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Mar. 4, 2009
Organization~A myth, Or Reality?
Organization is the bane of every homeschooler's day. We fight paper battles, we fight school supplies, we fight books. we even fight art and craft supplies day in and day out. Throw in lesson planning, and housekeeping-it's no wonder everyone calls homeschoolers crazy fanatics. we must look a little wild from searching for that elusive book that we had planned on reading to the kids that are trying to shove all the notebooks they can onto the smallest possible shelf that can't possibly hold them. We have our hair out of place due to looking in the laundry basket that our youngest just decided to dump on top of our heads in the hope of Helping mom look for that book that she just has to have.
The delivery men that stop by our place just shake their heads and wonder when my kids come up to the door dressed in odd attire and talk just a little bit funny (because it is Ancient History we are learning here!)
So what do we do with all of it? well if my kids had anything to do with the decision making it would all end up under their bed or in their, GULP, closet. But that just won't do . . .
So we have tried many different options. The first that I liked was a tower. It reminded me of a classroom "mailbox" or an office In/out box. it had individual compartments for each subject. Now this was just fine for 2 kids. but I was always concerned that it would topple over somehow as it was a bit tall. And when this "school year' started, I needed room for the Preschooler! (and the toddler that just has to prove he's better at this then his older sister!)
My next plan, and I'm still using it partially, is the two cupboards that we placed the mural on (Ocean Mural). They are very nice to have and they hold a massive amount of educational supplies! Each of the kids had a small cubby to hold their notebooks and folders on the bottom shelves. We used the Mailbox system without the shelves so the notebooks fit perfectly!! The top shelf of one cupboard was reserved for mom's books. And the other cupboard held all the art and science expirement kits. (Can we say overflowing!)
That was going rather well for us. A bit tight and every time we purchased a new resource or new art item, our space was getting more and more cramped! And our dining room was getting more and more cluttered, more and more overwhelmed with "SCHOOL." So I knew I needed to break down and do what i do best--lol rearrange. Ok maybe not best, but it sure is fun! So what i did was bring in something that was wasting space in the garage. It's a set of cupboards and drawers with a small counter top. These are inexpensive white cupboards (much like the ones you'd find in your kitchen) that we had purchased for use in our laundry room in our last house (this house is too small for them or so I thought!) I put them along our kitchen counter under the bar. I then assigned a cupboard to each child (which they have decorated to their own unique style) So, My space has exploded!! I now have 2 shelves for all MY planning and curriculum/reading books. And a full cupboard to house the art and science supplies.
So these cupboards can be found at your local hardware store. we purchased them about 4 years ago for $150.00 at our local Menards (or was it Home Depot??) Anyways, they were wonderful in the Laundry room, but this has really opned up things in the Dining room/School area.
Here is a picture (two actually) of our storage area. One DD12 has to still decide on what she is doing for her door, but as you can see it has really livened up the place!! :) There is two things that don't normally sit there: the sewing machine case has a different home normally, but I am in the middle of making a "china" dress for DD9 and it needs a temporary home. The Boxes at the near end also don't normally go there, but I've still gotta find new homes for them! And I've misplaced a drawer some how. I think it's out in the garage . . . . WAY TOO COLD to go on a drawer search! LOL, it'll have to wait a couple weeks until it warms up a bit more.
Here is a picture of our "wall." There are a few more things on other walls, like a world map and timeline, but this is our Stuff. The white board is just a piece of plywood with white board paper applied to it (can be purchased for about $15-$20 at a teacher supply/office supply type store. It's a HUGE roll. I've used this board for over 2 years now and I'e had NO problems with it, and I have never recovered it. But I do wish I had added a frame as the Littles like to write on the board and they are not so good at staying ON IT. LOL.
The drawers on top are very nice to keep things organized such as rulers, white board markers, claculators etc.. I also have (not pictured) a "bathroom caddy," at the right of the white cupboard and beneath the white board, that holds our math manipulatives. (It's narrow as it is designed to go between the John and the sink) but it holds all our uni-blocks and shapes, money, base ten units etc. The blue thing about the center of the white board is our pencil caddy. It is a lazy susan type caddy, so it spins. we found this on sale with all the rest of the School supplies back in August at a Staples I believe. We move it every day to the center of our dining room table so we have everything we need--or what we need most days anyways.
I don't know if the pictures really detail this, but this is a teeny TINY area. The first set of pictures is directly in front of the second set. So the second picture I am taking between my dining room table and the first set of cupboards. there is about 1 1/2 feet between the two cupboards--just barely large enough to open the doors. The Table is just far enough away to open the kids' cupboards. If I had lowered the camera any, i would have had the dining room table in the shot as it is almost halfway in front of the right cupboard. So as I said TINY! You don't need to have a lot of space, just a great storage area!!
Please don't think our areas stay this neat. It's only this neat once a week! :) IF THAT! Projects always take over. |
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Posted by 
Posted by Anonymous 
Mar. 5, 2009 - Untitled Comment
That's not counting the plastic shoe boxes for each of the kids.