What's your supply station like?

[spaceman]

I always seem to be out of some basic thing we need (like paper clips).

 

What all do you keep on hand and how and where is stored relative to your homeschooling space?

Edited December 17, 2017 by spaceman

[regentrude]

I have a three tier rolling cart with three wire baskets that lives next to my dining table in the kitchen. It holds basic office supplies that I want handy; we did a lot of work at that table.

I can easily move it when we have company, and it does not clutter up the counter.

It used to hold: paper clips, pens, pencils, markers, eraser, sharpener, ruler, calculator, blank paper, scratch paper, hold punch, tape, scissors. Now that the kids are graduated, I am thinking of getting rid of it, but I also find it useful to have some of the items on hand.

[Lucy the Valiant]

I use one of these, and years ago made little labels for everything. It lives in my food pantry. 

[HomeAgain]

I have this writing caddy.  There are several compartments on the top that hold most of our little things.  Next to it is a small set of rubbermaid drawers for things like scrapbooking envelopes, brass brads, highlighter tabs, staples, etc.

[spaceman]

HomeAgain, that caddy looks really nice.

[spaceman]

Also, what all do you have in your supply, if you don't mind sharing?

 

Like I said, we always seem to be missing something we need. We are still new-ish to full time homeschool (March). I was in the hospital for most of the summer until the day before we began school in August (yeah, maybe not the best idea to not have had a break). But, I did not take advantage of the yearly sales and mostly had to make lists of things for other people to purchase for us. I didn't get to walk down the aisles and think, "oh! We'll need this!".

Edited December 17, 2017 by spaceman

[HomeAgain]

In our main caddy I have on top:

 

6 pairs of scissors (one child, but they always seem to go missing when we need them)

rubbing crayons

regular crayons

a small stapler

a single hole punch

cello-tape

paintbrushes of various sizes

a watercolor paint box

colored pencils

regular pencils

red, blue, and black pens

markers

dry erase markers

highlighters (2)

a box of chalk

glue bottles (2)

glue sticks (2)

a box of paper clips with colored flags attached.  I use them to correspond to the colors on our highlighter tabs.

white paper

construction paper

writing tablets of primary paper

 

 

Things like glue, paper, and dry erase markers are also kept in my closet so that we have enough for the year without having a huge supply readily available.

 

 

We've had our caddy for........7 years now, and the types of things change as we need them to.  Right now I have a primary age, but when I had a middle/high schooler at home we used it for his graphing calculator, boxes of flash cards, graph paper, etc.

 

In the set of drawers I have, we keep:

acrylic paints

small envelopes/cards (for making lapbook style notebooks)

brads

highlighter tabs

staples

special art supplies: glitter, pastels, never drying clay

 

And off to the side I have a three hole punch.

 

I'll say that even though we've been doing this for years, I still run into times when I forget to have something we need.  I've learned to make supply lists at the beginning of summer as I weed through everything and look up the lists of things needed for different curricula (like art and science), and then do the same thing again at our semester break (so, now.)  The year we did units was great because I had 8 mini supply lists and didn't have to worry about getting everything at once.

[fralala]

I love my rolling cart with wire baskets. Mine is four tiered and has hooks on the side

 

However, I did want to say this is not the best storage solution if you have little kids who might theoretically be attracted to anything lightweight on wheels that could become their own personal shopping cart/dump truck/wagon. I currently have transferred all my important supplies back to the kitchen counter and keep only the things I don't mind getting pushed around the house and deposited in different locations on the rolling cart.

 

Our homeschooling space is the kitchen. That's essentially where we live, too. If I were really motivated I would clean out a few of the cabinets and store things there-- I need high shelving to keep my supplies out of curious and destructive little hands. But for now my major supply station is the counter next to the toaster oven, until I get my rolling cart back!

[lllll]

nm

Edited December 18, 2017 by _______

[historically accurate]

I have an over-the-door shoe holder that I use for homeschool office supplies. 

 

In it, I have:

 

• dry erase markers (I buy a big box every year)
• pencils
• pens
• erasers
• staples
• paper clips
• sticky notes
• a couple of rulers
• scotch tape & masking tape
• liquid glue & glue sticks
• colored pencils
• probably some more stuff I'm forgetting

I have a dining room cupboard stocked with paper, notebooks, binders, folders. Second dining room cabinet holds all of the art supplies. Stapler and 3-hole punch are on countertop near the books.