Homeschool Storage Solutions
One thing homeschoolers are never in short supply of is stuff. Aside from the normal everyday pile-ups of life, we have the extra troubles of "evidence of schooling" spilling onto every surface in the house. Over the years, I've found some great solutions for taming the chaos. Here are my must haves:
1. Open Shelving:
In my opinion, you can not have too many bookshelves!! There were the days when Grace was little that she emptied the bookshelves almost every day. If you're in that stage and you think I'm crazy, know that little ones will grow out of shelf dumping. Grace is now my greatest little librarian. I organize my shelves by subject - science books on one shelf, and history books on another. This makes finding books easier, but it also makes it easier for my kids to put them away!
2. Closed Storage
As wonderful as open shelving can be, sometimes there are things you just don't want to see all the time. I love my bookshelf with doors. I covered the doors with my USA map so that I could utilize the surface. Here's what it looks like on the inside:
I don't want to look at this every day! I also don't want everyone who walks through my schoolroom to have access to the fun behind these doors. We have to clean this cabinet out regularly, however, due to the "sweep it under the rug" tendency of this location.
3. Baskets
Oh baskets. I love baskets. They take many forms in my school room. Sometimes there are materials that get lost on shelves, but you still want to have them accessible. Baskets are also a great way to house all kinds of treasures...like school supplies you stocked up on when things were on sale.
4. Magazine Files
I have so many of these handy little magazine files. I love having little bins of storage for all of those thin books that get lost in a bookshelf. Sometimes when I spiral books, they slouch on the shelf, so having some of these bins keeps everything from falling off.
5. Hooks
Some of our prized treasures get lost in the hustle and bustle if they do not have a sacred location in the school room. These hooks are not permanent, but they are strong! I also have lots of flash cards on rings that I don't want to loose. Hang one of those key ring holders to hold all of your cards in a safe and easy to reach place!
6. Pen Holders
We use cups to keep all of those writing utensils under control. Every once and a while we have a "great pen sort" to check for which ones work and which ones are duds. There is nothing worse than being ready to work without a writing utensil in sight.
7. Paper Solutions
My girls love to have colored paper for all of their creative inspirations. I was tired of it spreading all over the place, so I found this paper organizer at the Container Store. The girls love to keep it tidy because it means that they'll have access to multitudes of fun all year long.
What are some ways you've found helpful in keeping your home school materials under control?
UPDATE: Someone asked to see a full picture of our schoolroom, but since I wrote this post, the school room looks a bit different. I'm one of those kinds of people that likes to shift things around every now and then. Over Christmas, I rearranged so that I could reclaim our school room. We still use all of these great storage solutions, but the biggest change was that I moved the closed storage cabinet out to the garage, which made more room for us to live and breathe in the school room. That's always a good thing! Here's what it looks like now....big picture:
Betsy Strauss is an unexpected homeschooler, mother of three, who is in a relationship with a sweet man for life. She loves reading books, drinking coffee, and learning anything with her kids.
I like the hooks for flashcards and headphones. Great idea!
They are fun! I got so tired of losing both the flashcards and the headphones! We don’t lose them as often anymore.
Love the headphones idea! We always have trouble keeping track of them. I also like to keep our time organized, so I created a homeschool schedule and chore chart system to help keep everything straight. It’s available at LoveMySchedule.com if you want to check it out 🙂
For all of the smaller items like erasers, pencils, pens, highlighters, staples, glue, on and on and on, I have hung an over the door shoe organizer with 24 pockets. Holds all of the smaller things nicely so I no longer have to dig through totes 🙂
That is an awesome idea! I love the idea of those little things not getting lost. There’s nothing like wasting your precious schooling time digging for supplies!
Great idea
Could you show a larger picture? Like panoramic view, to see how it looks besides the closeups? Thanks! You have some very helpful, practical ideas!
Thanks Pamela! My school room looks a bit different from when this post was written, but I went ahead and added some panoramic pictures at the end so you can see the big picture! Hope that helps 🙂
Did you bind your timeline cards?
I did! I’m not a foundations tutor, and I wanted them to be easy to sit down and read like a book. I had some of the mini binders for the Veritas timeline cards that we used to use, and the binders were cool, but SO heavy. I’ve really enjoyed having them all together 🙂
How many cards did you bind together? This is a great idea!
I did three weeks worth of cards at a time, and then the presidents separately at the end.
I love the idea of using the map on the doors…great idea x
Where did you get your closed shelf organizer at?!
IKEA…it has glass windows, and I covered it with a map!
love this post. thank you so much for sharing.
I, too, am one to rearrange furniture and room layouts. (I find that this can be good and bad because I like to do it too frequently.)
you’ve given me tons of ideas for organizing and storing needed supplies (while also making it accessible) for my children’s learning at home.
I just wish I had another room to designate for school/supplies only. However, since my children range in age (4 and 11) this would work in their own rooms.
thank you
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