Week 3 Day 1 classroom reodo

From the door towards my desk, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

I decided to try something new in our school. Rocky had the idea to move the couch by the door, of course his suggestion was for one day when my craft goodies were no longer in the room.

I decided to try it anyway.

Lots of measurements, mental puzzle solving, pushing, pulling, heaving, hoeing, two meals and a snack, and 15 hours of Pandora later here's the result.

I have some piles downstairs "staged" for donation and resale. The throw away pile is already gone. I just have to empty the vacuum.

I like this layout because the kids are no longer facing the wall, I turned their desk 1/4 turn and now they can all look into the classroom :) I hope this won't be too distracting to them.
Also I spread out my three desks a bit more and I'm not as cramped in my sewing/working area.

An added benefit of this reorg that I wasn't counting on is that I found a lot of wasted storage.

I didn't spend anything to buy new storage solutions, but I re-purposed some poorly utilized bins, drawers, totes, etc. and now things fit better. I also followed a major rule of decluttering and organizing a space and consolidated like things and pulled out things we don't use, or no longer work.

I think the room feels more open now . Instead of coming in and having to wade through my sewing area and desk you are come to a relaxing couch/reading area. Then as you progress into the room it has more things. It also widens though so the additional items are balanced out so that's not what hits you when you come in the door.

I now have more motivation to keep my area tidy, there's no way to hide a mess.

I hope that this reorg provides a better working space for us all.

Optimally this would just be our school and the craftiness would be in a dedicated craft room. I think in lieu of that option, this one works well.

If you would like to see photos of our school from other angles, check out my flickr photostream.

My Baby is Clean

We have had a busy summer with over 25 days of traveling through 7 states while camping in JayJay.  At the end of our journeys, the final day of Higher Ground, Zuri got baptized.  She's been asking for a little while to do it, and the time was right!  Praise God, for he is worthy of all praise!