How do you guys keep your home safe from school clutter?

[nowweare6]

Hello: I'm fairly new here. My kids are currently in a small Christian school but we will be starting HOD this summer. I'm "nesting" right now in preparation for schooling. Trying to clean and organize in anticipation of no longer having 6 hours of "alone" time! Anyway, I was looking for suggestions on how you guys keep your homes from being overrun with all the school stuff. I do not think that I will have a designated school spot where we work. I can make some space in a office space for storage of books etc. We plan on doing Bigger with extension with all four of our kids. I haven't fully looked at it yet but between the notecards, timelines, notebooks etc I'm afraid we are going to have to keep a lot of stuff organized. (not a strong point for any of us!). Any suggestions? What works for you? Thanks, Monica

[spidermansmum]

We are in a small house.We use on top of the piano for our everyday school books [out of the toddlers reach].We have a kitchen cupboard full o arts and craft materials.We put a small dinin breakfast table in our living room when we started homeschooling.I dont know many homeschoolers but in my experience homeschoolers houses tend to look a little different from schoolers.Its a bit like SAHM homes with toddlers look a bit different

[lmercon]

The rolling Steralite (sp?) containers that have 5 or 7 drawers work really well. You can find them at Walmart. You can label the drawers with different subjects and keep all books, activities, etc. for each subject in a separate drawer. You could have a drawer for the kids' binders. I use a separate one for art supplies. With the wheels on them, you can roll them into a storage area when you aren't schooling. The better organized you are, the more smoothly the day goes and the happier mom is at the end of it all!
hth,
Laura

[Tansy]

I have a table in my girls room, and a box of daily work, a book shelf devoted to just homeschooling books. I also have some great rolling drawers I got at Ikea, and one cupboard (in kitchen) devoted to art supplies. Pencil boxes and stuff like that to give everything a home to go to... the girls room is a tad cluttered. But the rolling drawers fit under the Ikea table perfectly and the stools push under the desk too so the only space used in the room when were not doing school is the foot print of the desk.

I live in a tiny house and Hubby was getting more and more frustrated with posters, timelines, and Chinese words stuck up all over the walls... Now its stuck up all over my kids room walls. My living room is as tidy as I can make it (I'm not Martha Stewart) but when hubby comes home If the kids do the 5 min room rescue the only thing on the floor is dog hair..

[pollo_la]

I dont know many homeschoolers but in my experience homeschoolers houses tend to look a little different from schoolers.Its a bit like SAHM homes with toddlers look a bit different

I imagine this is probably true!

One thing we did was to purchase a big closet/cabinet (the kind that are designed to be used in the garage for storage.). We put it in the corner of our kitchen (it is tucked away and out of sight though for the most part). Since we school the majority of the time at the kitchen table this works well. I keep all of the school books we are currently using in there. I also have games on one shelf, and art supplies on a couple different shelves. Pretty much anything that we need to do school is all right there, and the BEST part is that we can close the cabinet and put a baby lock on it when we need to!!

[mariaw]

We use milk crates for each kid. That's where they put their current books, binders, workbooks, papers, etc. They each have a "baby wipes" box of supplies in there too. That way, if we get bored with the school room, I can just pick up the crate and take it down to the kitchen or outside or whatever. My problem, however, is not with the kids books, supplies, etc., but with all their completed work before and after I look at it. I just can't seem to get on top of that!

[Samuel'sMommy]

When we decided that we were going to be homeschoolers, I told DH that I didn't want it to take over our house. I like things neat and organized and I knew that if we had stuff everywhere it would drive me crazy. That said, we have to school in our living/dining room and I don't see that changing anytime soon. So I got a couple of cabinets from Walmart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=9606721) to put all our stuff in. These are pretty big and hold all our art supplies, school books, educational games and puzzles, etc. Of course, we are only doing LHTH right now so we don't have a ton of stuff but we have a couple of empty shelves so I'm hoping that we will have space to grow. When we're done with school, we put everything away, close the doors and no one can tell that our dining room is also a school room. Hope that helps!

[funkmomma71]

I'm only HS one at this time so I don't have much to share, but I'll share anyway! We use the rolling cabinets for art and craft supplies, some of the other ladies mentioned using them also; for our everyday school needs I put all her books in a large rectangular basket with a smaller basket inside it for small stuff such as notecards, a pack of crayons, a pencil, our Bible verse box and other odds and ends. My daughter grabs that in the morning while I'm getting a cup of coffee and off we go! My husband also bought a desk with a hutch for my daughter, we keep reference books, infrequently used items and other things we want to keep out of reach of the little one. Our next project is to make a art desk, by using the two rolling cabinets as bases and placing a board across them. That will be dual purpose, my ds will be able to use it while he is little and my daughter willhave a large area to do art work. We keep all the stuff in our front room, it is not out of sight but it is neat. You will probably have to experiment with a couple of options before you hit on what works for you and your family. Best wishes!!

BTW, In our new home we were blessed with a rather large family room, so behind our couch I created a library area with books, a small flip out child size couch and it shares a table lamp with the rest of the room. My daughter loves to go there and "check-out" books.

Nancy

[nowweare6]

Wow, thanks for all the helpful advice. I knew you guys would come through! Maybe we could get HGTV to do a series just on how to be a homeschooling household without looking like one! I really like the idea of rolling carts. I do have a storage room off of one of the main rooms. I could easily roll the carts in when I wanted to pretend like I didn't have 4 kids and 3 dogs when company comes over! I also liked the idea of having each kid have a basket with their daily supplies and then a small basket on top with their pencils etc. I think shopping for this stuff will be a fun way to involve the kids in preparing for school. Maybe if I can find a good deal each kid could have their own rolling cart! Thanks again for sharing what works for you. Monica

[MainelyJen]

I laughed at the HGTV idea because just yesterday we were at my mom's house and she was watching one of those "get your house organized to sell" type of shows. I commented that we need a "get organized to homeschool without going crazy" show. Maybe we should start an e-mail campaign?

One thing I've liked using are tower bookcases with baskets for each shelf. This keeps things organized yet not visible. I like that because visual clutter makes me tense. Plus, I love baskets! I also have three large Peterboro magazine baskets. http://www.peterborobasket.com/ These were a gift from my sister and I just love them. They can hold many of your supplies, such as pencil boxes and other small totes. You could easily keep your teacher's manual and all the books you are currently working from in one of these. It is easy to tuck in a small cd player with some audio books and/or your current read alouds. They are portable, of course, so you can tote it to wherever you plan on sitting to read or teach. When I want to keep these on the floor and not have the items being stored inside visible, I simply take a section of fabric that matches our curtains and neatly lay it across the basket and raise the handles. Very pretty!

Another little trick I used one year was to buy the small, individual sized whiteboards at Wal-Mart and use the adhesive tabs which come with them to stick them onto the back of each child's 3 ring binder. Presto, instant portable whiteboard for working math problems, practicing spelling, or playing games like hangman. For a while, this can easily take the place of a larger whiteboard or chalkboard. You actually could also hide a whiteboard behind a pretty curtain - I have one which is hung under a smaller, high window - cover with a valance and when not in use it actually looks like it is just part of a larger window.

Specifically for HOD, you can do some clever things. For instance, my son is creating a stair-step timeline. This could be done on a presentation board which can be folded and tucked away when not in use. You can also create a timeline on poster boards (adhered together on the back with tape) and at least be able to tuck it into a closet or under-the-bed storage area when not in use.

I do know some mom's who use under-the-bed storage boxes to keep their HOD books which are not currently in use. This way, the kids can't dive in and read them all ahead of time, and they are clean, dust free and out of sight. I don't do this because I like to be able to vacuum under the beds without moving stuff around.

Oh, another favorite trick I picked up from a homeschooling mom of 7 was the wooden file cabinets. She had two wooden file cabinets in her family room. They were the 2-drawer type oak type. She had them at each end of their sofa, with the drawers opening to the back. Walking into the room and sitting down, you really didn't notice these were file cabinets. She could just walk around behind the sofa to access her file drawers and her bookcases as well. (Obviously, this only works if a) your sofa or chairs aren't up against a wall and b) you feel you need to hide the drawers!) Two of those file cabinets can hold an awful lot of books in hanging files, or small flip-top totes for art supplies or what have you.

Evaluate your existing space. Is there a linen closet you can live without? Kitchen cabinets that could be organized more efficiently, thus freeing up some space for homeschool storage? What about investing in something on wheels that can be set aside at the end of the school day - a small, oak kitchen island works well. I have this one and I love the portability of it. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... d=10072814Some have even purchased a library rolling cart - this can hold all the books and supplies and then be rolled into a closet at the end of the day. (They are expensive, though!)

Lastly, don't neglect to consider some trunks and/or a hope chest. I have three antique wooden tool chests (one is the size of a small hope chest, the others are smaller), plus my own hope chest. I keep these in our piano room mostly for decoration, but they can be easily used for homeschool storage.

I hope some of these ideas help. I'm not the kind of mom who resents homeschool clutter - this is my full-time job and I love it and am proud of it. So, I'm more the type who wants our timeline visible and proof of our work in a prominent location. . .just as my friends with public school kids have tests plastered all over their fridge! Yet, I've used these ideas throughout the past 9 years to keep things under control because we have a small house with no storage (ie, only 3 closets and no attic or basement. Eek!)

[MamaBear23Cubs]

I have bins from Target that are not too big and they fit everything for each guide up to Bigger (as far as I gone with HOD). They sit nicely on a shelf and the next shelf as all my extras, also in little clear containers or drawers. The other shelving unit is all my craft stuff for both schooling and non schooling (my sewing supplies). All this is stored in the so called sewing room but it's more like a walk in closet not contected to a bedroom so it's my school closet. Downstairs I have two bookshelves with all my reference books and children books. My oldest now 9, has her own bookshelf for all her books in her room. I have dedicated one shelf to use for current curriculum. Of course I have a smaller bookshelve with my library books that fits nicely under the front window. I also have a space in the closet under the stairs that holds stuff too. I try not to use that closet too much because it's also my cleaning closet but I get tired of carring my preschoolers school only toys up and down the stairs all the time.
At the moment the desk that I use for my daughter to do work 'alone' has our mini worlds and another project (easter eggs made from paper mache) along with their plans from Sunday school.
I personally love to have my house full of school clutter, shows that we were involved in our work, make sense? My hubby on the other hands loves it when he returns home to have this living\dinning room in 'showroom' condition alongwith the table ready for dinner. (still working on that last one )

[MainelyJen]

Oh, just thought of something else I did for a bedroom. I had a bookcase, but didn't like the visual clutter of the items on the shelves. Some shelves had books, but others had small baskets, etc. I picked up some small cardboard boxes (grocery store) all in a uniform size. Then I picked up a gorgeous border on a clearance sale which matches the color scheme of my room. It was so wide, it was slightly larger than the box height. I cut to size, wet and applied to each box. Now I have shelves of matching boxes on the bookcase. Books and other items are stored out-of-sight inside.

I often get compliments on these. "WHERE did you get those boxes?" "Um. . .Save-a-Lot." The really nice border was the key! It's amazing that such a simple thing can change the look of an entire room!

[water2wine]

I have my school within my house. My dining room is our main "school room" and it is open to the rest of the house. I have six kids and I am a curriculum junkie. I like to have a lot of books available to them just in general too so we have a lot of stuff. I have my basic things that we use everyday (not the entire HOD program but just the books we are currently on and all the extra things we do daily) in bins so they are easy to pull out and organize. Since bins pull out and then go away easy they work well. I took some pictures for another board I will post some as I go here so you can see. I did school throughout my house but hidden for the most part or at least still presentable. If there is clutter in my house it is never school. It is crafts either from my kids or my sewing but never school.

This is in our family room. Sometimes I pull out the baskets and sometimes I have the kids pull out just the HOD books for that day (it looks like that is what we did please ignore the fact that I obviously needed to dust ) but there is one bin for Bigger and one for LHFHG. When we are done they go back. I like the chest because it lets us do school on the couch and that is where we do all our reading. This allows me to always be able to find my books and yet not have the clutter. During down time it is our coffee table.

This cabinet is in the family room as well. It has all our DITHR and the books we are not currently on but are part of the program. It also has all our extra Bible references that we use plus a whole bunch of other stuff. Our Bible Study items are in a bin so we can pull them out easily and then put them away. Kids put binders in the drawers.

Here is the home of extra books. Seriously one shelf could hold all of HOD and you would be done. Maybe two if you had six kids and they put their stuff in there too. But it hols all our future HOD for next year, extra books and things that I love but have no idea when we will use. Some people call it a coat closet. We decided our books deserved a closet more than our coats and so we put up a coat rack and put shelves in the closet. This is super cheap and very functional. Normal people could hide their entire school in a closet and have room to spare.

This is a dining room that we call our school room. This is where the kids do their school. We found we never use our dining room because our larger table is in the kitchen and it can be made to look formal as well if need be. We could still use this room for eating too if we wished. This is where kids do independent work and exploring. There are lots of books for them to read in here. Most people would use their living room for this maybe and have it look like a library but that is our craft room and my sewing room. Around the corner is a book case I have not yet painted but will someday to make it match better with magazine cases in it. Every kid gets two magazine cases and they are labeled so that they know what goes in there. No more mom I can't find it. This really works!
And here is what most people would put their dishes in but we use it for extras and art supplies.

My plan is to put some cute fabric curtains on the windows and shelf as well as the book shelf so you can't even see the books. Just haven't gotten to that yet. It is on the list with refinishing the shelf. Anyway you could probably hide ten schools in what I have used to hide mine. There may be things that you have around your house that could easily be converted to your school books in and if not kitchen cabinets are an option as well. A few bins and a few cabinets would work. You are lucky that you found HOD first. Much of what you see on my shelf is part of my search to find the perfect thing I did not know was HOD. Now the kids hunt through them for fun in their spare time.

Hope something here is helpful. Again please do not think this is all HOD in my house. I could have every program in HOD and still have less than I have on my shelves. But hopefully there is something here that will be helpful to somebody.

[spidermansmum]

Water2wine-you have a lovely home .Thankyou for sharing

[water2wine]

You're welcome and thank you. It is not really as cluttered as it seems to look in these photos. If i didn't do HOD my house would look very different. I never would have time to paint that is for sure. That is what I love about having it all done for you is that it leaves you time for a life even though your first goal is to educate your children.