Keepin' It Real: Homeschool Organization

Welcome! Today we are sharing our homeschool storage solutions (or need for solutions in my case). Last year, before I began homeschooling, I could only imagine what things I would need and what I might then do with them. I had this cute little idea...ha! I just remembered this...to buy boxes with handles for the girls. All their school work for that day could just go in the box and they would carry it to the dining room table each day and then carry it back to our home office when school was over.

I think we all know THAT would have happened!

But in the end it really bugged me to store my stuff in one room and work in the other. They weren't even adjacent rooms. We would have been walking through the front entryway, the living room, the kitchen, and into the dining room each day with our little plastic boxes and then in reverse order afterwards. It just bugged me, OK? So I converted our home office into a classroom.

Which we used for 2 weeks before we found out we hated being in there. It felt so secluded from the rest of the house. So we moved into the dining room where there was a window. And we hung a bird feeder outside and enjoyed the view. Here's our dining room right now. It's usually the best looking room in the house. But wait. What's that on the kitchen cabinet to the right?Oh, it's my fruit bowl. Shall we examine the contents of the fruit bowl together? (This is a Keepin' It Real post). OK, we have: 2 red potatoes, one orange, a harmonica, a stapler, a small container of Play-Doh, an orange marker, bananas, an orange pencil, and a spring. I think it's time to move on.

So here is where we usually sit. We are like little old ladies in church who have our pews marked out. It really throws us off to switch seats. I don't know why. And where we sit for school has nothing to do with where we sit for eating.

Here is where I HAD a three tiered cart. It was old and I may have overloaded it and it cracked and I threw it away. The end.And that is why I need your help! I need a storage solution for next year. Where is all the stuff from last year you say? The stuff that used to be on that cart?

Remember my new sewing room/home office?

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Literally.There's a pretty tall stack that hasn't fallen over yet.

And what about that lovely classroom? Well, we still have the shelves. Boy, did we need shelves!

They aren't too bad. They just need a little straightening.

Wait. What are you doing? Don't do that! Don't look down! Nooooooooooooooo...

I warned you.

People, we need storage solutions around here!

My friend Katherine, who doesn't have a blog (get a blog!) shared her storage with me in an e-mail this week. She said, "This is a huge, monstrous cabinet we bought during the first year of marriage. I have no idea why we thought we needed this big thing in our apartment! Anyway, after it spent years taking up almost the entire bedroom, we moved it out to the living room. Yes that is a weird place for it I know! But anyway, we have 2 living rooms so this sits by the back door (hence all the jackets). Now why these boys need so many jackets, I couldn’t tell you, especially since it’s SO HOT NOW that I cannot even imagine wearing a jacket at any time in my life! I digress…So this is my attempt at organization, which kind of falls apart in the upper middle there, as you can tell. It would help if there was another shelf up there. And, how did all that stuff creep up on top of the cabinet? What can I say…I did not clean up first, as directed! And, my curriculum is even in there somewhere, in a white (unopened) cardboard box…just waiting for me to get prepared!! At least the jackets are mostly hung up!

Thank you, Katherine. Even though you do not have a blog (get a blog), you were our first contributor.
Now it's YOUR turn. Share your storage with us. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Oh, and lots of tips from you all who have learned a thing or two about what works for you would be nice.
Thank you for stopping by and Keepin' It Real!!!