It is JANUARY! Get ORGANIZED!

There are two times during the year that I decide I am going to get my act together. Sometime around the end of July.....right before school starts. And again in January......because you know...new beginnings right?

It is that time of year to clean out closets, make a meal plan, and turn around all that may be going (for lack of a better word) WRONG in your life. In my classroom that means organization. I am a firm believer that an organized teacher is a calm and effective teacher. At least that's what I keep telling myself!

Here are a few things I do EVERY JANUARY in order to be ready for the second half of our school year.

#1 Storage Solutions
I have done it all! File folders, binders, bins, or just stuff it in the closet. After 14 years in the classroom this is my favorite storage solution for 3 easy reasons. 1-it makes me limit what I keep. 2-It stores easily in my closet. 3-I can SEE what I have with one glance!

Under the bed storage bins are the perfect size to keep all of your monthly centers, manipulatives, and special lessons in. If I have bags of those adorable mini erasers from the Target dollar spot I keep the themed ones here. You can click HERE for an affiliate link to Amazon for a set of 6. I have collected mine from over the years, so they are all different sizes which drives me a little crazy!

There is nothing fancy about these! I write the month on a piece of sentence strip and move on! I need to separate the October/November box, it kind of morphed into two boxes somehow but you get the idea. Now to get ready for January all I need to do is get out the January box and all of my Math Stations, Literacy Centers, and manipulatives for fine motor drawers are ready to go.

#2 Clean out the STUFF
Get rid of it! I know that Marie Kondo has brought the minimalist life style into the spotlight lately but I have been living it for years. I hate having "stuff" I don't use cluttering up my home. AT HOME.....in the classroom I am a different story. I hold on to (let's be honest) CRAP because I might need it someday. If you didn't use it this year, you won't use it next year, so get rid of it!

Don't want to be wasteful? If you have really good stuff laying around ask a new teacher if they would be interested in it. If it is something you can donate, donate it! If it is an entire bag of toilet paper rolls to make turkeys with next Thanksgiving THROW IT AWAY! You will not regret it I promise.

#3 Plan out your month
Or better yet.....your next 3 months! You have a little extra time on your hands if you are on break so do your overworked self a favor and spend a couple of hours mapping out and preparing for the next 3 months. I don't mean every tiny detail but the big stuff. I always prep my morning work, daily math review, and centers for each Reading Street unit (6 weeks). Winter break is a great time to get ahead. It will save you stress later in the year.

Now some of you might be saying, WAIT! This is my break time and I am not going to spend a minute thinking about my classroom. That's awesome! You do you! I am just here to say a little extra prep (for me) goes a long way. I always feel refreshed after a break and ready to take on the world for this reason.

Thanks for stopping by today. HERE IS LINK TO A GREAT JANUARY FREEBIE. Enjoy!

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