The Homeschool Classroom ~ Hello Beautiful

In the last Homeschool Classroom post I featured furniture type storage items, proving that we can have both useful and beautiful places in our home to hold our supplies.  Once we have the furniture pieces in place, it's important to continue organizing with smaller baskets and caddys to futher organize our supplies.

I prefer to have one large work surface for both mom and student, and little organizers like this one can be hidden on a shelf or in a cupboard until school, (and of course I would have to paint that puppy).  Filled with pencils, pens, markers, scissors, tape, a small stapler, and a ruler, this organizer would hold just about everything a middle/high schooler would need.  There's even space for a scientific calculator in the little drawer.  I've gotten two of these are yard sales or Goodwill in just the past few months for pennies.

I love the storgae in this next picture.  Just look at how cozy and inviting this space is.  This looks like a kitchen table schoolroom to me, and I could easily do that in my own home if we didn't have an extra room for school. 

What I love about this is that student and teacher can sit face to face, or side by side, depending on what is needed.  (Do you see all the storage: magazine holders, jars, baskets, covered cardboard boxes).

If you have a traditional style table, it can easily be used for a desk, like the next picture...

I ***L.O.V.E.*** the Savannah & Havannah style baskets from Pottery Barn.  I think their use of these baskets stacked under the desk is both clever and functional.  In my house, my littles always ended up under a table or blanket tent anyway, so storing readers and library books in this fashion would be both functional and fashionable.  Little luggage tags attached to the baskets as labels would be an easy way to direct little hands to their own baskets.

And, before you think I'm running out to buy PB baskets retail, let me just tell you that these and similar can be found both on Craigslist, at the Goodwill, and at the BigBox stores and Ross for much more reasonable prices.

Don't forget to consider repainting an item that you might have overlooked the first time because of it's color or condition.  This little shelf makes a great holder for paint supplies, but could just as easily have been used to hold small readers, crayon containers, and glue sticks in little glass jars.

One thing we have been missing from our schoolroom all these years was a lateral file, (what we used to call a file cabinet).  These shelves feature both lateral files, open file and paper storage, and shelves for printers or books.  And they look fabulous!  The little cubbies are perfect for all the small items we gather during school. and I like the linen pin boards.  Garage sale frames paired with a linen remnant would look just a nice as these expensive pieces.  You could do this!

Now that we've gotten some ideas for the room, I'm going to post about displaying some of that fabulous work your kids generate during all those school days.  Watch for that post coming soon!