Storage ideas for a small classroom!

If you are anything like me you have more in your classroom than you can store so you take the extra home and store it in the attic or garage. Well, my husband has not been so pleased with my school to home storage arrangement and has challenged me to a classroom storage redo before school ends! That's only 5 weeks to revamp my storage solutions and fit everything into my classroom! Yikes, this could be difficult for a person like me! This will require several posts since I started my cleanout today.

My classroom has a wall of cabinets, 1/2 mine and 1/2 for the church that uses to room on Sundays. Every Friday I pack up everything I use for the week to then pull it out again on Monday. It is imperative that I put everything back in it's place because if I get lazy I won't be able to find my supplies on Monday. Here are my top tips to start organizing and I will post my progress as I discover more ways to store my classroom supplies:

1. IKEA: I love the Ikea red and blue plastic bins, they are $1.99 each. These are especially helpful for sorting books, storing toys on shelves and I use them as cubbies in the hall for my kiddos this year since I have a child with severe food allergies. On this shelf I have one red bucket that holds all of the kiddos journals. These buckets also stack and nestle creating a tower or storing inside themselves.

2. TOWERS OF BUCKETS: On the left hand side of this picture you can see 2 rolling carts with 10 buckets each. I purchased these at Michaels when they were half off, I paid $34.99 each and it was well worth the price. They easily roll to store in a cabinet over the weekend and I am no longer trying to stuff boxes full of manipulatives we use daily back inot cabinets on Fridays.

3. STACKED FILING CABINETS: I have one large cabinet that is taller than me and just open space. I used to just shove stuff in there and half of the vertical space would be wasted. It was tall enough for two filing cabinets stacked on top of each other. This cabinet is just wide enough to contain these filing cabinets and my 2 rolling carts. This helps me to organize paperwork, store my Betty Luken flannel board set and one filing cabinet has 2 drawers where I can store my laptop over the weekend.
I also slide my bulletin board supplies alond the side between the filing cabinet and the wall which keeps them flat and ready to be pulled out whenever necessary.

4. SHEET AND BEDDING BAGS: Whenever I purchase sheets or bedding I always save the zipper bags. I used to use them at home but now I have found them useful to store anything from books, toys, manipulatives and little people playsets. The best thing about them is they are flexible allowing you to push them into spaces that would not accomodate a bin.

5. TENSION RODS AND BOOK BAGS: Possibly my very favorite trick is a tension rod hanging in a cabinet with book bags hooked to it. You could store just about anything that isn't too heavy. I particularly like to gather materials for theme units and weekly lesson plans in the bags and hang them with monthly dividers!

I can't wait to succeed with my husbands challenge! I will keep you posted! Enjoy,