back and all in all we liked the overall fill of it.  However we were still not happy with the blue and yellow cabinets behind the chairs and the blue chairs stood out as well.   So...
Have your ever dreamed about something that you are working on and woke up in the morning and knew exactly what you needed to do.  That is what happened, so on my way to work I took a detour to Wal-Mart and found contact paper and some brown fabric.

Now that is more like it!

On to my next classroom re-design project.

This is the year that clutter gets kicked to the curb.  That everything will have its rightful place and I will never have to look for anything again.

Just looking at these pictures stresses me out all over again.

Over the summer months the organization process started in the storage room.  

I have tried to kick clutter to the curb in the past, but I started the processes in the classroom first and never made it to the storage room and clutter always oozed its way back in.  It was like the storage room had a life of its own. 

So this year I took a different approach and started where the mess begins in the storage room.  

By starting in the storage room we would be able to put things away in there rightful place instead of making stacks in the classroom of items that we used frequently. 

I needed to go back to school and take the beginners course on organization and this is what I learned.
    *   Being clutter free means having a strong why statement or               statements.
    *   De-clutter before you start to organize 
    *   Make different piles Trash, Donations, Recycle and Keep.
    *   If you have not used it in two years or more then it is time to             get rid of it. 
   *    If it is broken get rid of it.
   *    Create zones  
   *    Everything needs its place.

It feels so good to be able to walk into the storage room and find what we need.  

Still would like to get storage containers to match throughout, but all in good time.   

Grab your free set of signs and get going on kicking clutter to the curb once and for all.