Organization

As I have read about homeschooling in general and the project based homeschooling book I am reading, I have learned that physical organization of supplies is essential.  We are halfway to my perfect organization dream.

When we first moved into our home, we had these awesome storage cupboards.  The top houses all our games, however, the bottom used to be three drawers.  They were nice and sturdy, but they didn't have runners on them to help pull them out.  So, over the course of the first year we lived her Russ took the old drawers and the weird shapes, unfinished shelves in the top cabinet, made shelves from some cupboards we pulled out of the bedrooms, made doors for the bottom half (that took months because he had to keep adjusting them because nothing is plum in this house), we finally added hardware and I have a great storage area for all puzzles.  Remington on occassion still opens up the cupbaord and just dumps everything out.  However, he has learned over time to just pull one out a time.  Taking this picture got me to spend a half hour and get the cupboard cleaned out and organized again from the time I shove things back in in a hurry.

Eventually this wall is going to have a fold up, latched to the wall kids table.  A large aluminum sheet to hag posters on and a shelf above.  The shelf will be like the Ikea holders that hold the bins pictured below.  We would just buy one of the Ikea shelves, but none of the are long enough for the area we want.  It will be nice because I will be able to keep smaller tupperwares on the top and keep other necessities inside.  The table will have a paper holder on the bottom side for adding a paper roll that can be pulled across the table for fun time.  It is going to be awesome when it is finished.  I have already purchased the chairs and the bins and Russ told me he has to finish the other house proejects we have started before he will work on it.

Right now the bins are stored in Madalynn's closet.  I took a day about two months ago and labeled everything for Russ to help her find stuff.  The top shelf are the bins that are going to go on the kitchen wall.  The small colored tupperwares will go out in the kitchen on the shelf.  The pink tub is my file folder box of projects i have printed out to do, or finished projects we done with and want to keep.  The brown basket is full of supplies of current working projects.  It is nice to have somewhere to just throw the stuff when I need to clean up fast.  There are bins of art supplies, scissors, flash cards, etc.

This desk is just to the right of the kids wall area. When we remodel the bathroom, we will be taking the linen closet cupboard and hanging them in this area, from the ceiling down, building our own cupboards down below with a counter top.  It will be the kids computer area on the left side and my craft area for the rest.  Right now, I keep a stack of papers in front of the copier.  My kids can take those anytime and use them to do whatever they want.  My rule in our house...all paper should be used on both sides before we get rid of it.  There is a small black organizer on the back right side.  That contains the kids scissors, glue and nice twist crayons.  They are in a spot Madalynn can reach to do whatever she wants, but Remington can't yet see.  The Tupperware on the desk holds all Madalynn's finished projects.  I am not going to keep them.  I have decided that I will just scan them and once a year I will do a picture book of my favorites.  We will see how that project goes, but I like the idea.

Our kitchen is the best feature of our home.  It is so large and very much not all in use.  It is nice to have cupboard space.  In the island I have four cupboards.  Two are dedicated to kids stuff.  I have a box of cards game and Madalynn sewing machine in one cupboard and the other cupboard has kids church stuff, travel stuff and a random box.  Eventually all these things will be in a six foot radius when we finish the kids wall.  It just takes time to get it all done.

Madalynn has her own pink tub for projects to work on each day.  I try and switch it up and have it ready on the kitchen table each morning.

I already posted about book organization.  All kids reading books are on books shelves in Madalynn's room.  I recently got on of my baskets out and put all the board books in it for Remington.  Eventually we will have floor to ceiling book shelves in the living room.  I keep nice books that only I read to my kids in the living room.

I think I went through everything, and as organization goes, it constantly alters according to need.

Hope you enjoy.