The start of the new year has me craving a clean and organized house. Over the next few weeks, I’m planning to go room by room to get our spaces back into tip top shape. Today I’d like to share my strategies for organizing our homeschool space.
How to Organize Your Homeschool Space
After the holidays and a busy fall semester our school room was in need for some tidying and reorganizing. Homeschooling is a joy but has a way of taking over our house.
Our Steps to Organization
- Set aside a full day to tidy
- Designate bins or boxes for discards, donations, and items to sell.
- Begin sorting through items by category – I like to begin with curriculum & books and then move on to learning games, art supplies, science equipment, math manipulatives, school supplies, etc.
- Organize items you choose to keep by category using shelves, bins, boxes and totes. We organize our books, resources, and supplies by subject and type so they’re easy to access and keep tidy.
- Arrange by like items and labels for easy access and to set yourself up for a tidy space in the future.
Our Favorite Organizational TOols
Whether you have a dedicated homeschool room or work at the kitchen table, there are a few tools that will help you create an efficient and well-organized space.
Book Shelves
We use simple bookshelves to store curriculum, readers, and resource books. I like to organize the books by subject: math, reading, ELA, history & geography, art, science, etc. Anna also has her own shelf for her Challenge A books and materials. The Hemnes system from Ikea is a favorite among homeschoolers because of it’s functionality and affordability.
Drawer or Bin System
Our family enjoys having bins for each child to store their work in. We use the Trofast system from Ikea. Our boys each have a drawer for their math workbook and flashcards, a drawer for their handwriting materials, and a drawer for their ELA books. We use additional drawers for map drawing, our timeline books, and creative writing materials.
Baskets, Boxes & Bins
We like to keep our collection of hands-on supplements, art supplies, science equipment, math manipulatives, and learning games & puzzles out of the way. We simply don’t use these items daily. We use bins, boxes, baskets, and storage totes to organize our resources. We label our totes and bins and organize the materials by subject. It makes finding resources fast and easy.
Utensil Caddy
Our family loves the Storage Desktop Carousel from Michaels. It has 12 compartments to hold markers, pencils, pens, and scissors. It also has three storage drawers, two sets of metal J hooks, and an elastic band strip for child-size scissors.
Paper Organizer
We love having an organizing tray for various types of art and writing paper, file folders, glue, brads, hole punches, crayons, and other art supplies. Our favorite is this Classic Birch Tabletop Writing Center from Lakeshore Learning.
Magazine Holders
We organize our past school work in these inexpensive magazine holders from Ikea. Our favorites are no longer in stock but these come in many colors and are comparable in price and durability. At the end of each year I create a portfolio for each child with a sample of their work and special projects. These portfolios are housed in the magazine holders which are organized chronologically by child.
Fun Touches
As important as organization is, adding whimsical touches to your space makes learning fun. We are a Montessori family so having orderly and inviting shelves with Montessori activities engages our kids in learning.
Our kids also enjoy this cozy reading corner with fun pillows, wall shelving for their readers, and a fun reading tree we crafted from paper.
In my opinion, organization is only useful if it’s easy to use and maintain. Making storage usable and fun for kids is the secret sauce when it comes to keeping a space tidy. This is our work bin system which makes materials easy to find and store.
I hope you find our tips for how to organize your homeschool space helpful. Having an organized homeschool space will bring peace, order, and efficiency to your homeschool. Happy organizing!
What are your favorite tips for organizing your homeschool space? Please comment below and like our Delightful Homeschooling Facebook page for daily encouragement, resources, and new blog posts.