There are organized people and unorganized people. I was never an organized person, and living this way as a child never hurt me. People would always loan me a pencil and paper in class because I never had one. I even came unprepared in college! After I got married and got a job, things continued to be “organized” in giant piles around my house. Honestly, it didn’t bother me. I’m a type B person, and this lifestyle didn’t catch up to me until I started to home school.

Homeschooling forced me to organize

We didn’t start homeschooling until my oldest kid was in first grade. That was two years ago, and we lived in a 1150 square foot house with three kids. My system then was just putting each subject and all the manipulatives into giant totes and shoving them where I could find space. Then we bought the house we are in now (halfway through 1st grade we moved in), and it had a giant sitting room off from the living room. It was obvious this space would be the new home school room.

The problem was that I had never learned to organize properly, and for the next year and a half the piles started to build up in the home school room. The main issue was I just tried to use what we had to make the space work. I had a desk which composed of two night stands turned so their drawers faced out with a door between them. The millions of manipulatives we used were shoved into a small wardrobe my friend had given me. The kids didn’t even have desks!

It was “organized” chaos. Only it wasn’t organized at all and before long, it started to give me anxiety. I could not breathe in that space! It was not only disorganized, but it had also become a dumping ground for everything that lacked a place in the house. After a while, I didn’t even want to teach the kids in that room, or go in there at all. So much of my time was spent digging for what I needed, not knowing if I’d find it. It was terrible, until I finally listened to my best friend, Ashley.

I needed Help

Just as I have always struggled with being organized, my best friend has had the opposite problem. When we were kids, my closet would be overflowing, and she would BEG me to clean it. That has basically been the theme of our life. So when she learned of my life-ruining situation in the home school room, her brain got to work, and thus an organized home school room was born.

If I were an organized person, there would be a before picture to wow you. So, I guess now you understand why there isn’t one. But, the finished room itself is enough to knock the socks off of ya. So here it is. I hope that you may be able to steal some ideas to improve your own home school room, kid craft/play room, or office.

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The Organized room!

We are lucky to have such an amazing space to home school. Look at the giant windows that flood this room with natural light!

Related Posts: How to Get Started Homeschooling with Minimal Stress

One of my main problems was that my kids love all things arts and crafts. They had no where to play with their play-doh and paint. Ashley designed this giant craft table that my husband, James, built. It is the Swiss Army Knife of tables. (If you would be interested in building this craft table, you can get the plans here.)

The side closest to the windows is open shelves which store puzzles, a sewing machine, and group craft materials. The top is a dry erase board.

They each have a desk (you have to purchase the legs separately) to the right. I got them each a colorful chair from Ikea that they roll between their desk and their craft space depending on what they are doing.

The Craft Table Drawers

Three of the legs (one for each kid) on the craft table have these drawers from IKEA to hold craft and art supplies of each individual kid. We are in week 2 of this new system, and they are still organized.

My Desk/Algot System

At the back of the room is the IKEA Algot shelving system that solved all of my woes. All of my of the teacher books were floppy and would not stand up. Before these shelves, I just had the books stacked around everywhere. Ashley’s solution was INGENIOUS. I’ve been homeschooling for 2 weeks like this now, and not a day goes by that I’m not thankful she thought of this.

We purchased the cardboard magazine holders from IKEA to test it out. They worked great, but I decided to upgrade to the metal magazine holders for the subjects that would be coming down more often.

My desk is the Alex drawer unit from IKEA along with the legs. I had James built the top because I wanted it to be wooden.

The Manipulatives Peg Board

I’ll admit, I resisted this peg board idea of hers. I’m not a visual person, I didn’t think it would work! Well, I’m glad I was wrong. This has saved me SO MUCH TIME. We use Rightstart Math and absolutely love it. The program has a ton of manipulatives, and I was struggling to store them.

Sidenote: If you are wondering what Rightstart Math is, or if it would be a good fit for your family, read this post. I wish everyone knew what an amazing program it is. It is my FAVORITE part of homeschooling.

Ashley found these bags on Amazon. They are the size of a sheet of paper and can even hold our handwriting books. We use manipulatives for almost every subject and between the drawers from the Algot system, and this pegboard, we were able to find a place to store them all! Hallelujah!

James made the green pegboard for the kitchen in our old house, and we re-purposed it here. I am planning to paint it white when we have a break from school. The hooks came from Amazon.

The Kid’s Pegboards

Since we got the 39 inch tabletops from IKEA, I didn’t want their pencils and school stuff taking up work space on their desk. I also didn’t want them to have to run to their craft area during school and getting distracted. Ashley, once more, delivered a genius plan.

These IKEA peg boards are cheap, cute, and solve all the problems I mentioned above. The kids can display whatever they want on the clips, and the trays are awesome for tape, crayons, staplers, and glue. Their board also has this container for pencils and this one for erasers.

The reading Nook

On of my brilliant ideas to organize pre-Ashley was to build a giant bookshelf that took up a ton of space and displayed every single book we have ever owned. Ashley convinced me to get all the reading books off of the bookshelf and move the giant shelf of books to the basement to access when we needed a specific book. It freed up a ton of space in the home school room, but I had way too many reading books for the one bookshelf left in the room.

The Gutter Shelves

By this point the funds were running low, so I decided to go with gutter shelves hung at a height where the 3 and 6 year old could reach most of them. It took James an afternoon to complete and cost fifty bucks. Plus, I think it is really cute!

Below the gutter bookshelves is a bean bag chair. James’ uncle bought it for the kids for Christmas. It is a good quality bean bag, and all three kids can sit on it at one time. Plus, it can be refilled, and the cover is removable so you can wash it!

how getting organized has paid off

My life has drastically improved since I got the home-school room organized. It is a night and day difference, and I have learned, sometimes you have to spend money to get organized.

If I would have done this from the beginning when we moved in, I would have saved myself all the stress and hassle of the last two years. It was 100% worth it, and the only regret I have is not doing this sooner.

I hope that you found some inspiration here, keep checking back because we aren’t done yet. The walls need to be painted, along with the peg board. We will also scrape the popcorn ceiling, put recessed lights into the space, and then I will decorate.

Eventually there will be some kind of doors to close off the space and a new floor. I can’t wait until this room is completed, but for now, I am very happy with what we have accomplished! I feel less stress and life is much easier already.

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