Stuff in the way

Once my co-worker shared that a program was struggling. The children weren’t engaged or listening.

She mentioned their classroom was a disaster. As a minimalist and fan of Marie Kondo, I was excited to help.

When I greeted them outside the educators felt overwhelmed. I understood why because stuff was everywhere.

Imagine 56 shoes, 28 lunchboxes, 28 backpacks, 28 towels, 28 sunscreens, 28 water bottles, 28 hats and lots of clothes & toys spread across a soccer field.

To transition, the educators did their best to corral the children to the park area. One educator stayed back to sweep up all the things on the floor and threw them into wagons.

After she dumped everything on the floor to figure out which items belonged to who. As you can imagine this took up a lot of their time, energy, and effort.

Educators couldn’t engage in play because they were busy cleaning up and chasing kids to get dressed.  

While they were outdoors, I went to the classroom to tidy up. And my jaw dropped. It was chaos. I didn’t know where to start. Picture three daycare’s worth of stuff in one tiny classroom.

I had 2 hours to de-clutter, so I kicked off my sandals and got to work.

Long story short, as the sweat was dripping off my eyebrows, the room could breathe again.

·      The unused tables and off limit classroom items were pushed to one side.

·      All the mismatch, surplus, broken, extra materials and toys were tucked away.

·      The “centers” were clearly defined, spaced out and organised.

·      The children’s toys of interest were placed on tables.

·      The educators materials were together and on a higher shelf.

·      The dust and dirt were gone. 

As they walked in, everyone chose an area to play.  

The children were engaged, happy and calm. The educators were having fun with the children.

This all happened because we got stuff out of the way.

Our physical space greatly impacts our day. It’s hard for most of us to concentrate, learn, engage or be present when our environment is chaotic.

Re-organizing, de-cluttering and improving our shared environment is an ongoing practice.

When when regularly ask ourselves:

·      What’s this item for?

·      What’s their interests?

·      Where can I enhance their play?

·      What can I remove?

·      How can I make things better?

We not only enhance children’s experiences but ours as well.

With all my love,

Alex