How to Organize Your Homeschool

We've never had a dedicated homeschool room. As much as I love the idea of having one space for it all, it's always worked in our favor to use more of our home for learning and growing together.

The most important thing is to have an atmosphere of love and encouragement, along with a plan for storage. Homeschool supplies, curricula, books, and resources can accumulate over the years, so having a place to put it all will be key to staying organized and making your spaces work for you.

Here are some tips to keep in mind. Follow along in your Homeschool Mom Bucket Planner to record ideas and track your progress! Turn to "Homeschool Organization" to add your ideas and notes.

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1. Organize Your Homeschool Supplies and Materials

Homeschool supplies and materials can include everything from markers and paints to pencils, glue, paper, and folders. It doesn't take long for it all to pile up, so having designated areas is really helpful.

To begin, gather ALL of your homeschool supplies and materials and place them on a table or floor. Then, group and categorize them by type. Here are some examples of categories:

1. Homeschool supplies: scissors, pencils, erasers, glue, markers, watercolor paints, etc.

2. Paper: construction, cardstock, printing paper, etc.

3. Crafting Materials: paints, paintbrushes, yarn, sensory bins, fabric, ribbon, etc.

4. Homeschool curricula: workbooks, notebooks, binders, etc.

Determine which materials will be used on a daily basis, and keep those easily accessible.

Homeschool Supplies:

We use these metal organizers for all of the general homeschool supplies. All of the children share the materials, and return them here when finished. At the end of the day, we store the organizers on our bookshelf and cart.

Another option is to purchase individual student pouches or boxes for each child. Each child can then take care of their own supplies, and store them with all of their workbooks and notebooks.

Paper:

We store most of our paper in the office near our printer. This includes cardstock, colored paper, premium printing paper, and construction paper. This is something that I monitor more closely so that we don't go through our supplies too quickly.

For everyday drawing and painting, each child has a bound sketchbook. This keeps our home from filling up with paper and gives the children a special place for their work.

I also keep a basket in the dining room that contains scrap paper and unused printables. I encourage the children to use this paper for quick sketches, notes, or anything else that can be easily recycled when finished. Other items I keep in the basket include: stickers, scrapbook paper, maps, drawing mats, and trays.

Crafting Materials:

My children love to do crafts, so we have an abundant supply of crafting supplies and materials. Because these do not fit in our dining or living room, we house these supplies in a hall closet. Canvas and plastic bins help us to keep the craft supplies organized and easy to use when needed.

Homeschool Curricula & Resources:

I have found these plastic hanging file organizers to be the perfect place to store individual student workbooks and curricula. They are easy to keep organized and store well on our bookcase. They also are easy for the children to carry from room to room as needed. I purchased ours at the container store but have linked some similar options below. Other possible solutions include magazine holders and canvas bins.

In the past, we also used this locker system I found at Hobby Lobby. It worked well for the younger years, but quickly filled up as the children grew older. Now, I use it to hold some of my bowls and manipulatives, along with my preschooler's homeschool supplies.

These are a few similar options with larger capacity.

2. Organize the Homeschool Books

I strongly believe that books are the best possible investment in a homeschool. With just a great selection of high-quality books, you can teach just about everything. The challenge, however, is finding a way to organize them all.

We personally use bookcases to house our homeschool-themed books, readers, and novels. In the cubed bookcase below, I have our readers organized by levels. The top three cubes are for the beginning readers, followed by levels 2-4. This helps the children get adequate practice at each level prior to advancing to the next.

We also organize books in baskets throughout the house. Some baskets house nonfiction and reference books, such as the one below. Some hold nature books, history books, and our Morning Time books. I also make sure to use a separate basket to hold all of our library books so that they don't get mixed in with our personal books.

3. Organize Homeschool Curricula

I take time at the end of each year to look through all of my homeschool curricula. When I have manuals and resources that I no longer plan on using, I sell or donate them as soon as possible to keep them out of our homeschool spaces.

If I plan to use a curriculum in the future with the younger children, then I store them on the bottom shelf of one of my bookcases. This keeps it in sight so that I don't forget I have it, but it keeps it far low enough so that it doesn't interfere with our current resources.

My current homeschool curricula and resources are stored on the top shelf of my teacher cart. I organize my manuals by student or group studies in magazine holders. I also keep stickers, dry erase markers, a small dry erase board, and our Morning Time menus on the cart.

The middle shelf on the cart holds some everyday craft materials for my younger children, including pipe cleaners, buttons, popsicle sticks, chalk, a small chalkboard, and more.

The bottom shelf houses any projects that the children are working on. It makes it easy to clean up at the end of each day and keeps the rest of our spaces tidy.

I have found that my homeschool preschool and hands-on activities take up the most room, so these are stored in the buffet table against the wall. I keep one section for math games and activities, one for phonics and handwriting, one for building and creating, and one for science items. The center section houses special craft supplies in the top basket, followed by CD's, stencils, and puzzles.

4. Organize the Children's Work and Projects

Children love to create and finding a good system for all of their projects will be key to keeping your spaces open for new learning. We use the top of our reader bookcase to display three-dimensional projects. After a week or two, we then box the project for an end-of-the-year display, or we take a picture and toss it.

We also have a wire set to display art work and special drawings. This is hung in one of the hallways in our home and is cleaned out each month to make room for new pieces. Their favorite projects are then stored in a filing cabinet, one drawer per child.

I also use these wall file organizers to keep science and art history drawings and notebook pages, one file per child. At the end of the year, we will bind our favorites and create special end-of-year portfolios for each child.

Our Homeschool Spaces

These are the most important pieces I have found in our homeschool. As you can see, we use the spaces throughout our home to create a learning environment that best fits the unique needs of our family. We also get creative with decor and storage solutions.

Being open to new possibilities is key to creating a storage system that helps your family stay organized, while also making room to celebrate and treasure your learning. The better your systems, the easier it will be to focus and connect with what matters most.

What are some of your personal favorite storage solutions for setting up your homeschool?

For a video tour of our homeschool spaces, click here!

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