Friday, March 23, 2012

Spring Cleaning for the Homeschool Family Day 2: Supplies


 It's time to tackle the stash of crayons, tape, glue, markers, stamps, blocks, and whatever else you have in the "supplies" department.

If you read yesterday's post on purging and organizing books, then you will be already be educated on how to purge and organize supplies.

It is important to ALWAYS purge first. There are two very important reasons to purge first. One, it allows you to organize only what is important enough to keep. It is wasted space, energy and money to organize things that are no longer useful to you and your family. And two, it allows you to truly assess what books, supplies, etc. that you need to purchase for the future. I like to make notes on the notes app on my phone that way if I find a sale on glue sticks, I can check to see if there is a shortage or surplus at home.

I can't be the only person who continuously buys more of what we already have, can I?

Ok, here we go!

Step 1: Gather
Where do you store your supplies? Here, there and everywhere?
I even grabbed unused storage items.




Step 2: Purge
Kids don't use the broken crayons or the markers with no lid, toss them out! Or use the broken crayons to make melted crayon circles. Place broken crayons in a muffin tin, cook in oven at 150 degrees until fully melted.



Step 3: Analyze & Organize
You need to analyze what your needs are for you and your kids. Do they use paint often? Then you'll want paint and paintbrushes within reach. Do you have very small children? Then you'll want to place scissors and other potentially dangerous items out of reach of their little hands.
I grouped some of my items together like "things that stick" would be glue, tape, velcro, etc. and "things that hold things together" would be brads, paperclips, and staples.

The organizing can begin once you have assessed your needs. Again, try to find bins, baskets or boxes around the house or at second hand stores to keep costs down. Being organized is great, but being organized and broke is not!


Here are my results:

 Southern Living shelf that I had to have and then could
never figure out a use for it.
Red metal buckets are from Target.
This is my "out of reach of little hands" shelf.


Cheap plastic shoe boxes
I have dozens of these from my days of having too many shoes!
More of my name tag labels.
These boxes are stored within reach of kids. 


Garage Cabinets
More purple boxes that are sturdy. These are from my teaching days.
These are filled with items that we use, just not everyday. 


Close up of purple boxes


There you have it! One more area of our homeschool that is organized and it feels so refreshing.




3 comments:

  1. I purged books tonight, but my stack is not very high:( I have so many books, but I cannot depart. I am waiting on my new ikea shelf before I do supplies. Otherwise my very helpful 15 month old likes to knock down piles. Thanks for the inspiration

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  2. i have been tossing out our broken crayons for years! i'm going to have to get a basket and start saving those little tidbits!

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  3. That is a great idea with the crayons i will definitively do it! Thanks.

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