Organizing my HOD!

[MamaMary]

My husband and I had a wonderful and productive morning! We woke early and decided to get some projects done that keep getting put off. We had yummy coffee from Dunkin' Doughnuts and then to home depot and Michaels! I have been wanting to purchase baskets for a looooong time and kept putting it off because the kind I wanted were too pricey. However, today we saw that Michaels had a sale! All baskets were 50% off



Aren't they beautiful? I am so happy. I put all of our current HOD materials and subjects in one of the baskets.


It serves 3 purposes:

1- Looks pretty! (that's important, right?)
2- It keeps everything together and organized.
3- It's portable. I can pick up my basket and take it to any room I want to work in.

The problem with using our book shelf was that we would go along for awhile and stay on top of putting everything back where it belonged, but then it would slowly begin to get thrown up there in any order and before you knew it nothing was where it was supposed to be. It would become a real eyesore.

My favorite project though was when this sweet husband of mine finally hung my white board! I am so thrilled not to have hold it while I talk.


How do you guys organize your HOD?

[water2wine]

Mary Welcome to the basket club! You make me want to go shop for more. But I will resist. Love your baskets!

[wdworkman]

How do you guys organize your HOD?

Most of the HOD books are in the dining room/school room bookcase. The ones that we're currently reading are in a basket on a table next to the couch (I usually go through & update that about once a week). Luke's notebooks, and any work in progress, are in his desk which is four milk crates & a shelf on top. I had hoped that he would use his desk more for writing this year, but he's gone back to doing most of his work on the table.

Kate has a shelf for her books in the bookcase too, but since she does most of her work in her room, they gradually all end up in there. About once a week, when I go over her work and grade tests, they all get put back on the shelf.

[AboveRubiesMama]

Well I don't have my HOD stuff yet but I do have some cubbies and I have a cubby hole set aside for each child. I also use several other of the holes there for art supplies and school supplies too.

[Teena6]

Mine are in boxes too. NOT pretty ones like yours My dd (who's doing Bigger) is in a red cloth box. My boys (LHFHG) books are in a cardboard box. BUT I do agree so much better than on the book shelf.... for years I have done it on the book shelf.... but this is great.

cool pics

[Dorla]

MamaMary...
What beautiful inspiration. Coffee, doughnuts and organizing.
You know I want to be you when I grow up, so I will start with this project. I can't wait to find some baskets!
Dorla

[anointedhsmom]

Mary your baskets are beautiful! I am using the book case in our living room since that is where we do most of our school. I will say I do not like it though. Everybody seems to put everything they don't want the 2 year old to touch on those shelves in front of our school books. I might have to measure those shelves and see if I can fine baskets to fit in the them to hep with appearance at least LOL

I will have to watch Michael's for the half off baskets sale. They have them a couple of times a year I think. I will call and see if they are still on sale in fact and see what I can find.

Thanks for the idea!

[annaz]

What? A sale? Those are nice!

But Mary.....I am desperately wanting to know what room is the yellow/green and that really cool "wainscotting" you have up. I love, love it!!!!!

[my3sons]

Oh Mary - what a great morning for you and your dh! The baskets are beautiful, and very functional too. AND, I love your message to your dh on your whiteboard. This year, we have a tub for each of the boys with only their current books they're using in them. We have other tubs for the books they'll be getting to later in the year. I saved some money (for years) and finally added a cabinet to our kitchen just for homeschooling. In fact, a nice little elderly gentleman is working on putting the moulding on the top as I type! Before that, our homeschool was a little here, there, and everywhere! One last thing I LOVED so much last year that I bought another one of this year is the Pampered Chef Tool Turnabout! I put all of the boys' art supplies in there, and it holds a LOT of stuff. We set one out on our dining room table, and one on our kitchen table, so we have 2 places for seatwork - and we don't have to haul supplies back and forth. I got it for $15 off ebay. This is a great topic to bring up!

In Christ,
Julie

[MamaMary]

Water2Wine- Maybe it was you who I first heard about the basket idea from? If so, THANK YOU! I love it!

Janet, I love how you did Luke's desk We are getting ready to move two of the boys to one room and this will make room for them to have their own desks. The milk crates are a great idea. I like how they can store their notebooks, right in the crates

AboveRubiesMama- No Way! You have a cubby hole system?! My husband bought the materials yesterday to make our own! However, he won't have time to make one for us until next week when he's off four days. We have an older home and it has this odd shaped alcove that is not practical for much. He came up with the cubby hole/ office area to go in the alcove. If you have nothing else to do ( ) I would LOVE to see a picture of yours

Teena6- I looked at the clothes ones too! I just could not make up my mind?

Dorla- You crack me up! I love your posts, they always bring a HUGE smile to my face. You are such an encourager!

Paige- I have used bookshelves for years. Still am, I just put the baskets on the shelves when were done. I hope you find a good deal. My baskets ran between 10-15 with the 50% off.

Ann! You will laugh when you hear how I picked my colors. I went to a homeschool board I've been a part of for years and started asking for idea's when we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago. Those two colors were mentioned the most. One is Laura Ashley (yellow) and one is Sherman Williams (Sage). What was interesting was that when I went to both stores those colors were their #1 PICKS nation wide. For the life of me I can't remember the real names though? We have it in our living room/kitchen/dining room. The wainscotting is simple "tin"

Julie- I am so glad you shared how you use one basket per child. I was putting all the children's books in one basket and then planning to use the other baskets for other books. But I like the idea of them each having their own basket and then having one basket for our library books. The Pampered Chef Tool Turnabout is BRILLIANT

You girls are the BEST! We really are "Better Together"!

[annaz]

I love it. Just love the tin and color combo. It's so refreshing! What a great idea and simple cleaning !!!!! Cool! Way cool!!

[Kathleen]

Mary,

I wanted to respond to this earlier...but just didn't get to it. I love all the ideas that everyone has shared here. (I LOVE your beautiful baskets! ) About 3 weeks into our year, I made a trip to Target specifically for baskets for organizing our books. (w2w, I think I have you to thank for this idea! ) Oh, they help me so much...not nearly as much digging here and there or knocking everything over on the shelves! I got some cloth ones for about $5.50. They only have a handle on one side...but were so much cheaper than the other choices that I had to give them a try.

We keep everything in a pie cabinet that my Grandpa made for my mom years ago. It works well (and looks nice in the dining room). I'm glad to have this special reminder of my mom, too. Grant's basket is green, and has all of our current Bigger needs. The rest of the books for the year are to the right of his basket. Red is LHTH. Blue is some special art things. (We got the 1st Artistic Pursuits book and then it also has some sketch pads, watercolor paper, watercolor crayons...and a few other supplies that Allison and Garret don't get to touch! )

I'm so glad that you shared about your "tool turnabout", Julie. I was ready to pm you about that. I spotted it on your week-in-review, and was thinking how much one of those would help us with our crayon craziness! (And my search for "art supply thingy that turns" wasn't yeilding much... )

Kathleen

[MamaMary]

Ann- I can't wait to share with Scott your compliments. It will bless his heart. (it was all his idea)

Kathleen- I love your pie cabinet and especially that it reminds you of your mom. You have such a precious and tender heart for your family. I enjoy reading your posts! Now I am tempted to go get MORE baskets at Target!

[gracelikerain]

This is how I organized our HOD & school books.


dd11 desk


dd8 desk


ds4 desk


markers & colored pencils


decorating our school book baskets







my HOD manuals & books


my Ikea bookshelf....I need another one

I love seeing everyone's different styles!

[MamaMary]

Oh Georgette,

These were GREAT pictures!!!! I love your desks. Where did you get the 8 year olds?