Keeping it tidy

I don't know about you, but I need some tidiness to be at peace in my world. Thus, I am often not at peace. But I try.

When we decided to homeschool, one of my biggest concerns was that my whole house was going to start to look like an elementary school classroom. Honestly, I'd like to be one of those homeschool moms that likes when school stuff is everywhere and huge maps are hanging and monster white boards are the dining room wall art. I think it is very productive and conducive to learning. It's just not for me.


We definitely have our share of clutter. Projects that stay on the tables for way too long, our art easel that lives in the entryway, books everywhere, and I actually like those visuals of what we've got going on here. But I like to be able to put stuff away if we want it put away. Still accessible, but out of sight when we are done.
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I've talked to several people who don't have designated school rooms and struggle with the same thing, so I thought I would share how I try organize some of the chaos that naturally comes with educating kids in your home.
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First of all, everyone, including me, has one of these.

We didn't used to have separate storage for our own books. We stored math books on one shelf, journals on another, whatever chapter book they were reading got put back on the right shelf, etc. Just recently we got these and they keep everything in them that they use daily. They can take them wherever they want and have everything they need for the most part. This has simplified things tremendously. Huge time-saver. I'm sure everyone else had this figured out long ago, but I like to complicate my life and take my time discovering these things.
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Here is one of my biggest storage areas. It is in our living room and looks like this.

Except during the school day when it looks like this... I try keep storage in mind when I am buying furniture. Here is my dining room.

I like to call these "homeschool chairs", cause look! Secret hiding places!

Here is our coffee table. Looks just like a normal coffee table, right?

But it's not. It's a super-secret-undercover-amazing-self-educating-straight-from-God homeschool coffee table.

I also try to use storage containers that are a little inconspicuous. Here are shelves in our family room, where we do a lot of our work.

I like to think that the black mesh storage drawers for all of our pencils, crayons, markers, scissors and glue aren't the first thing you see here. If they are, just don't tell me, K?

Here is one of the tables where we work a lot. There are lots of tables that have these little drawers out there. They are very handy.

Please note those pieces of cereal under the table. That is very unusual. Usually they are crushed into powder.

Everyone needs large US and World maps. I don't have a place to put one on the wall, so I bought one of those science fair tri-fold foam boards. I put a US map on one side and a world map on the other with spray adhesive.

When we are finished with it, it folds right up and can slide under a couch or behind a door. It's fast and easy to get out. Let's be honest, if you have to unroll a map, you're never gonna use it.

A large majority of our stuff is in our laundry/mudroom. We lined a wall with shelves. It is kind of a pain because it cut down on our space in there, but it is worth it to have it in a room that is not the most visible one in the house. You would be amazed at how much stuff you can get on two of those bookcase shelves. And they are pretty inexpensive, too.

I think you get the idea, but now I'm starting to feel artsy with my shelf pictures...Sorry, just one more...Ok.

So that's pretty much where everything goes in our house. If you sit and think, you will probably be surprised at how many places you can come up with to store stuff. Especially if you invest in some plastic containers.

Oh plastic containers, you are the love of my life.

Anyone else have a great storage idea to share?