How a LOCKER DUMP can make school easier

For disorganized students, doing a periodic Locker Dump can help make everything easier. Here I tell a few tips about HOW to approach it and WHY it’s so helpful.

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Transcript:  Click here to download the video transcript PDF. 

So you have probably heard of a backpack dump, right? Well, what about a locker dump? So what’s up, my name is Seth Perler. I’m an Executive Function coach, and I help struggling students navigate this thing about education. so they can have an awesome life. And executive function is a quality of life issue, this is something that can really get in the way. And in my site, SethPerler.com, I have a bunch of freebies for you and stuff that helps you.

But a locker dump, let’s get back to this, a locker dump is like a backpack dump. So for any of you high schoolers that might be watching, anybody who has a locker at all, what happens with my students is these are students who you know, their lockers get overwhelming, the backpacks, their folders, they put papers in the wrong folders, put them in no folders, the backpack is jammed with papers in the bottom of the backpack, the locker is full, their desks are messy. It’s just generally very overwhelming. What a locker dump does for you is it really helps you to take stock of what you have, reorganized your stuff. And it’s probably really important if you are not the most organized student. It’s probably important to do a locker dump, probably once a month at least. It’d probably great to do them once a week to just sort of reset.

Here’s what happens when my students do a locker dump. They will find out, they’ll be going through everything in the locker. And the way that I do it in my office, when I’m working with students in the office, is I have the student just put everything into a plastic bag or something, just get everything from the locker, and I mean everything. Gum wrappers, stuff from the bottom, broken pencils, just get it all in a bag and get it to the office. Or if you’re doing it at home, get it onto the living room floor or wherever. You might want to lay out a big old sheet, or something, or a giant table, but a big sheet to put everything on that you can collect all the crumbs and dust and everything and just shake it outside when you’re all done. But the point is, is get everything, every molecule from that locker at home, so that you can then make sense of it. So what you want to do is get all your stuff, lay it out on the floor or the table or whatever, and then start going through every paper.

Here’s a mistake that a lot of my students will make. They’ll pick up like four papers, and they’ll be like, “I don’t need this anymore, Seth,” and I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s look at what those are.” So sometimes you have to be real careful not to grab multiple things, and really look at it and say, you know, “What is this?” “Whoa, these four papers, I actually need this one.” You have to be pretty detailed. A question that I ask students a lot when we’re doing this is they’re like, “I need to keep this,” and I say “Why do you want to keep that?” Now they may have a good answer. Cool, we’ll keep it. But actually, maybe, a lot of times, they’ll go “Oh, actually, I can get rid of that.” So we want to do things fast, and we got to really realize that sometimes going slower is faster. So we really want to be intentional, look at every single thing from locker, reset, overhaul, get it back to where it needs to be, get everything reorganized. You’ll also probably come across things in the locker where you’re like, “Oh, I thought I turn that in. I got a zero on that and it’s right here. Now I can turn it in get credit for it.” Or “Oh, I forgot this project was coming up. I’m glad I saw that. Oh, I forgot I had that charger, I’ve been looking for that forever.” So it can really help in so many detailed ways.

Anyhow, my name is Seth Perler. Give this a like, thumbs up, comment, whatever the heck, subscribe. If you like my work, please do share my work and please subscribe. But I want to hear from you. What is your comment? What ideas do you have for a locker dump? Are there any other kinds of dumps between locker dumps and backpack dumps? Maybe a desk dump, or a drawer dump every once in a while that you find helpful? And then are there any other tips with a locker dump that I may have left out that could help other people? Go ahead and put it in the comments. What are your thoughts right now? I appreciate you I want to wish you joy and peace in your heart and most of all connection with the people in your life today that you care about. Take care.