Homeschool the Smart Way: 12 Tips for Staying Organized

When you choose to homeschool, it’s yet another way you are using your home space. Often you’re teaching your children in the same space where your family also plays, eats, and unwinds. And how you navigate and manage your homeschool space and storage isn’t always straightforward. It usually takes a bit of research, a touch of creativity, and a large dose of hard work to make your homeschool fit into your home, your schedule, and stay well organized.

Creating a healthy learning environment for your child or children includes a clutter-free space that is easy for your children to use and even easier for you to stay well organized. So here are the 12 most practical tips we have found to help you best stay organized in your home with the classroom, homeschool materials, homeschool curriculum and lessons, and homeschool records.

Creating and Organizing Your Home and Your Classroom

1. Do some research.

Research before you start creating and organizing. Jot down ideas you like, create a Pinterest board or two, and imagine how you want the space to feel.

Here are some helpful resources to get you started:

• “Homeschool Classroom Tour: Basement Classroom” Join us here at My Team Tangerine as we tour our classroom with lots of details.

• The Happy Homeschool Mom shares her tips on how she uses her whole home for homeschooling and the benefits.

• “15 Homeschool Room Ideas” by A Blissful Nest to help spark your imagination.

For more ideas, below are pictures of our old classroom in a 10 x 10 spare bedroom prior to us moving everything down into the more spacious basement.

Lastly, set a timeframe for your research. This way you don’t get stuck in this phase. There is always going to be an idea you haven’t seen or an item you wish you could have for you kids’ classroom. One to two weeks is usually plenty of time to do your research—then move on.

2. Plan it out.

Before you start creating your homeschool or classroom space in your home, plan it out first on paper. This will help make your first attempt at creating a homeschool space or classroom more successful, more functional, and more organized.

• Create a floor plan or shelf plan of all the areas you plan on using for homeschooling. You can use one room in your house or you can spread homeschool throughout your home.

• Decide on essential items and where you want them located. You can do this by subject or based on your curriculum materials, creating stations or storage areas specific for each one. You can also create spaces specific for each child where all of their homeschool curriculum or items are located next to where they will be working.

• Once you have it planned out on paper, then you are ready to purchase or repurpose any storage materials needed.

• Lastly, put it all together and create your homeschool space.

3. Don’t forget about using walls and closets.

Nowadays there are so many innovative storage items available that a small wall space or tiny hall closet can become a huge asset in homeschooling.

For walls:

• Shelves

• Dry erase boards

• Chalk board (awesome DIY chalkboard video by Moore the Merrier Vlogs)

• Cork board

• Pegboard

• Maps/posters

• File holder

• Hooks

For closets:

• Bins or baskets

• Plastic containers

• Shelves or small bookcases

• Hooks

• Baskets

• Cart on wheels

Organizing Homeschool Materials and Curriculum

4. Keep out only what you are using (i.e., homeschool material rotation).

It is so tempting to put out a ton of items on shelves and carts for your kids to access in your classroom, but that is overwhelming and more challenging to keep organized. Instead, put out only the essentials, which is usually what you are using for that month or semester. The rest keep in bins either in a closet, garage, or basement.

Now for some of you, you may be homeschooling in a small space to begin with, and you can’t put out more than what is essential. For other homeschoolers who have a larger space to use, I still recommend following this tip if you want to stay organized and clutter-free.

The other benefits of rotating homeschool material out on shelves is it keeps them fresh and interesting for your kids and easier to locate items because there is simply less on the shelves.

5. Create a command center.

A command center is where schedules, calendars, workbooks, and homeschool curriculum get stored for easy access. You can use a shelving unit, get creative with a chalkboard and wall shelf, or use an old file cabinet. Here are some brilliant command center ideas for your family by Kaleidoscope Living. Because we love to explore creative ideas visually, here are even more command center ideas.

6. Storage on wheels.

Sometimes you may need your homeschool space in your home to be a bit more flexible than most furniture allows. A storage cart on wheels is a wonderful way to provide flexibility in your layout, is budget friendly, and offers plenty of storage for your homeschool supplies. A three-tiered, open-storage cart is popular, and you can usually get them at Amazon, Target and Michaels. Another favorite of ours is a 12-drawer storage cart on wheels, which offers tons of additional storage space for homeschoolers.

7. Use crates, bins and trays.

Any homeschooler will tell you that crates, bins, and trays are one of the key components to any well-organized homeschool classroom or home. When you check out homeschool classroom ideas or storage ideas, pay close attention to the types of containers they use to gain better insight as to what is used and how they use them.

When purchasing homeschool storage containers, consider getting an array of sizes. Bigger isn’t always better. In fact, a lot of times the bigger bins are harder to keep organized and harder for little ones to find things.

Some of our favorites include:

• IKEA mini storage chest

• Target 6-cube organizer and fabric bins

• Wooden Living square serving trays with handles at Amazon

• IKEA KVISSLE letter tray

• Round bamboo basket at Montessori Services

• Glaver’s acacia small wooden bowls at Amazon

8. Clearly label items.

Labeling your drawers, boxes, storage bins, and containers takes a little extra time on the front end but saves you so much time from the day-to-day cleaning and organizing. If you have children under the age of 7 years old, you may want to use colors or pictures to label bins. If you have older children, you can simply label items using a label maker. We like Brothers P-Touch portable label maker, which is available on Amazon. To color code, you can simply buy plastic containers that are already colored or use colored masking tape.

9. Three-ring binders and spiral binding.

Binders and spiral binding your curriculum and homeschool papers are two of the easiest ways to keep all that paper organized. If you can, avoid loose-leaf paper and worksheets. They are more easily lost and often get damaged when trying to store. Purchasing a three hole punch and a few binders keeps those papers more organized when you are on a budget.

If you want a slightly less bulky option, consider getting a binding machine to spiral bind papers instead. The two machines we recommend are the Rayson TD-132 and ProClick P50, which are both available on Amazon. If you don’t want to make the investment on a binding machine, no worries—just check out your local office supply store, as they usually will do spiral binding for you with a small fee.

Check out our how-to video for binding papers.

Organizing Records and Old Assignments

10. Homeschool planner and work journals.

A homeschool planner and calendars are a must for any homeschooler. You simply need to be able to keep all of your thoughts, schedules, lessons, field trips, and yada-yada-yada organized. Otherwise it is just so easy to forget something.

Here are some of our favorite planners and calendars:

• My Team Tangerine Homeschool Planner at our shop. (Free to homeschooler subscribers.)

• A large desk calendar by AJA Fillmore Creations on Etsy

• Homeschool Planner by Polka Dot Posie Print on Etsy

11. Keeping it digital.

For some of your homeschool planning, you may be able to keep it digital and store in folders on your computer or electronic device. This is such an easy way to keep the physical clutter down.

You can also take pictures or scan homeschool assignments, lessons, and artwork and store them electronically or make them into small, neat photo albums. Then discard the actual items once again, keeping down clutter from all those papers.

12. Banker’s boxes

Bankers boxes are such an easy and economical way to manage your homeschool records, old assignments, and even your curriculum materials. Check out our video sharing a cool tip to make using banker’s boxes for homeschool storage even more effective.