How to Organize your home, office, school and more

So you homeschool – that is great!  Homeschooling is wonderful, we have been enjoying it ourselves for a number of years and we love it.

The big question – I have all this great stuff – where do I put it?  How do I organize the papers, and pencils and pens and those little tiny bears and don’t even get me started on the books, oh my the books.  I have the stuff, now I need to know how to organize it all.

First – take a deep breathe and know that you are not alone, either in your homeschool journey or in your quest to manage the madness and learn how to organize. 

If you have read any of the other sections on how to organize you will know how this goes, if not, get ready to join in the fun while we climb our Steps to Organization (aka how to organize)

Step 1 : Sorting

This is the hard part, but if you want to learn how to organize and stay organized, it really is necessary.    You start off in your homeschool room / area / closet and bring some boxes with you.  Begin by labeling your boxes – trash, donate / sell, doesn’t belong in this area – depending on the amount of stuff that you have you may need multiple boxes.  Once you have gone through your initial sort, take the trash away, and move the donate / sell boxes to another place (preferably out of your house).  Now we get down to the nitty gritty of learning how to organize – in the next step we will start building our border so that we are able to put things back in an organized way.  Keep a box or two around so that any items you decide you no longer need can be placed in the box.  If you have a lot of items consider selling them at a local convention or online homeschool books site. 

If you are limited on space in your school area, try taking a look around your home to see if you have storage spaces anywhere.  If so, while sorting choose to keep out only what you will be using immediately (within the week, month, semester or year).  For the items you are storing organize them on a shelf (if possible) or in labeled boxes.  Label your boxes with the contents so when you need to retrieve items they will be easier to find.  Ideas for how to organize the storage boxes are to label them with the approximate year (i.e. first grade, middle school, etc), the subject (math, science) and the date of when you put the box into storage.  If you find that you have one box (or more) that you do not use for a while, consider if you need to keep the items in the box, or if you can sell or donate the items.  

Step 2 : Building a Border

Since I have yet to see two homeschool rooms that look alike I am going to go over some of the basics of how to organize your homeschool items, from there, you should have a pretty good handle on things and can continue on.  If not, send me an email through our contact us page and let me know your question on how to organize your homeschool (or any other area) and I will try to be of some assistance.

 Books :

Living books, textbooks, workbooks, lab books, notebooks, chapter books, first reader books, picture books, puzzle books, teacher books, student books, books about homeschooling, books, books, books – if you homeschool, you have books.  The question is how to organize all of those books?

One option, depending on space, is a bookshelf.  We have used shelves similiar to this Tall Oak 5 Shelf Bookcase Library, we also have built in custom bookshelves in a closet by using Shelf Brackets and wood from our local hardware store.  These are fairly simple to make and if you don’t have the equipment to cut the wood at home, most hardware stores will cut pieces for you (for a small fee), just make sure you measure before you go.  (Measure twice, cut once)

If you want other shelf organizer options, you can look at this Cubbie Shelf which goes on the wall or the Wall Mounted Book Shelf which also goes on the wall.  Take your time and look around to determine the best idea on how to organize your books.  (after all, you have to live with it, I don’t) 

Supplies : 

Supplies tend to multiply, you start with a few pens, then they somehow grow into dozens of pens.  Deciding how to organize these supplies will vary from homeschool to homeschool.  Below you will find a variety of drawers and other ways to organize various supplies.  I am putting these items into a table for ease of reference.  (even the instructions for how to organize are organized – isn’t life grand!)  Use these items as a spring board to style your own border. Be sure to read through step 3 for information on using a label maker to help you learn how to organize your bins, boxes, and drawers in an easy to use way.

 A decorative way to organize includes the use of baskets, or check out this nice looking 6 Bins Storage Unit.  You can also utilize door space, by using something like the 15-Pocket Over Door Organizer. We also use the Kids’ Toy Organizer and Storage Bin, but not in the schoolroom.  I have found this doesn’t work as well in our school room since there are no lids.  In the kids rooms, this works fairly well to keep toys organized, but it all depends on the ages of your kids and the variety of your supplies.  Teaching your kids how to organize their own things now will save you time later.

Step 3 : Filling in the Pieces

Now is when you start putting things back.  An item that I have found to be a great organizing tool is a label maker. Some examples of label makers are the DYMO Personal Label Maker or the Brother P-touch Electronic Labeling System.  You can even use printable Avery® Mailing Labels.  The whole point is you need a way to label.  What are you going to label?  The short answer is : everything.  All of the boxes, drawers, and pockets should get a label.  This way if you find an empty box, you know what was supposed to be in it.  Also, when you look into your storage area you can see at a glance what you have.  Where else can you use these labels?  3 Ring Binders!  If you want to know how to organize multiple binders in the same space (I usually buy them as a multi-pack so they all look alike) without getting having to open each binder to determine its content, put a label on the spine and eliminate this issue.

Step 4 : The Final Step – How to Organize to that You Can Stay Organized

Once you have learned how to organize you need to learn how to keep it organized.  A simple organizational system will make it easier to keep organized.  One of the ways I do this is by labeling my boxes on both ends, that way when the kids put them back onto the shelf (see – teaching kids how to organize) backwards it doesn’t matter.  Another way I keep organized is by having a Mommy section and a kids section.  In the kids section there are the items that the kids can use and learn with on their own, in the mommy section are the things that I think they need help with.  This will vary based on the age of your kids.  Remember unless you live alone (and if you homeschool then you don’t live alone) you are not the only one who needs to know how to organize.  If everyone knows how to organize then your life will be a lot easier. 

The bottom line – have fun turning your school area into an organized place to be, that way you will all enjoy spending time there.  Organizing doesn’t have to be hard – take time to look through your things.  Keep what you want, get rid of what you don’t and organize what is left so that you can find everything when you need to.