Show Us Those Piles... Linking Up to Share the Truth!

Today I am linking up with Christina Bainbridge for a linky party to confess the obvious: Teachers tend to create piles of belongings wherever they are!

I have to admit I'm a little starstruck. Christina was one of the first bloggers I ever followed (when she had bunting in her classroom, but not in her blog title!). Even though she teaches younger kids than I do, she has wonderful ideas for classroom organization and design and I always get great ideas when I visit her blog.

Everything Christina does is cute! Look at that button. So CUTE!

So here we go...

I have always been a... "collector" of all things school-related. I have hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of books and I cannot resist an office supply store. (I even visit them on vacation!) I always have ideas in my head for projects which seem to get started (and rarely finished) usually on my dining room table. I love creating and planning on my own time, at home, so let's just say I need to have a lot of things at home to get things done. How's that for an excuse?

This linky party invites us to show off the piles of "school stuff" that have accumulated during the summer. For me, this means that the piles have spread to other rooms!

Here is a pile ready to go to the garage. The blue box is full of things to shred, the pink box holds the leftover beads from a craft project, the spirals were a donation and the binding machine just looks dangerous! (But having one of my own means that I can finish a project at midnight in my PJs!)

There are always boxes of books at my house. Increasingly, these books have Common Core in the title... Currently these are in front of the door to the patio!

At the moment, there is a pile of items sitting next to the dining room table. I have to sort through the boxes of math manipulatives. It's amazing the things I find in there: erasers, old assignments, an occasional love note... It's always an adventure! I'm not sure what is in the other box... aside from the laminator and the stuffed pig (She's our mascot for a math game... and is currently in need of some sort of cleaning!)

Sometimes I try to "sneak" piles into corners. As if anyone sitting in (or near!) the rocking chair isn't going to see the pile of boxes from my literacy centers. These need to be readied for back-to-school. I'm just not mentally ready to tackle that challenge yet!

Doesn't everyone have nine plastic milk crates taking up half of the space in their guest room? These house the math tools and other center materials in my classroom. I'm going to try to sneak them into school tomorrow. (Sshhhh. Don't tell.)

An hour before this photo, they were found here...

Yep! That's the bathtub! My room has the playground on one side and a dirt field on the other side. Needless to say, everything needs to be dusted, vacuumed and or washed... often!

So that's how things look in my house. Halfway through summer I am always dying to take a few car loads to school just to free up some space. However, once I arrive in my classroom, I often find something else to bring back home!

So, what about you? Are things piling up in your house? Do you have a laminator, a binding machine or a paper cutter somewhere other than your classroom? Have you hit the back-to-school sales and started piling up plastic bags in a corner?

THAT'S OKAY! You are not alone! And no one is going to call the Hoarders Hotline or stage an intervention. (That's another great thing about the blogging community: We don't judge--We share!)

Come on! Join up! Click HERE or on that sweet button above and head over to Christina's blog. Then grab your phone or a camera and share some photos. You'll be in good company--and you might make a new friend while you're there.

Sending you wishes for happy sorting, creating and organizing...