Quick Project: Organizing Homeschool Supplies

Now that we've been doing school for about a month, I've been figuring out what works (and what doesn't), and what we need in terms of storage.  I also got some new baskets and bins for my birthday, so it was time to organize the homeschool supplies! First I gathered everything on our bed.  I like to gather things for projects here because it forces me to deal with them before I go to sleep...

I had started sorting some of the things out into the new colorful baskets already, so this actually only took about 20 minutes to get everything figured out.  Most of the bins and baskets found a home on top of my craft supplies (where hopefully Hannah won't be able to dig in them too much).

The big red bin holds my planning stuff, extra folders, and little workbooks.  Some of the file folders also have different categories of manipulatives in them, like laminated play doh mats, or letter disc mats.

Next to my laminator is the stack of bins.  The red one on top has some of my extras that I'm working on, as well as some extra school supplies like note cards.  Red is the color for "Mom's stuff", meaning the kids stay out of those ones.

Green has different manipulatives for learning letters, like our foam alpha builder blocks and the milk cap letters I made a few weeks ago to go with our disc mats.  Blue has math manipulatives, including some shape blocks and dry erase number tracing cards.

On the floor is a box of extra art supplies.  These are special supplies, so they stay in our bedroom.  We also have a large box of papers, markers, and crayons in the living room, which are always free access.  The bin with the white cover has all the paints.

Peeking into some of these pictures is the stack of library books.  I try to order books a week or so ahead of time for the letter we are studying, so I always have some for next week stacked up, and then a stack of the ones we're done with until the next library day.  That way we have current ones in the green bin in our living room.  These are the ones we pick from every day for reading time.

Now that everything is at least somewhat organized, we only have the everyday stuff on the dining room table, which is nice for me, since I prefer a cleared-off space.  That's just our calendar folders, my lesson plan binder, a Bible, our read-aloud book (currently James and the Giant Peach), and anything I've pulled out for that day.  Everything else is put away.

I think this organizing went so fast because I've been planning it out in my head for the past few weeks.  I'm glad to have a spot for everything!  What quick projects have you done lately?