A few weeks ago, I shared a video on my Facebook page giving a tour of my “classroom.” See, we moved into this house about a year ago, and I was very excited to have an extra room right off the dining room to serve as a homeschool classroom. I had visions of how amazing it would be, but the reality had kind of kicked me in the face.

I had originally set up the room the way that I would set it up if I was going to use the supplies that lived there. But I have two kids. And I imagined them to be different people than they actually are, I guess. Becuase it did not work. At all.

By the time I made the video linked above, I had not actually entered the room to do more than toss something at a pile and slam the door shut again as fast as I could. Even going in there made my heart race and my breath catch in my throat. It was so incredibly messy that I didn’t even know where to begin. I knew that I had supplies and cool projects hidden under all that mess, but I had no idea how to go about finding them.

So I vowed to use my winter break (I’m an adjunct English professor) to get a handle on this room. I’ve been working on it for the past three weeks, and today, I think it finally got there.

Now, a word of warning. I have seen those gorgeous kids’ room reveals that are all matching floating shelving and white rugs and tents made out of chevron fabric in muted tones and literal rainbows (I mean, they’re wooden, but they’re literally rainbows). This is not that kind of reveal!

My focus here is on function over form. Here were my goals:

• Create a space where the kids could independently get out art supplies and be able to put them back without getting overwhelmed.
• Create a space to put curriculum for the future and present that will be accessible and relatively organized.
• Have room to grow as new projects inevitably come up.
• Set up systems to make homeschool planning a little simpler.

Here’s the finished room!

There were some major changes. The most useful was the addition of utility shelving with bins. We used the Seville Classics shelving (not a sponsored shoutout. I’m just excited about it.) The idea is that the kids can take the entire bin for whatever supplies they need to the table with them, making clean up a lot easier.

Another major change was to group like items together instead of having everything all mixed together. Now the sensory play items (play-doh, sand, etc.) are all together. The art supplies are all together. The drawing supplies are all together. It seems like a simple switch, but the stuff had accumulated without much intention, and it wasn’t logically arranged.

I really feel like, by focusing on function and usability above all else, this is going to be a space that we can actually use and maintain. It’s really important to me that my kids are able to create and build independently, but it’s also really important to me that I can walk through my own house without having a panic attack, and (I hope) this will be a win-win for us all.