If you peruse homeschool blogs, you will find that many homeschooling parents show off plastic crates and shelves full of homeschool supplies. As organized as that may be, I did not want my homeschooling books and resources to scream “we homeschool” to everyone who visited my home. I wanted something attractive that would blend in with the rest of my homeschool decor. I purchased shelves and put together system that allowed my homeschool supplies to blend nicely with my other household items.
To do the same, you will need:
baskets
Bookshelves (preferably trendy cube shelves)
Ziploc Bags
First, I purchased EXPEDIT bookshelves from Ikea. I chose a set that matched my wood floors and funiture to blend in with everything else in the room. I suggest you try to find shelves that match the character of your room as well. I also purchased natural coordinating baskets that bit the cube shaped openings perfectly, allowing me to hide a multitude of sins.
I assigned each child 4 cubes. Two cubes had baskets, and two cubes were plain. I also assigned each child a stack of composition notebooks, one for each class, with each notebook binding being the same. These look surprisingly attractive on shelves.
Schoolbooks and textbooks were placed on the children’s shelves with like items together for a streamlined look. Small items were stored in Ziplock bags (like gluesticks, markers, small scissors, etc), so that they would be easy to get to without digging. All of these items went into one basket. Loose papers and other miscellaneous items went in the other basket. This created a very attractive cubby system.
Displayed along side the children’s cubbies is the families collection of magazine, with cubes that contain mail (until we get a chance to sort and process it. We have 3 units of 4 all together that spans the length of one wall and almost looks like it was built into our home design.
Now when someone walks into our home, they don’t know we homeschool unless we bring it up. Also, my kids always know where their homeschool books and supplies are.
Note: If you would prefer to use a tradition bookshelf, I recommend you use magazine files (holders) as they look like large books on the outside, but will allow you to hide sets of books and schools supplies without anyone being the wiser.