School is in session! Or, at least, it’s so close I can practically taste the freedom in my nightly sip of wine. Counting the days…counting the days.
In all actuality, I may or may not be so anxious to send my kids back into the daily grind, but several hours of uninterrupted, quiet time to get serious work accomplished does sound mighty nice. With less than ten days to go, prepping is well under way. Backpacks, lunch boxes, and a list of school supplies have been acquired.
Every year a new set of pencils, binders, sharpeners, pens and so much more need to be purchased. Supplies get sent to school and supplies are kept at home. If you’re a parent then you’re probably familiar with the routine.
What do you do with all those supplies you keep at home, handy for the kids’ homework and project? Is everything shoved in a drawer? In a stacker on a shelf? Or are you organized enough to have a school command center?
Now that my kids are older, we prefer a storage setup that doesn’t draw obvious attention as the ‘school supply zone.’ Everything is kept close together while being neatly hidden or dressed up in fun glassware, baskets, and boxes. With a little rearranging we were able to fit everything neatly on to the bookshelf right near the kids’ work area. How great is that?
- (1) Pens, pencils, and crayons were all dropped into decorative glass or ceramic containers. In this case: Mason jars, a giant fish bowl, and a fun owl. The owl adds extra character.
- (2) Kid scissors, protractors, ink pads, pencil sharpeners, compasses, calculators, etc. found a perfect home in various baskets. One easy to slide out and take to the table, the other with a handle.
- (3) Looking like a book set on it’s side (turned backwards in this picture – D’oh!), box #3 was the ideal choice to house all the extra blue and red pens my eldest needs for school, in addition to plenty of brand new no. 2 pencils.
- (4) Fitting snugly in the perfectly sized box, extra lined and graph paper wait to be used for homework and projects. Rulers and a new set of color pens fits nicely, too!
- (5) A small box, stored at the bottom, was just the right size for extra erasers, glue sticks, and index cards. This will be access less often.
- (6) The setup wouldn’t be complete without a filing system for each child to store works-in-progress, special creations, or whatever else they feel the need to keep or track.
These days, most homework and projects are tracked via school agendas. The planning calendar for kids. We have a pin board in the room but we find we use it more for tracking upcoming school events than actual school projects. The pin board is a fun piece I made from an old school chalk board. A little paint and cork board and BAM. Cool new look. Maybe I’ll share in a future post.
Organizing our kids doesn’t stop there, though, does it? I don’t know about your kids, but when mine used to come through the door shoes, socks, and backpacks are getting tossed in every direction. And they were never in the right direction or even in the same direction. It was mayhem!
My solution: I found a small area of available wall space near where we usually enter the house when coming home from school. For us, this place is the laundry room. Attaching a peg board firmly in place and sliding an attractive wicker laundry–type basket beneath, the kids now hang they backpacks and toss their shoes in the general direction of the basket. It’s a win!
If you like the way we’ve chosen to tuck our school supplies away, it’s easy to duplicate. Add your own style or twist to the design. There are a multitude of fashionable ways to store and hide your school supplies: baskets and boxes, buckets on shelves. Colorized and/or compartmentalized your various materials. School supply storage doesn’t have to look drab.
Looking for more? Check these out:
25 School Bag Storage Ideas by The Organized Housewife
Chalkboard Central Command Center by Jenna Burger
15 Homework Station Ideas by Sand & Sisal
How do you store your kids’ school supplies? Do you have an academic command center you’d like to share or tell us about? We’d love to hear all your stories!
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I’m a mother, a fantasy author, and sometimes DIY home decorator. Watch the blog, going forward, as we take a new direction. My true direction—my messy life. Living every day in reality and making time to play on the other side, bringing bits of whimsy into normalcy.
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I love the organizational idea. I try to do the same thing with my supplies. I don’t want my work space to look like a work space; I want it tidy and attractive, yet remain functional for me. But then again, I’m kind of a neat freak so maybe it’s just a OCD thing.
I love your ideas and good luck with keeping it all neat and tidy. Happy back to school!
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
Patricia recently posted…Change Is Good
Sounds like we’re alike in that way. OCD, wanting thing attractive, yet functional. Yep, yep, and yep. 🙂 You can definitely apply these storage methods to anything. Your office is a great place to give it a try. 🙂
Next Monday will be a happy day for me, at least for six hours. LOL. Enjoy settling into your new digs! Sure hope I get to come check it out one day.
Looks like a great way to organize a home office too. 😀
That it is! 🙂
I don’t believe in too much organization! LOL At the beginning of every year, the kids’ playroom is pretty & neat & organized and by the end of the year it looks like a typhoon has swept through. Seriously, I didn’t even clean their room until three weeks ago!
So I appreciate the tips and pics. I will definitely be using some of those, especially the rack where they can hang their backpacks.
Here’s to the first day of school… 😉
Yes, here’s to the first day. 😀
I am very familiar with the typhoon look. I have allowed it in the kids’ rooms. Not in the study area, a.k.a. the kitchen/family room. One must hold on to their sanity somehow. Haha!