When I was homeschooled, we lived in a small duplex and used a legal-sized briefcase to hold all my schoolbooks. My mom would tote it around to the dining room table, the sofa, or wherever we were doing school that day. I grew up knowing you don’t need a big space to do homeschooling!
Now that I’m homeschooling my kids, we live in an apartment. And it’s our dining room that does double-duty as a school room . . . which we just happen to eat in.
In this article, I’ll share my best secrets (and plenty of pictures) for making room for everything, keeping it all tidy, and not letting school take over your home.
There Are BIG Benefits to Small Spaces
I enjoy having our school space so centralized in our home. Honestly, if we had a large house, I’m not sure I would do it any differently. Here are just a few of the benefits to keeping everything cozy:
- It lets me keep an eye on my kids while they work independently. This set-up makes it super easy to give a reminder to stay focused or quash a crayon rolling contest. And because I can easily keep an eye on them from just about anywhere . . .
- I get more done! I can fold laundry on the sofa, clean the kitchen, and work in my “home office” (i.e. the desk in the living room) all without wondering if the glue sticks are being used in a manner inconsistent with their intended purpose.
- It forces me to clean up school work daily so we can eat dinner. *Ahem* OK. Almost daily. Occasionally it is pizza in the living room or me sweeping everything into a giant pile for the night. But it really makes you accountable when the mess is in your face.
My Best Tips for Managing a Small School Area
1. Have a dedicated location for library books.
I know it’s really hard to reserve empty space on a bookshelf when there are so many books that need good homes. But, honey, if you don’t have a place for those things they’re going to get lost.
Who hates library fines?! *raises hand*
Or, worse yet, they won’t make it out of the library bag and into your little one’s hands where they should be.
If you can’t manage a shelf, use a crate. Put the books in spine-up (rather than stacked flat) so you can see all the titles. *Bonus* You can even use this crate as your library bag, so no transferring books when you get home and they’re already packed to go back. How easy is that?!
With our library books front and center, my girls remember that they’re there and grab them frequently. I remember that they’re there and remember to incorporate them into school time. And we know where they’re at when it’s time to gather them up.
2. Subdivide and group.
In addition to those wonderful crates I mentioned before, I use everything from plastic cups to the reusable plastic containers lunch meat comes in to sort everything. And I mean everything. googly eyes, glue sticks, puzzle pieces, letter tiles, pens, pencils, markers, erasers. They all get their own tiny home.
Then group those small containers by subject or activity. Have a crate or bin for all the frequently used science supplies, one with all your math manipulatives, and one for arts and crafts.
3. Put space limits on everything.
The space you have to work with determines how much of anything you can keep. Ask yourself, “Where will I be keeping art supplies? How much space should I devote to it?” And once you have determined what that reasonable amount of space is, stick to it.
I have an old diaper box in the top of a closet to collect all those random objects my kids love to create with: paper plates, paper bags, empty tissue boxes, paper towel rolls. It really comes in handy! But that box is it. If it doesn’t fit in the box, I don’t keep it.
4. Everything must earn its place.
Be ruthless! Like when it’s two weeks after the birthday party. And your kids have had so much fun kicking those balloons around. But now they’re really just taking up space and getting in the way. So, it’s time to get out the scissors and do them in. That kind of ruthless.
Don’t keep the curriculum that just didn’t work out in the hope that someday it magically will. Let it go live with another family whom it might help. Don’t keep every masterpiece your child makes. Choose only the very best ones. Photograph pieces you’d like to remember but don’t have space for or send them away to grandparents who will cherish them. But you can’t keep it all.
Make sure that whatever you have in your school space is actually adding value and earning its place.
5. Make tidying up a routine.
In theory, this is easier in a small space because everything is close at hand and (if you set it up correctly) easy to put away. Also, as I mentioned earlier, you’re really forced to tidy frequently just to have the space for the next subject . . . or to eat lunch.
But don’t rely on that to make you do it! Build specific times into your schedule to stop and file papers, put away books, and wipe up the eraser sheddings. I do a quick five-minute tidy mid-morning, at lunchtime, and when we’re done for the day.
Find more tips like these to make homeschooling simpler and more successful in Homeschooling 101.
Show Me Your Small Space Homeschool!
Now it’s your turn! Send me a pic of your small space learning area and tell me your best secret for making it work. Just e-mail it to vida [at] mercerhomeschooling [dot] com.** I’ll share it with our community on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #smallspacehomeschool.
It could be a shot of your whole area or just a section. Show us where you keep your books, or how you tame the paper clutter, or your favorite table-top organizer. Share your expertise so we can all benefit!
**Responding gives Mercer Homeschooling permission to share the image, your first name, and a quote about your space.
