Spring Clean Your Homeschool
Spring is all about fresh starts and new beginnings which means it’s a perfect time to spring clean your homeschool.
As soon as the warmer weather hits, I open the windows and start cleaning my house. Okay, correction: I want a clean house but I don’t actually like cleaning.
Do you feel the same? Do you find the idea of spring cleaning overwhelming? Spring cleaning your homeschool can seem like a massive task!
One thing I’ve learned about myself over the last 14 years of working and homeschooling is that in order to tackle big projects, I need a plan!
And a few cleaning tips for busy moms in my back pocket help!
I created cleaning checklists that help me stay on track with our house cleaning.
While you might have a great cleaning schedule in place, sometimes our homeschool areas really need some extra love.
In this article, I’ll share with you the benefits of spring cleaning your homeschool and a few ways to make it more manageable.
Reasons To Spring Clean Your Homeschool
Springtime can be one of the hardest times to stick to your homeschool schedule.
Between homeschool burnout and the spring slump, most kids (and moms!) are just done! Taking a break from the books to spring clean your homeschool can help.
Spring is the perfect time to declutter, refresh and re-organize your homeschool.
You may have started the homeschool year off organized but after the holidays, your bookshelves and bins might be a hot mess. Clutter can add to mental stress.
By taking a break to spring clean your homeschool, you’ll find both you and your children will feel refreshed and better able to focus when you return to the books.
How To Spring Clean Your Homeschool
The goal of spring cleaning your homeschool is to get organized and ready to tackle the end of the homeschool year. Even if you homeschool year-round, doing a spring refresh of your homeschool area might be needed.
When the kids were younger, I did the cleaning, organizing, and tossing on my own. But once the kids were a little older, I invited them to join me.
Once your kids are old enough to help, I encourage you to get them involved in the process. It’s a great way to connect with your kids and help them understand what’s involved in looking after the home.
Here are a few tips to help you spring clean your homeschool when you work and homeschool.
Create A Spring Cleaning Plan
When you work and homeschool, choosing a time and date to accomplish tasks will make sure you get the task done.
Take some time to look at your schedule, pull out your homeschool planner, and pick a date to spring clean your homeschool. Write it in and set a reminder the day before.
We don’t have a dedicated homeschool room but I still spring clean the areas we use to homeschool.
For us, it would be the table area, bookshelves, a 4-drawer dresser, the children’s desks in their rooms, and bins. And of course, the bags we use for our quiet boxes for kids.
The Day Before
The day before you spring clean your homeschool gather your cleaning supplies. Don’t forget your trash bags and storage boxes.
You’ll be tossing some items and keeping others. Don’t forget to mentally prepare yourself and the kids to let go of paper and resources.
One tip I have found that worked for my family is to let the kids decide what they want to keep, what can be gifted or donated, and what can be trashed.
We live in a small house, we use 1 binder per year and one small shoebox size box per year. Setting the expectations beforehand can avoid meltdowns during the decluttering and cleaning process.
Remind the kids that tomorrow you are going to spring clean your homeschool and write your spring cleaning task list. You can find some useful pages inside the cleaning planner for busy moms.
I’ve discovered that we often get hungry during our monthly cleaning day, so you may want to prepare sandwiches or snacks that you and your helpers can grab easily.
For added fun, I assign one of the kids to make a music playlist. They usually end up doing it together.
Try to make spring cleaning your homeschool fun and enjoyable especially if it is one of your spring break activities.
Steps To Spring Clean Your Homeschool
The idea and process to spring cleaning your homeschool area may be new to you. No worries, here are a few steps to simplify the project.
1. Focus On One Area At A Time
Homeschooling is a part of life and as such isn’t often contained in a homeschool room, if you have one.
Don’t tackle all the areas you use for homeschooling at once. Pick one area and focus on that. I recommend starting with the most cluttered, chaotic section while you have more energy.
Remove all the items, and sort them into these piles:
- Keep and use
- Keep and store
- Donate or gift
- Trash
Use your bags and bins to sort the piles. While the items are out of the bookshelf or bin, take this time to clean and dust.
Completely clean that section of your homeschool area before moving on to the next.
2. Organize Paper Work
Just a few weeks ago, my son was cleaning his closet out and found a massive pile of paperwork. As homeschool moms, we tend to hang on to every single page, book, and resource for “some day.”
And before you know it you run out of storage room. Of course, you want to keep all your records and paperwork needed for your homeschool requirements.
But what about the rest? Instead of keeping everything try asking yourself these questions:
- Have I used it in the last 2 years?
- Will my younger children use it?
- Does this item contribute to our homeschool purpose right now?
- Can I easily replace this item?
Using these questions to sort, organize and declutter your paperwork.
If you are saving resources for your younger kids, I recommend using clear totes and labeling them to take the guesswork out later.
We live in a small house, so we used those clear under-the-bed storage containers for storing homeschool resources we might use in the future.
Disclosure: I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Sterilite 56 Qt./53 L Wheeled Latching Box Clears, Quart, White, 4 Piece
IRIS USA 50 Qt Plastic Under Bed Storage Bin with Lids and Durable Buckles, Multi-Purpose Container Box for Clothes, Shoes, and Duvets, Clear/Black
These boxes aren’t fancy but they work plus you can use them for other things such as toys or clothes when you are done using them for homeschool paperwork.
3. Organize Curriculum & Books
When you spring clean your homeschool, don’t forget about the bookshelves and your homeschool curriculum.
I’ll be honest, this is the hardest section of our homeschool to declutter. I have no problems taking books off the bookshelf, cleaning the shelf, and putting all the books back. And for years that is exactly what I did until I ran out of bookshelves.
At that point, I had to decide which picture books and easy readers my teens were actually going to want to keep or donate or pass on to friends with small kids.
The same goes for the homeschool curriculum. Some curriculum had wonderful memories and some came with the guilt of spending money and realizing it didn’t work.
Instead of viewing the curriculum you didn’t use as a waste of money, give yourself permission to let it go. Kids change and part of homeschooling is using the tools that work for your kids.
There are loads of groups on Facebook where you can sell used curriculum and books. Or maybe you know someone who can use it.
4. Inspect Art & Craft Supplies
When you spring clean your homeschool the art and craft supplies can be tricky.
I have an artist which means I delegate the task of inspecting her art and craft supplies. I ask her to check over her items and take note of pens that are out of ink, crayons that are broken, and sketch pads that are running low.
Get your kids involved in the process especially if the subject or items are close to their heart.
Another thing about art supplies is that it is worth it to invest in quality items because they last longer and don’t break as easily.
Throw out broken unusable items and write a list of supplies that need to be replaced.
5. Learning Items
What about educational board games? Card games? Movies? Manipulatives? All the learning extras we use in our homeschool need to be organized and decluttered.
As you spring clean your homeschool, make sure to toss ripped and destroyed packaging but not the rules of games.
When deciding what to keep, toss or donate ask yourself:
- When is the last time you used this?
- Do you love it?
- Will you use it in the future?
These extras make homeschooling fun but can take up a lot of space. If you aren’t using the items don’t be afraid to pass it on to a family that would love to use it!
6. Deal With Digital Clutter
Digital files are often ignored when you spring clean your homeschool but should not be ignored.
Homeschool moms love free printables! But if you waste time trying to find them when you need them.
Take some time to go through your printables and create a digital file folder system that makes sense for you.
For example, I created a folder called “Homeschool”. Then I created folders inside of that folder with different subjects or types of resources such as:
- History
- Cooking
- Free homeschool planning pages
- Notebooking pages
- Coloring pages
I would recommend trying to add this process to a monthly or bi-weekly cleaning routine because doing it a few times a year can be overwhelming.
But defiantly don’t skip this part when you spring clean your homeschool, your future self will thank you for organizing your files especially if you use a lot of printables in your homeschool.
Spring Clean Your Homeschool
Homeschooling is a part of life which means cleaning and tidying will be an ongoing process.
If you didn’t get to every single area of your homeschool during your spring clean, don’t stress. Every little bit helps.
Look around and enjoy the hard work that you and your family did. Celebrate working together and reward your hard work. We like pizza and a movie night!
With kids comes stuff. When you homeschool, you get supplies, crafts, paper, projects.. the list and the mess never ends. Mess is part of life and that’s okay. Taking time to spring clean your homeschool will help you keep things under control.
Cleaning Help For Working Homeschool Moms
When you work and homeschool, keeping up with the housework can be a challenge. These resources will help:
- Daily Cleaning Schedule For Working Moms
- Weekly Cleaning Schedule For Working Moms
- How To Clean A Messy House
- How To Clean Your Home Fast
The idea of spring cleaning can be overwhelming. Use the tips and steps above to simplify the process and make it easier to spring clean your homeschool.
If you create a spring homeschool schedule, spring cleaning your homeschool first is smart!
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Hi, I’m Jen. I help working moms juggle their career and homeschool their kids by providing support, systems and tools. You are warmly invited to Join the Online Community Here!