If you’re at home right now, go into your homeschooling space and take a gander around. If your room is anything like mine, you probably have more items made up of one material than all others: paper.
I had no idea how much paper I had accumulated over the past seven years of homeschooling until I started trying to simply our homeschool. And, oh boy, is there paper everywhere.
Worksheets, construction paper, writing paper, contact paper, butcher paper, drawing paper, graphing paper, planning paper – just paper as far as the eye can see.
This will probably seem unreal, but it’s absolutely true. I actually have planning pages that I printed FIVE YEARS AGO and have yet to use. I have no idea how much money I’ve spent in printer ink over the years, but I can guarantee it’s been a lot.
In this entry in the Minimalist Homeschooling series, we’re talking about how to deal with paper overload and free yourself of the paper trail!
Minimalist Homeschooling: Dealing with Paper Overload
First – I just want to clarify: I am not talking about getting rid of paper entirely. In our state, we have to keep certain records each school year and there are a few activities the kids completed that I’m saving for sentimental reasons. But a lot of this paper is just taking up space in my life.
So we probably (read: definitely) have too much paper on our hands. What do we do about it? We get real.
In yesterday’s post, I shared the tip that has been helping me declutter the most. Ask yourself: “Does this spark joy?” If it doesn’t, get rid of it.
With papers, we might tweak that approach to ask: “Do I really want to use this?” If you don’t really want to use it, put it in the “Get Rid of This” pile.
Personally, my pile consists mostly of extra drawing paper, old worksheets I printed but never used, old lesson planning pages that no longer fit our homeschooling approach, teachers’ guides I really thought I needed but will never, ever have the time to implement, and so on.
And guess what? If you’re feeling guilty about tossing all this paper, just take it to your local recycling center. They’ll be happy to take it off your hands!
Going forward, I’ll be printing worksheets, planners, and other pages on a strict need-to-use basis. If I don’t need it that week, I’m not printing it. Period.
Need some non-paper related homeschool planning ideas? Check out Homeschool Planning board on Pinterest!
This post is part of the How to Homeschool as a Minimalist series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 4: Digital Decluttering!
I too am guilty of holding on to papers that I printed YEARS ago for my son. Now I keep thinking, well my daughter is the right age for it now…..
Same here. I printed and I printed and I printed to get ready for this past school year. We didn’t use half of those printables. Sigh.
I remember those days, Selena! I printed stuff I thought I’d use later, and guess what? It ended up in the recycle bin.
I think that if I print and organize everything ahead of time that I will definitely be using it. But you’re right that it’s not always the case so maybe I too, need to only print on the week I will be using it! I’ll give it a try! Thanks. -Carlen
Plus, printer ink is expensive! It’s almost like filling up my tank with gas and then driving all over the state just to make sure I know where everything is in it. I’m probably never going to need to go to all those places! Why am I wasting time and money driving to them just in case? That’s how it is with printing homeschool stuff.
You know what they say about the best laid plans… I do the same thing. Print things and then forget about them! I’m getting better about it, but suffice it to say, I need to do some purging! Great reminder!
I have to say: I’m so glad to see that I’m not the only who does this stuff. Huge relief.