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I taught in six different classrooms in my first six years of teaching. By the time I settled into room seven, I was tired of moving, but I sure didn’t have any “junk” in my closets! I had cleaned and de-cluttered every spring before packing my boxes and dragging them up or downstairs or across town.
Now I’ve been in that same room for six consecutive years, and I’m moving on to a different grade in a different building next fall. Six years makes for a lot of junk. Fortunately, we adopted a new science curriculum this year, which meant I purged most of the old materials last spring. Now I just need to go through six cupboards and nine storage drawers and two file cabinets and… the rest.
I’m determined to do something, no matter how small, each and every day. Here are the small contributions I’ve made to my June moving day thus far.

• cleaned out my old fifth grade math folders from six years ago
• emptied the folder with sixth grade camp files (my last trip is later this week)
• brought home three vases and a tiny teddy bear sporting a “Think Snow” sign (gift from co-worker hoping for a snow day)
• packed up my fingerless gloves, worn many mornings when the Energy Savings dept. decided not to turn the heat on until the students arrived, and heck with the teachers preparing for the day
• recycled and/or threw away the contents of an outdated science binder (one down, two more to go)