How to organize a functional everyday homeschool space

I’m not sure how long I’ll be homeschooling. It’s the best fit for us right now, but that may change come January, or the next school year. Or we may be in it for a few more years? Who knows. I’m okay not knowing. That’s something 2020 has taught me.

But what I DO know is that I needed a very organized and functional homeschool space to teach from every day. I work set hours a few days a week, so we homeschool from about 9-11 Monday through Thursday and call it a day. (Fridays are for field trips!)

Thankfully, I had help from my friend McElle Zuro, who happens to be a professional organizer, to help me create a dream homeschool space that doesn’t take up a lot of room and that will still be functional whenever we end up not homeschooling anymore.

McElle from Orderly Organizing is an angel on earth.

McElle worked magic in my library/office, so I knew I wanted her to come back and help me turn the chaos in my kitchen office cupboards into an organized homeschool haven.

Before:

After:

The homeschool cart

My hands-down favorite part of the space is my homeschool cart. This baby may be the best $35 I’ve spent. All of the things we need every day for homeschool fit on the cart, and I can roll it around the house depending on where we feel like doing school that day. Each child has one of these caddies (even the ones who don’t officially homeschool) to keep their school things (folders, notebooks, pens, crayons, scissors, etc.) organized. Who doesn’t want their own caddie?

Homeschool cart from Target | White caddies

The Shelves

The shelves, once a mess of whatever goes wherever, are now organized with labeled containers, and no one (so far) dares disrupt the order that now prevails.

These bins hold school work, art work, mail, and the like for each person in the family.

Upright bins for papers

These bins hold our art and craft supplies, bubbles, play dough, coupons, and stationary.

Large organizer bins

The smaller size lassos our hardware, cords, candles, and cookbooks.

Smaller bins

The Drawers

These junk drawers are now divided into little just-the-right-size bins for all the paperclips, sticky notes, and pens (oh, the pens!) so there’s no room to just throw stuff in there.

Clear drawer organizers

I love this cord fastening tape McElle introduced me to. Genius! And these white open bins with handles hold all of our electronics and other doodads in the deeper drawers.

We cleared off the counter so everything is in a drawer or on a shelf, and the space feels so refreshing now. Any questions about our homeschooling space? Let me know!