As homeschooling families, we are always looking for ways to store our school supplies so that they are accessible, but also out of the way. And for us, because our home is on the smaller side, storage space is somewhat limited! Here, I’m sharing some easy ways to store school supplies that are working really well for our family, and hopefully will help you as well!
The Importance Of Organization
In my opinion, keeping your school supplies organized is crucial when it comes to homeschooling. Good organization helps our school mornings run smoothly, provides easy access to everything we need, and helps keep things neat and tidy!
As homeschoolers, we literally do almost everything in our home, so doing our best to keep things neat and tidy really does have an effect on us. There have been many connections drawn between the importance of organization and your mental health. Here is one study that discusses how having an organized space can help you think more clearly, and have a more positive attitude.
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Create A Learning Space
The idea of having a homeschool learning space can be easily misunderstood. You do NOT have to create a classroom inside of your home with desks, chalkboards, and classroom wall borders! In fact, I recommend you don’t do that!
What I mean by having a learning space, is to simply designate a space in your home that makes the most sense to gather together for your homeschool time. Then, select an area close by where you will create a storage space for your most needed school supplies.
For us, this is our kitchen table and sunroom. Our sunroom is right off of our kitchen, so it’s basically all the same space. The kids do the bulk of their school work at the kitchen table, so we keep the bulk of their school supplies in the sunroom on a bookshelf. A tall bookshelf is a great place to keep binders, curriculum, manipulatives and more!
We use little plastic containers to hold things like math blocks, crayons, dry-erase markers and extra pencils. This allows quick access to those items, but also keeps them neat and tidy. Also, by keeping our most used school supplies right where we do our school work, it means we can easily grab what we need and not feel bombarded by all the extras (which I’ll get to in a minute). It also makes it quick and easy to put each item back in its place when we’re done with it. Having a designated learning space that holds your most used school supplies is one of the best ways to keep things organized and readily available.
Extra Supplies
As homeschoolers, there are lots of things that we use everyday and usually some extra things we use only occasionally. One easy way to store school supplies so that there’s not too much clutter, is by keeping all the extra supplies in different areas than your everyday stuff.
This can include things such as art supplies, glue sticks, and even small items like paper clips and rubber bands. Another example could be curriculum you have already completed or perhaps aren’t planning to use until later in the year.
By choosing a designated spot for all the extras, it keeps your main learning space much less cluttered! For us, we keep most of our extra supplies in a cupboard in our mudroom! It’s not too far from the kitchen which means if we do need something from there, it’s still quickly accessible. However, by organizing our school supplies this way, it prevents confusion, clutter, and even unnecessary messes!
Storage Supplies
Using various different storage items is a great way to store school supplies for your homeschool. These could be plastic bags, storage bins, baskets, plastic containers, file folders, etc. There are so many different ways to do things, depending on your space and style. I’ve even seen some homeschool moms color code their children’s school work by assigning binders of different colors to each child. That’s not how we do things, but that would certainly be an easy way to help younger kids identify what belongs to them!
Here are some examples of how we use different storage items to store our school supplies:
- We use a basket to keep our morning journals and other morning time supplies in, which keeps everything in one spot making it organized and easy to find.
- Another basket holds our devotional books and any other read aloud material we are using.
- We keep our math manipulatives in a plastic storage bin.
- I have extra pencils, erasers, and a few other odds and ends stored in a small plastic container on our homeschool shelf.
- I take our finished curriculum out of its binder and keep the pages in large freezer bags to store it all together.
- I also use a large freezer bag to hold all of the kids markers.
- Extra worksheets are kept in a file folder that I keep with our extra supplies in the mudroom cupboard.
We get most of our storage supplies at our local dollar store which keeps everything very affordable. And the best part about utilizing these sorts of things, is that it keeps your space looking decluttered. Rather than having work sheets and random pencils laying all over the place, everything has a spot and it makes putting things away so much easier!
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A Clever Tip
One of the best tips I can give you for staying organized is to try and make it a habit to assess the school supplies you already have on hand, BEFORE purchasing anything new! You could do this during your summer break before the new school year starts, or even right at the beginning of the year when you’re feeling motivated and energized! Whenever you do it, it’s important that you take inventory of what you have every school season, to avoid the problem of simply having too much stuff!
Go through your things as the teacher, as well as the student supplies your kids need and determine what you already have on hand. Also, decide what you can get rid of! If you bought something last year thinking you or your kids would need it but you’ve never touched it, let it go! The secret to a “well-organized classroom” (I know the kitchen table isn’t a classroom…but you catch my drift!), is to only have what’s needed and nothing more. Sorting through your school supplies may seem like a little thing, but it makes a big difference!
Other School Organization Ideas
Everybody has their own way of doing things that works for their family. I have seen many other easy ways to store school supplies that I think are really good ideas! It’s amazing what you can do with a little creativity, and I think these are also wonderful ideas! Here are a few I’ve seen that are super easy:
- Keep worksheets, art work, or even weekly lesson plans on a bulletin board in your homeschool area.
- Have various different book bins to hold library books, or organize fiction and nonfiction books.
- Storing craft supplies in a rolling cart that can be tucked out of the way and rolled over to the table when needed.
My Best Advice
As a homeschooling mom myself, I realize that even with the best of intentions, our school supplies can still become a bit messy. And while I’m a firm believer in organization and giving everything a place, I don’t believe that everything needs to be perfect ALL the time!
When you choose to homeschool, you are choosing to have your children home with you all day, and with that comes a bit of chaos at times. Throughout the school day, things will get moved around and your kids won’t always put things back exactly where they go. So how do you handle this? By giving your children lots and lots of grace!
The best advice I can give you is to not become obsessed with keeping everything neat and tidy, every single day. Model good habits for your children, have them help tidy up, but please – don’t make an idol out of organization. Your kids are kids, they’re learning how to do things and they won’t always get it right. Your homeschool supplies don’t have to be perfect in order to have a happy and successful homeschool year! Give your kids the grace they need (yourself as well), and focus on your relationship with them.
Having your organizational systems in place is great and helps your homeschool run a bit smoother, but it’s not all about that. It’s ok to let things get a little messy sometimes and just enjoy spending time with your kids. This is the time you have with them and you won’t get it back! So take a deep breath in, embrace these wonderful years and be thankful for them. The most beautiful aspect of your homeschool isn’t your perfectly organized shelf….it’s your children!
Blessings!
~Maryann
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