Homeschooling Without a School Room – Easy Tips

pros and cons of homeschooling

Homeschooling Without a School Room?

Have you decided to homeschool this year, but you just don’t have the space for a designated homeschool room? Don’t fret, homeschooling without a school room is totally possible.

Not only is it possible, but some people prefer to do school around the house or outside.

New baby? Homeschool in mom’s bedroom! Beautiful day outside? Let’s get out and sit on the trampoline! Chilly day? Cozy up under the blanket on the couch! Homeschooling can happen anywhere!

Do You Need A Homeschool Room?

In fact, even if you do have the space for a homeschool room, I would encourage you to hold off on prepping one for at least 6 months.

Hear me out. There are many families who make a gorgeous homeschool room but never actually use it.

Take 6 months to see where your family likes to learn, what school supplies you use most, and what kind or organization you need.

After 6 months, you will have a better picture of what you actually want in your homeschool room OR if you need one at all!

So if you are ready to get organized and prepared for homeschooling without a school room, keep reading!

Homeschooling: No School Room – Get Creative!

Think of various places around the house where you can store your curriculum and supplies.

Use places that are farther from where you do school to store items that you will use less frequently.

For example, I store homeschool records, curriculum from past years, and supplies that I use for prepping school in the upstairs closet of our extra bedroom.

The things that we use more regularly are stored in various places downstairs. Craft supplies are stored in the dining room hutch, current curriculum and resources in the built-in cabinets next to the fireplace, sensory bins in the pantry, and some other random things that we frequently use are stored in a kitchen drawer.

Be creative and think about how to utilize your space to the fullest!

Homeschool Organization Ideas For Small Spaces

Now that you have thought about where to put your homeschool supplies and materials, I want to give you some ideas of how to store them.

Old Lesson Plans & Lesson Prep Supply Storage

For general school supplies, printer paper and other supplies that I use when prepping for school, I use a cube shelf. If you want to get extra organized you can buy bins for storing some of the smaller supplies.

Your bigger items (laminating machine, printer, etc.) can also be stored away from where you do school. Those items are for prep, so really you won’t be using them during school time.

To store school records and previous year’s materials or lesson plans, invest in a file cabinet. If you don’t have a lot of space to store a large file cabinet, you can get one of these portable ones and just tuck it away somewhere. These ones are easy to stack and they’re cute if they have to be out on display. Or get a file cabinet that doesn’t even look like a file cabinet and fit it into your house like you would any side table.

Craft Storage

I store my craft supplies in our dining room hutch. We don’t have fancy china, so it’s a perfect place to tuck those things away, and my kids end up pulling out the craft supplies and crafting right at the dining room table whenever they want.

Since a hutch isn’t really intended for homeschool storage, it’s helpful to have bins and drawer dividers to help the space be more organized and fit more supplies.

I use both, this kind for larger items and this kind for smaller supplies.

These small crates are perfect for keeping some bulkier things organized.

I also end up storing a lot of my sensory bin add-ins in the hutch as well. And even though I don’t feel like this is Pinterest worthy, at all, I will show it to you anyway.

Daily Homeschool Material Storage

When homeschooling without a school room, having your daily materials organized is a must!

I use the inside of our built-in cabinets next to our fireplace for our daily curriculum. I store my binders and textbooks on the shelf in the cabinet.

Each child has a book bin where they store their individual pencil bin, folder, individual white board and anything else that is specifically for them.

I also have a file crate that I stick in there to organize picture books, prepared supplies for a specific crafts, and worksheets. There is one file for each week of school that I can pull out during school time and stick it back when we’re done! I have really loved this method of organizing weekly materials.

Any books that we are using the week of are out in a book bin in our living room. I have noticed that changing the books in the book bin on a weekly basis really encourages the kids to read more…. I mean, I guess that’s kind of obvious, but I didn’t make a habit of doing that until last year!

A lot of homeschool families like to add a storage crate on wheels that they use for their daily school supplies and curriculum.

This one comes highly recommended by homeschool moms. I love the look of it, but I also know that it would bother me when I can’t keep it looking cute and organized, so I opted for this option this year.

I use this mostly for math manipulative organization and some “teacher” school supplies that I don’t really want my kids to use.

Anyone else want to save their personal dry erase markers from their children? No? Just me? K.

Now, unlike the crate, it doesn’t allow me to store all our curriculum or bulkier items that we use during school time, which really would be convenient, so just think about what kinds of things you need to store and want to have quick and easy access to.

How to Organize Homeschool In Dining Room

Many people who don’t have a homeschool room opt to use their dining room for homeschooling.

So how can you set up your dining room to function as a school room?

It’s pretty simple to have a guest-worthy dining room while still using it for homeschooling.

We already talked about using the hutch to store homeschool supplies and a cart on wheels that you can easily move.

You can also get a shelf to combine cute decorative items along with school books. Put some baskets on the shelf to hide whatever you want out of sight. Get creative here and use some decorative items that you will also use for school. Maybe find a farmhouse clock, a neutral globe or an antique scale that is still functional.

You can also find educational wall art that would serve double duty for decor and learning. Hang up a vintage map, or a magnetic chalkboard that you can use for school daily, switching out the message for when guests come.

Homeschool Organization Ideas For Small Spaces

So, aside from the items that we have already talked about, I wanted to share some other popular homeschool organization supplies for small spaces. Your home and preferences might be different than mine, so here are some other options that homeschool mamas love!

Latchmate Storage Box

These are so great because they have a main storage compartment that you can use for curriculum and a removable tray at the top that you could use for pencils, erasers, crayons, scissors, etc.

Get one for each child and they are all set to keep all their school supplies and materials in one space!

Art Supply Desk Organizer

Having an organizer for pencils, glue sticks, crayons, markers, erasers all in one place is a game changer. It is so nice to have everything in one spot and easily accessible!

Plus having it all be shared will keep sibs from arguing whose pencil belongs to who (most of the time).

Storage Armoire

Instead of using an open shelf, some moms prefer to use a closed armoire. This way, anything that is not perfectly organized is out of sight and the space looks less “schooly.”

Cube Storage Shelves

Many moms like to use these cube storage shelves in their homes. It has lots of compartments, and you could also use some bins to keep things out of sight!

And that’s it! You really don’t need much, which makes homeschooling without a school room totally possible!

What School Supplies Do You Need For Homeschooling?

It might feel overwhelming to think about what school supplies you need for homeschooling. After all, you want to be prepared!

Don’t let this stress you out. There is nothing that is so urgent that you can’t go without for two days before you get it from Amazon Prime.

Seriously, if you don’t have Amazon Prime, try it out. It has saved me many a times when I realized I would need something fast and didn’t have a chance to go find it at the store. And, honestly, you can often find a better deal and not have to spend your time leaving the house.

They even have a 30-day free trial so that you can decide if it’s worth it to pay for it.

Just be prepared with the basic craft supplies: pencils, crayons, markers, watercolors, glue sticks, and scissors.

Oh, this pencil sharpener wouldn’t hurt either. It is THE ONE to get.

Homeschool Supplies For Preschool

If you are planning on homeschool preschool and want to prepare All. The. Things….Check out this preschool supplies post. It’s a truly comprehensive post of everything that you can possibly need. And even if your kiddos are older, a lot of the supplies that I have listed will grow with your kids. We still use those homeschool supplies in elementary school frequently.

Homeschooling: No School Room Solutions

Homeschooling without a school room is totally possible! I hope that you picked up some helpful ideas for setting up a homeschool space (or spaces!), even if you don’t have one designated room for it!

What are your favorite no school room solutions? I’d love to head about your hacks! Leave a comment below!

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