Organized-The Oxymoron

I love to be organized-truly I do - but it can be a struggle. To get organized, sometimes I have to create a mess while I figure out things best fit together.  I lay things out into what seem like logical categories, put them into some type of binder/holder/container, and label them so I can find what I need. Or so this is what I do in theory.

This year I have been a little overwhelmed with organizing. For the last seven years, I have taught two curriculums each day. For most of of those seven years, it has been half-day kindergarten in the morning and Kindergarten Extended Day (an at-risk literacy program) in the afternoon.  These programs, though similar sounding, had two separate curriculums...which required two separate lesson plans...which required two separate sets of files.

This year we are moving to full-day kindergarten (yeah!) and Kindergarten Extended Day (KED) will no longer exist. So now, the HUGE task in front of me is to take all my files and somehow blend them.  I have to figure out what in KED can be utilized in full-day kindergarten, what can be tossed, and what may just need to be stored. I have frequently felt like I am drowning in papers. This is what this looks like:

Crazy and overwhelming isn't it? And these are just my August and September files. Ahhhh!

Little by little I have been piling and pitching. Thank goodness my husband is understanding since I keep taking over our living room.  I get happy when my piles get to this stage:

This is when I bust out my three hole punch so that I can load up a three ring binder.

Then, if I am really lucky, it all comes together and looks like this when I am done:

Not very cutified or pretty I know, but I have had to switch binders around and change things frequently mid-organization, so I am waiting until I'm all done to add cute labels to the sides. 

I'll keep you posted about my organization chaos as the year goes on.  I am determined to tackle my many, many files!