Organizing the Homeschool STUFF

I have been on a bit of an organizing frenzy lately (thank you 2nd trimester nesting energy). The last couple days I have turned my focus to an area that has been frustrating me for a LOOOOOOONG time. My homeschool stuff.

Our homeschool style is a little different then some. We are very eclectic. We have a curriculum, but I most just use that as a guide to keep me on some sort of track. Then I use that to help me determine our unit lessons and the activities on our shelves. I pull a lot from the Montessori method of learning as well and try to make it all mesh together. This style of learning/teaching seems to require a lot of 'stuff.' Or maybe its just me and my slight addiction to buying learning tools, games, and manipulatives. I like to change things up often and to do that you need things to change to.

As I looked for inspiration for my organization project, it was hard to find! There are many posts about organizing your homeschool. These posts tend to be where to put the glue, crayons and pencils. It just wasnt what I was looking for. I did find one post, on 1+1+1=1, that helped a lot. It makes sense that the blogger that got me going on my homeschool journey would be the one who would understand the need to tell me how to organize all these wonderful school toys and resources.

Here's where I started:





I have designated 1/2 of my storage room for school stuff. My store room is right next to our school room, so the proximity is great for moving things back and forth. I moved all the stuff in here about 2 months ago when I got tired of looking at it in the school room. It wasnt a calm learning atmosphere in my opinion.

As you can see there was an attempt at organization-with banker boxes and such, but this set up wasnt working for me. I couldnt see what was in the boxes and there was no real rhyme or reason to why I put what where except it fit. Of course the last picture shows no organization at all and thats because it wasnt.

So, off to Walmart I went. Like I have mentioned before we just dont have cool organization stores. Thankfully, I found a few things I thought would work and brought them home.



I found these stackable laundry baskets that allowed me to take advantage of the large height of each shelf without using huge, bottomless pit, bins. They can hold little pieces in place while still allowing me to see what's in them and access them pretty easily.



It took me a bit to decide HOW to divide the things I had. I finally came up with the following categories, mostly following the Montessori areas: Math, Language, Practical Life, Sensorial, Geography, Science, Bible, Music, Fall, Christmas/winter, Spring & Summer, Tot School stuff (many of the other things are for Tot school, but some things are just for a Tot), Containers, Building toys, and puzzles.


If you look at the pictures you may realize that there arent THAT many bins. Some things got combined just due to the fact that I had less items in that area. Things too big for the bins were placed just to the side of that bin. I purposely chose to put bins that had overflow on top of bins that didnt so there wasnt any confusion as to which bin it went with.

I didnt create labels, because I'm the only one touching these items and I can see where everything is. I figured that labels in this case were not a priority. I may do them in the future, because I love the way they look :).



And speaking of looks, I did not like the way that this dresser looked in our school room. Its very functional for holding supplies and paper, etc, but it wasnt making a calm atmosphere in our school room. It was heavy and couldnt really go anywhere in the room other then where it was, and I just didnt like it there. I didnt want to loose this storage, though. Drawers provide a great storage medium!



So, I hauled it next door into the storage room. Thankfully, I could do that since the rooms are so close!



The top shelves are being used (mostly) for puzzles. There is also a box of our books on tape, finished work, and a few odds and ends that didnt have another home. The drawers are currently holding extra notebooks, glue, pens, paper, etc. You know the 'normal' stuff :).

I realize that it still has a bit of a cluttered look to it, but that is to be expected with these types of things. At least now, I can close the door on it!

How do you organize your school stuff? I would love to see your set up. Let me know if you have a post I can read about it, please!

Have a great weekend! God Bless!!

Giving Everything a Place: Bathroom/Laundry

I am on a mission to give everything in my home a home of its own. This week's focus was my guest bath, which is also our laundry room...which is also about 4 steps from the front door. I have only one room in my house that I would rather guests not see when they visit {well other then the storage room, that's a given right?} is the laundry room. So, placing the laundry room in the guest bathroom would not be my idea. *SIGH* It is what it is...and I do thank God that I dont have to go to the laundromat!!

I realized that I really only organized the inside of the cabinets, the room itself was pretty clutter free. It does need some decorative touches-but that's for another mission.

As I went through each cabinet, I thought about how I currently use them and what I should keep in them. When we moved in, each cabinet was pretty much already full, so I emptied the remainder of what was in them. Then, I changed the heights of some of the shelves. What had been best for the last owners were not the best for me, but I just threw my things in when we got here and didnt really think about how I needed them.

Laundry Cabinet Before & After:




Um yes you do see labels. I dont think labels will be best in all of my rooms, but in this one I felt they were needed. Most of these cabinets had become 'catch all,' because they hold a lot of regular use, regular rotated items that just get tossed into a close cabinet when used. Since I am getting used to the fact that there is actually a place where each thing goes {and so is my ehem husband} I wanted these guides to remind me when I put things away to not just put them 'somewhere.'

And on the subject of labels. I didnt go buy a label maker {though I DID change my Facebook status that day to reflect my desire to own one}. I used purple printer paper, a marker, and packing tape. Works just as well!

Under the sink before & after




I added toilet paper! Nice touch eh?

The cleaning supplies before & after:




I have since added a roll of paper towels to go with the Windex. I hated that I was always going to the kitchen to get paper towels and getting distracted when I got there.

And the toiletries cabinet before & after:





I buy a lot of toiletries ahead of time due to my couponing. It helps to have them all in one spot so that you know what you have too much of and what you dont have enough of. I had so much toothpaste at one time that I was actually giving it away to family. But, I didnt have it all in one spot and ended up having to buy toothpaste at full price because we didnt have any.

I have found that these basket/bins are useful in every part of my house. Walmart recently clearanced them out for 50 cents a bin, I bought nearly every one. I would buy 5.00 worth each time I went to the store until they were gone! You will be seeing them in a lot of my posts, as they are the perfect size and shape for most of my cupboards.

My next spot is the clutter catcher right next to our TV. God Bless!

Giving Everything a Place: Coat Closet

Project #2 on my 'Place for Everything Mission' was the coat closet. Again, it was another small project with big results. LOVE those kinds of projects.

Here is the before:



The very first thing I did was to remove all the winter coats & snow pants from the closet. Due to very limited storage elsewhere {my house has exactly 3 closets total including this one} I had thought this would be the best place to store all our outdoor stuff whether in season or out. But, as you can see, there really isnt room here, so I took the winter stuff out.

Next thing was to draw a limit. 2 coats/jackets per person. As it turns out Charger had 3 that I couldnt decide between and Mustang only owns 1 {we lost her good jacket *sigh*}, so my 'limits' werent strict, but they worked. I hope this number will work come fall/winter, if not I will change then. The only one not on the limit is DH, he doesnt so much care for limits...I'm working on this!

Then I labeled. Too often when we are going some where, DH will yell from the closet...which coat is Chargers? Now, I would think this was obvious, but to be fair, I BOUGHT the coat, I WASHED the coat, I HUNG it up, and I also have put it on Charger a bunch of times. DH doesnt have the same frame of reference and is trying to help me get the kids ready to go somewhere, for which we are usually running behind and very stressed. So, he opens the closet, sees 12 coats and gets overwhelmed. He doesnt, at that point, notice size or color, just a vast sea of coats.

My answer was to find 3 different colors of hangers. Mustangs are red, Chargers are white and Mini Coopers are green. I even went so far as to hang a sign on the inside of the door with this list. We will see if it helps. If nothing else, a helpful grandma will be able to use this sign for reference.

I have a box up at the top of the shelf that holds off season accessories {currently gloves, hats, etc}. These had been in the bins by the door, so I took them out of the bins, washed them all and then put them into this box for fall. The ones I dont think will fit in the fall were put in storage. I even pitched a few. I further labeled the outside of this box with EXACTLY what's inside. Its not the most fun to pull down a box and weed through it when what you are looking for is not in the box. I do hope to eventually add some higher shelves to this closet for more storage.

The other thing on the shelf is my backpack. A couple weeks ago I streamlined my diaper bag and purse into a backpack. Not an original concept, and I have no idea what took me so long. I might blog about this more in the future!

So here's the after:



In the bottom of the closet are still all our boots. I dont have enough to worry about moving them elsewhere, I'll worry about that when we do.



I re-purposed an extra magazine rack to hold daddy's work gloves. They get dirty and gross and I wanted them separate from the kids' gloves. The magazine holder wasnt being used for anything else and fits well at the bottom of the closet.

When I finished my mission, I even had enough room to store Mini Coopers car seat carrier at the bottom!! And CLOSE the DOOR! It's the little things in life that excite me :)!

The only thing that could make this project a million times better, is if I could figure out a way that the kids could hang up their own coats. This rack is way too high. I am working on a plan. I'll let you know what I come up with.

My next project is the guest bath. God Bless!!

Giving Everything a Place: Starting Out

I am on a mission to find a place for everything that is currently in my house. I want to know where each and everything goes so I can put it away when when I want to. I will be re-purposing some things, creating new spaces, and getting rid of things that do not have a home.

My first step was to really think about how I use each space currently. I asked myself if the system is working for myself or family. Note that I said OR FAMILY, sometimes I dont like the way a certain system looks, but I can acknowledge that it works well for my family-specifically my husband. If it is working, there isnt a need to change the system, just maybe add a few changes to improve on what is already working. You dont have to conform to a 12 step program to be organized.

First up: the catch all cubbies that are right inside my front door.

Starting at the front door is a tip I got Emilie Barnes in her book 'More Hours in My Day.' I love to learn from organized people. Emilie Barnes has a number of great organizational ideas that work for me, and some that dont. I've learned it's OKAY if an organized person's ideas dont work for you, it doesnt mean that you arent or cant be organized.

Starting with the little closet at the front of the house gave me a chance to see some change quickly without having to tackle a big room. It gave me motivation to work on bigger areas.

The shoe cubbies before:



Like I said, I started SMALL. But, why tackle big things when you arent willing to do the small ones? I got this cubbie earlier this year when Charger spilled paint on the carpet. Remember that post? Well, this hides the stain and provides some much needed storage for my family.

The shoe cubbies after:


I labled each cubbie with a name and limited each person to only 2 or 3 pairs here at the door. This isnt where we keep nice shoes. This is the place to dump flip flops, clogs, and in the winter tennis shoes. This location places the shoes in easy reach for trips to play outside, grab the mail, dump the slop, etc. Our going to town/church shoes are kept in the family closet. I am not sure what I am going to do when Mini Cooper needs a cubbie, I'll think about that in the next few months.




The bins on top make a great place for storing outdoor items, but I wanted to make sure they didnt just become catch all. Remember, my goal is 'a place for everything.' So, I gave these bins a purpose. One holds seasonal accessories. In the summer, it holds sun hats, sunglasses, a blanket for sitting on the lawn, etc. In the winter it holds gloves and hats and scarfs, etc. The second bin currently holds swim wear. Suits and covers for each family member are here. Grandma has a pool and we are frequently going swimming on short notice.

I used some of my favorite scrap paper to make the tags along with some pretty yarn I had on hand. I am trying very hard not to buy things for this redo. The point is to streamline things...not buy more :).

I have since added a small basket on top of the shelves to hold items that are going out. Since it is right at the door, its the perfect place to store things that I dont want to forget the next time I leave. It works in theory, unless you forget to look the spot {which I did this week}.

And that's the first spot on the redo tour. Next up, the coat closet. God Bless!!