Inspiration and Ideas to Organize Homeschool Learning Spaces

Everyone organizes differently for a new homeschool year, but we all want creative learning spaces that are both functional and fun.

Creative Homeschool Space Possibilities

Discover unconventional ways of organizing by arranging furniture differently. Take two open backed book cases and lay them sidewise. Butt them back to back. Place a large finished out piece of wood on top of the bookcases. Use a few nails to keep the top in place, and you have a beautiful work table with open storage below. Add some bright colored baskets to the open space underneath and you have a one-of-a-kind learning area.

A dedicated art space for your budding artist doesn’t have to be large. Use an oversized, deep drawer. Paint the drawer with a favorite color and fill it with art supplies that are in easy reach but out of the way.

Cost You Nothing Homeschool Room

Empty gallon paint cans, small cans, and glass jars are some of my very favorite organizing tools because they are versatile and can be decorated in stylish ways. Gallon paint cans are perfect for holding rolled up maps, small rolls of butcher paper or overflowing amounts of manipulatives.

If you get bored with the way the paint cans look, they can be covered with a patterned fabric to update the look or they can be pitched in the trash.

Using every square inch of a learning space is also important. Look at nooks and crannies where a pegboard can be added. Pegboards in bright pink, orange or lime add a pop of color to your room, but are also clever organizing tools. Not only does a pegboard hold hooks for craft supplies, but small compartmentalized bins can be added onto hooks to organize the over whelming amount of school supplies.

Instead of wasting endless hours trying to find the perfect bookshelf to fit your space, try using salvaged wood to create book ledges. They are inexpensive, can be cut to fit your exact wall area and have a lot of character, especially when you load them up with your Read-Alouds.

Crafts have a way of creeping into all parts of your home and taking over. To keep crafts corralled, I used colored melamine trays I discovered at the thrift store to store craft projects on. The trays stored easily on the bookshelves. When it was craft time, I simply pulled down the tray and put it on the table for my boys. Not only was it a sanity saver for me to put away the half-finished masterpieces at the end of the day, but it saved me huge chunks of time by not having to put away all the small pieces like ribbons, glue, buttons, scissors, pens and scraps of material each time.

Though drapes of fabric may not seem to be high on the list of an organized homeschool space, draped material is a fast and beautiful way of hiding clutter. You can even use draped fabric on opened bookshelves. Buying inexpensive curtain clips, I simply pinched and gathered a finished edge material to form a pleat and held the pinched fabric together with a rustic clip on an O ring. Use an expandable small rod wedged in the book shelf opening and hang the O ring on the rod to hide storage.

Unusual Homeschool Storage Options

Another inexpensive, but sturdy tool is a plant pot.They come in many different colors to match any theme you may want in your homeschool learning area. Small plant pots can store crayons map colors craft scissors scratch paper pens and pencils. Keep supplies in arm’s reach by placing them on a small turntable.

If you have a tiny homeschool space, think about using plastic, rolling drawers. They are inexpensive and portable. When I first started homeschooling, there were five of us in an eight hundred square foot cabin. I used portable rolling drawers to store school curriculum and supplies under our beds.

Look at the garden section of stores for storage tools that are not only inexpensive, but unique. Tiny plastic buckets from the garden section are great storage tools when you have toddlers because they have soft rounded edges. Leave the expensive bookshelf section at stores to browse the many different arrangement of cabinets and open storage in the kitchen section. One or two kitchen cabinet sections usually have more storage, are well built, and can be turned any direction to fit the area you have. Did I mention that there are normally more options for color?

Most of these tips you can do and cost next to nothing. Creating a homeschool learning space is not only fun, but the best part is that you can conquer the clutter. Don’t just imagine the perfect learning space, grab some of these ideas and create it.

About the Author

Tina Robertson celebrated the graduation of Mr. Senior in 2013 and is getting ready to graduate her next son. Because of her love for new homeschoolers, she mentors moms through her unique program called New Bee Homeschoolers. She loves all homeschoolers, though, as she shares her free 7 Step Curriculum Planner, unit studies, lapbooks and homeschooling how tos. She can't sing, dance, or craft, but she counts organizing as a hobby. She is still in the homeschool trenches blogging at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus.