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Hello to all! My title pretty much sums it up. I love love love how HOD includes so many hands on activities but I'm struggling with how to store all of our supplies. Any ideas? It's pretty much a free for all right now with markers, pens, pencils, paints etc falling out of baskets and empty coffee jars . I am a little challanged in this area . TIA

Do you have a homeschool "room" or do they need to be put away every day?

Here are a couple of links. The first has a picture of what Julie uses to organize some of her supplies, and the second is a link to the topic of home school clutter. I hope these might help.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10328&start=15

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3118&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

I have invested in smaller totes with lids for the things we do not use everyday. I group like items together so when we need something I can just pull out a tote, and easily clean it up after the project. My kids have school desks and we keep a backpack on the chair. We attend a weekly co-op and they need an art box every week for this with the basic supplies. I have them just keep thier art boxes close at hand, so if those basics are needed they can just pull it out of thier backpack and put it away. In the art box I have 24 pack crayons, 8 pack markers, 2 sharpened pencils, glue stick, bottle white glue and scissors. I keep a large tote also with all the broken crayons, They like to dig in it for different colors from time to time. I will also use the broken crayons to make fun crayon shapes about once a year. I bought some soap molds and a pot just for melting crayons, and will melt like colors and pour into the molds, let them cool and voila a 'new' crayon they love. I do this and keep them around for birthdays, stockings, etc. Now that I went a little off subject.... Ha Ha.... I also have a book shelf with different cubbies for school supplies, but I keep the art supplies in the hall closet.
-mandy

This has been a problem for me too, especially in the past, but now I think we're at a good place.

I definitely buy the pencil boxes, crayon boxes, other kinds of small boxes that seal up well for storing crayons, markers, pencils when those are on sale in the fall. Those all go in a drawer, well the kids have pencil boxes in their desks too. They now keep their scissors in their desks.

I found a small plastic drawer set that is perfect, one drawer is stickers, one is glue (I have glue sticks and bottles of glue, various types), one is paint brushes, one is stamps and things like that. Each drawer is probably 1 inch deep, 5-6 inches wide, maybe 12 inches long. That sits on top of the small dresser, and any small pieces of things I put inside plastic containers too that all fit inside the dresser. The bottom drawer is paper, other drawers again have the crayon/marker boxes, small containers with all the various things I've collected.... glitter, sequins, beads, etc etc.

Thanks for all the replies and links. We did have a school room in the basement but never used it. We felt like we were going down to the dungeon to work . I am one of those people who needs a lot of natural light. So I do have places to put things but I don't usually bother to take everything down at the end of the day because even on the days when we don't school, my girls still craft. So I am trying to make space in our main living area. We school at the kitchen table and on the sofa. It is an eat in kitchen and hubby is starting to think that a stack of books and art supplies is the usual dinner table centerpiece. So I have one bookcase which is fine and one big shelf in a closet for the rest. When I have a bit more time I'll read through the links. Thanks again.

The reason I asked was because IKEA had this neat wall thingy where cups hung from it for all the pencils and markers and such and it looked like an excellent art center.

I also have mobile cart that my dh bought me last year. It has a drawer and a bottom and top shelf and it's steel. So I can stick magnets to it, and just have any mobile center I choose. I just bought one of those hanging pocket files for it for dd's daily work printouts. Right now it's housing all my TM info, pencils, tape, timer, etc. It could be used as a great mobile art center. DH bought it from Harbor Freight, so it's easy to hang things and stick things to it and since it's steel, it's strong, with strong wheels.

Lazy susan's are neat for all to use to put in the center of a table. If I had room, I'd put my art supplies in my island, but I don't, although my "mobile" science drawers are in my pantry.

Mobile. I love anything and everything mobile.

We use plastic storage things with drawers we got from wallmart (the smaller ones) and a bin that is about the size of a half crate. Other cool storage stuff we have are the little pencil boxes wallmart sells and we have a peg board which is my best friend. Peg boards are really nice. You can use a hook and a decorated tin can on the board to store things. My kids each have a mini peg board. I did that very cheaply. We got the peg board unpainted at home depot. Then we cut and spray painted it to coordinate with our room and I hot glued gimp trim around it. Super nice looking and very convenient. I also have the IKEA hanging things that annez is talking about. Those are actually in my kids rooms and sewing room. It's on my huge pegboard in that room. Those are very nice as well. Peg boards are my favorite for being able to see stuff. My other best friend is the milk crates wallmart sells at school time in the half crate size and full. You can stock other plastic containers in them for little things that will fall through the holes and I cover mine in fabric to make the look pretty.

Another place to look if you are looking for storage solutions in general is http://www.usplastic.com/ These guys are Christians, they ship fast, and they share their testimony with each order, Plus they just have great products at good prices. You might find something cheap that would work even in the food storage area.

Anyway just some more ideas. Really anything will work that feels right to you.

So if I wanted to search for those Ikea things you are talking about, what would I search for?

krains wrote:So if I wanted to search for those Ikea things you are talking about, what would I search for?

I'll find a link and post it. I have to go to karate now, but will be back after dinner.

Okay, I'm not sure if this link will work:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categ ... chrs04b_01
If it doesn't, go to Ikea....United States.....children's ikea...... and click the center picture to move the picture along. It'll be the 3rd picture. You can also hit "gallery" and you can click on the top row, 3rd from left picture.

You'll see little round tubs or cups and they hang on a rail. Attached above a worktable would be really neat and you can have as many as you wish that can be held by the rail.

For paint, Lakeshore learning has this:
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca ... 8141~~.jsp

We used this for a while, because I could pour the paint in the cup then just snap the lid shut. They don't spill and the caddy carried them all until I needed a refill!

If this doesn't help, perhaps it'll get some ideas flowing.
Ann

The links worked. Thank you!

We love those Ikea tubs!

I use under the school table storage in the form of Ikea set of drawers designed to go under the Ikea school table we have and I have one more set of shelves where I keep the expensive school supplies that I don't want the kids to play with.

We moved all the school clutter into the girls room. That way we can shut the door on it.