10 Ways to Organize Your Homeschool In a Small Space

BySara Dennis Well-Run Homeschool

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Are you looking for a few small space homeschool ideas for your home?

Here are a few tips that work wonders for me in my small house. Even with a large family!

1. Use the Entire House

There’s no reason, in a small space, to keep your homeschooling to only one room. Or even to attempt to dedicate one room for homeschooling.

Instead, use the entire house!

Enjoy reading classic children’s literature curled up on the sofa with your children. Create reading spaces in bedrooms and cubby holes for your children to curl up and read their literature books.

Do messy art projects and science experiments in the kitchen.

To be perfectly honest, I sit down with the kids in the kitchen to tutor them through their subjects. And then the kids wander off to read their history books in their bedrooms.

Use your entire home and make homeschooling a lifestyle!

2. Designate an Activity for Each Area

At the same time that you’re using the entire home for homeschooling, be certain to designate an activity for each area. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children completing messy art projects in the middle of the living room where it’s hard to clean up.

The kitchen is a better spot for messy activities.

Nor do I want the kids curled up with a book in the middle of the kitchen when I’m trying to put dinner on the table.

So take a look at your space and designate an activity for each area. Store the necessary supplies nearby and encourage your kids to use the space appropriately.

3. Small Space Homeschool Idea: Crates

I love, love, love using crates in my homeschool. Each child has a crate designated for them. And all of their personal homeschool supplies go in the crate.

This means each crate has a pencil box, ruler, spiral notebooks, literature books, and textbooks used by that child alone. Any group books are kept on a shelf.

In the morning, the kids grab their crate and head to their favorite study spot. They have everything they need to sit down and get to work.

What the kids are finished homeschooling, the crates are returned to their spots under coffee tables and chairs. To be honest, if you use crates that are the same size, you can store the crates on top of each other in the corner.

The system works well enough that even my college-age kids have kept their crates in use as a place to store their college materials at home.

4. You Need a Shelf Designated for Homeschooling

While personal homeschool items can be stored in the crates, you’ll find you have books and resources used by all the children.

Don’t put these in a child’s crate. It’s guaranteed to start a fight!

Instead, designate a shelf or bookshelf in your home to store all resources used by multiple children. For instance, I put all history and science books on our homeschool shelf. The children know where to go to find their assigned books.

Library books also go on this shelf instead of into a crate. It gives me an easy spot to find all the library books we’re using instead of sending out a search party.

So along with a space to put personal homeschool resources, you’ll need a space to store communal resources as well.

5. Use a Filing Box

I keep a filing box under my desk to hold all printables that we’ll need throughout the school year. It’s organized by week and child. Which makes it super easy to get ahold of the printables and worksheets each child will need any given week.

And if we’re running behind in one subject, I simply 3-hold punch the printable and slip it into the child’s 3-ring binder.

The filing box has saved my sanity over the years.

No longer do I spend my weekends trying to print off the worksheets and maps we need. No longer do I stress about planning.

Instead, I need 5 minutes of quick planning with my high school student on Monday morning to make certain we’re on the same page and the family is ready for the week.

You can read more about my simple filing system here.

6. Small Space Homeschool Idea: Portfolios

Another easy small space homeschool idea is portfolios. Essentially, each child is assigned two 3-ring notebooks.

One notebook goes into their crate to hold the material they’re currently using. Materials like math worksheets, writing assignments, maps, and history questions.

A second, color-coded notebook goes on a shelf to hold all completed homeschool materials. Well, perhaps not all completed homeschool materials. I don’t keep more than a week or two of the daily math assignments.

However, I do hold onto all completed math tests. The same for writing assignments. I don’t hold onto all the notes, outlines, and drafts. But the finished paper is placed into the portfolio.

At the end of the year, the kids and I have a 3-ring binder full of their work. And it’s impressive how much they’ve completed!

You can also keep a list of books, field trips, and activities at the front of the portfolio.

It’s not only a good place to store finished assignments but with a bit of creativity, it can become a keepsake for the years.

7. Store Science and Art Supplies Near the Kitchen

As you may have gathered, I want my kids to do art and science experiments in the kitchen where it’s easy to clean up. This means I need science and art supplies in the same area.

And if you’re wondering, I’ve found history projects use similar supplies to art, so I only keep one box of art supplies which serves double duty.

I use a box for science supplies and a box for art supplies. The boxes that hold reams of printer paperwork beautifully. They’re the right size and come with a lid! Use one to hold all science supplies and one to hold all art supplies.

If a box doesn’t work, consider using a door hanger organizer. They work well for holding science and art supplies while keeping the supplies out of the way!

So find a spot in or near your kitchen to store the boxes. And you’ll have the supplies available when you need them!

8. Keep Only Items You Need This Year

Another great tip for small space homeschooling is to only keep items you need for the current school year available. All other resources should be stored or sold.

I prefer to store the resources I will need in the future. With a large family, it’s reduced our budget greatly to pass down textbooks and the like. Even for history I only keep the books we’ll need this year on the bookshelves.

Everything else is stored away for the future.

Hopefully, this will mean that you can use one bookshelf to hold all the resources your children need access to instead of needed to pile books all over the house.

Storing unused homeschool supplies away is perfect for homeschooling in a small space.

9. Use a Caddy on the Table

Have you seen those supply caddies for tables? They’re wonderful! You can fill it with pencils, pens, colored pencils, markers, scissors, and more.

When the kids sit down at the table, everything is right there ready to grab.

And when you’re finished, you can easily whip the caddy off the table and store it away to the side of the room.

The caddy also makes it possible for the kids to spend rainy afternoons drawing and coloring at the kitchen table.

But don’t be surprised if your kids first spend a few minutes spinning the caddy when you place it on the table. Kids love to spin them!

10. Small Space Homeschool Idea: Wall Space

Even though space is at a premium when you’re homeschooling in a small space, you can still use your wall space wisely.

I use my kitchen cabinets to hang much of our homeschool information. The kids’ weekly maps are hung on the kitchen cabinets so everything they open the cabinet to grab a tea bag, they see the map.

Their chore charts and schedules are hung there as well. And I also hang history reading assignments when I have 2 or more high school students. They kept losing their assignment sheet, so I finally taped one to the cabinet.

It worked wonderfully! The kids couldn’t lose it and it was available when they needed it.

So take a look at your walls. Can you hang homeschool information on the walls?

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