Last fall, I reorganized where we kept our school things.  I moved things from the family room to a little used front room.  It was intended to be a dining room/or living room, but we have a couch, piano, and antique secretary in there.  It wasn't being used much, so I thought it would make a good place to keep school things.  I wanted to free the family room from school clutter and chaos. 

My hesitation in turning the front room into a school zone was appearance.  It is the first room you see when you enter the house, and I didn't want the first thing seen to be clutter.  I would like it to be neat, calm, and welcoming.  But, I decided that we are, after all, a homeschooling family.  And if our home reflects it, that is all right.

I put an old microwave cart in the corner and used it to store pencils, crayons, manipulatives, etc.  On the top of the cart, I used magazine holders to store the kids' softcover folders, notebooks, and workbooks upright in their own holders.  I also decided to set up a card table and chairs for them to do their work on.  That way, their work won't be scattered over the family room and kitchen, for us to move out of the way every time we sit down!

Today, the piano tuner was scheduled to come.  He is blind, and so I wanted to clear the path for him to make things easier.  I removed the card table and chairs, and cleared everything from the piano.  The room looked so much better minus all of its' stuff!  The cart was still beside the piano, but in contrast to the clear room, looked like a cluttered eyesore.

So, today my thoughts are, once again, on how to arrange things in that room.  I want it to be useful, yet not unappealing to the senses.  I haven't reached any firm conclusions - at least not ones that won't cost $$$.  But, I'll keep you posted. 

If I could dream, I'd want a nice bookcase with doors that can be shut to hide the debris.  And I'd get a nice, round, wooden table with fold-down leaves for the kids to work on.  When not in use, I could drop the leaves and put it against the wall. 

But, what can I do in the meantime? 

Does anyone else wish to balance the necessary learning supplies with some degree of neatness?

Have you come up with some ideas that help organize things in a way that still allows a room to look nice?

Please share your ideas! 

Posted by msack

I know how you feel. I want my home to be a learning home but some how learning and orgazined don't seem to fit our house.

Let me know if you come up with anthing great!

Posted by jaminacema

Is there any way you could put a curtain up to block the clutter when you want to? maybe curtains in front of the bookcases instead of doors. Fabric is cheap!

Posted by 3FoldChord

I would LOVE to convert our front room into our school room... Right now it is a pretty sitting room... but we never have guests, no one ever comes over, except occassionally our parents....

Yet my hubby says NO to that idea, becuaseit's the front room, it has a big window, people can see it and they need to see a pretty sitting room....

Oh, well.