I head straight for the schoolbags. They’ve been eyeing me since school ended

It’s summer. And after the end-of-school rush and the start of camp, it’s quiet.

Now it’s just me and the mess to clean, and for a good few hours, there’s no one to undo whatever I’ve accomplished.

I head straight for the schoolbags. They’ve been eyeing me since school ended, taking up space on the hooks that now need to hold the camp bags.

During the last week of school, my kids brought home a full schoolbag every day, and our homework that night was to empty it and bring it back so they could again fill it with the past year’s treasures. We had great fun going through the work they brought home. I taught them about decluttering, about even throwing things out that were special to them, but could still move on to a better place (their prize drawer wasn’t the place for their ring of 850 sight words). We discussed keeping the things that really made them happy, finding a place for them that wasn’t the dining room table.