Organization

As I'm beginning to put all my materials in boxes for my impending move, I've had a lot to contemplate. 

1. How did I accumulate so much stuff in just 2 years?
2. What should I take, donate and trash?
3. For the stuff I keep, what's the best way to keep it organized?

I'm not sure if any of you are doing spring cleanings of your classroom, but I thought I would give you some insight as to how I'm organizing my materials and what I've found works best for me. 

Book Themes:
As you all know from reading this blog, I love to theme ideas off of books.  I can't stand plain manila folders, because things fall out of them so easily and it's not nice and pretty the way I like it.  So, I like to print a picture of the book cover and laminate a manila envelope (just be careful when you are slicing the opening in the back because you can really mess up your finger...not that I have any personal experience with that or anything cough, cough)

This way all of it stays in there and you can store it any way you want without things falling out all over your classroom or file drawers.  Sometimes if the book is small enough I'll put it in the envelope too so all I have to do is grab the envelope and I'm all set. 

If you have too many items, or over sized items that won't fit in the envelope, I love these cardboard magazine holders from Ikea. 

Check out this previous post I had on where to find these cute labels that I adorn my entire classroom with. 

For more general materials (pragmatics, syntax, fluency etc) I am currently using these file boxes from Walmart. 

The only reason I prefer these to metal filing cabinets is that they move around easily.  I can bring the whole thing to the therapy table and not have to leave the table to go searching through filing cabinets. Don't get me wrong metal filing cabinets are essential in my room for keeping my student's files safe and secure, but for therapy materials, I need convenience. 

This is how I store my books with printable handouts.  And yes, I color coordinate my binders (you better believe my clothes are color coordinated in my closet too!). 

Here is the game closet.  I like to organize it by games that I usually use with my kids working on language and kids working on articulation.  Obviously, that does not limit these games to just those categories.  I can pretty much use any one of these games for any goal  on my caseload.  Usually this closet is a little more disorganized, but lucky for you I started packing parts of my classroom already so a lot of the games that aren't super popular were shoved in a box.

As far as throwing things away, I find myself to be a hoarder of craft materials (note that you do not and probably will not ever see my classroom craft closet).  However, I just can't talk myself into moving recycled goods because I "might" use it for a craft one day.  Please tell me you all are craft hoarders too. 

I would take a picture of my desk to show you, but it has been piled high with papers for about 4 months now.  I occasionally look through it to make sure I'm not missing something, but I have a feeling it will be there for the next 17 days that are left in the school year.  Maybe I should look through it before I move it to another state with me... 

So as you can see, some parts of my classroom are highly organized to the point of obsessive, while others not so much.  If you need some other ideas on how to organize/decorate your classroom, check out how my current classroom is decorated in this post. 

I'd love any ideas that you have for organization and/or packing up a classroom.  Email me or leave a comment below. 

Just keep packing, just keep packing, packing, packing, packing, packing.