What do you use to store your curriculum in?

[RainbowSprinkles]

I'm talking about the books that you, the parent needs, or the books you don't want your kids to have unless you say so.

 

We are converting a bedroom into a schoolroom. I already have a shelf for books my dc can use whenever they like. I need something to store my stuff in and the books we are currently using for school.

 

So we are taking a trip to Ikea next month and I have my shopping list ready. I was planning on getting the expedit (sp?) shelf for the books, but I'm thinking now that the open shelving would be too visually cluttery for me. I think I'd rather have something with doors.

 

Anyone have any inexpensive ideas? Ikea ideas would be great since that's where we are going. If you have something for book storage like this that worked for you, please share! :bigear:

[Rbsmrter]

The Billy bookcases have all kinds of configurations, one of which includes glass doors. You could also use the expedit or billy and use magazine holders so the books are organized by subject. I do that with all of my TMs since the kids don't have a reason to use them. It prevents the books from looking so cluttered and makes things easy for me since I know how to quickly find what I'm looking for.

[PeterPan]

I keep a box that I put everything in for our unwrapping on box day. (It's a Mikasa plate box, big and sturdy, haha.) At this point she's old enough that things get seen anyway as I'm scheduling. I just try to keep the *fun* stuff (timeline books, unusual history books, etc.) hidden as surprises.

 

BTW, this is just me, but I'm a couple years ahead of you and will say it. As much as I LOVE books (and I have 6,000+ in the house!), I would buy an ipad and go to ebooks before I'd buy more bookshelves. I'm looking at buying a 2nd one for dd and nixing buying more books for her. She's at the point where almost everything is available as ebooks. It just doesn't make sense for me to take up that much space with books. Might even neaten her room, lol. She usually has about 100 books in there littering the floor. :)

 

PS. When she was little we did a lot with milk crates. Not what you wanted, but they were good for us. Books get heavy and create this domino/sliding effect. With the crates I could section off just read alouds for american history, just LA, that sort of thing. And of course they were configurable to our creativity and mood of the moment. Now I keep things in laundry baskets because they're easy to haul around. :)

Edited June 8, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[RainbowSprinkles]

The Billy bookcases have all kinds of configurations, one of which includes glass doors. You could also use the expedit or billy and use magazine holders so the books are organized by subject. I do that with all of my TMs since the kids don't have a reason to use them. It prevents the books from looking so cluttered and makes things easy for me since I know how to quickly find what I'm looking for.

 

 

Hmm... the billy bookcases seem to be out of my price range. But the magazine holders sound like a good idea, I might try them. Thanks!

[RainbowSprinkles]

I keep a box that I put everything in for our unwrapping on box day. (It's a Mikasa plate box, big and sturdy, haha.) At this point she's old enough that things get seen anyway as I'm scheduling. I just try to keep the *fun* stuff (timeline books, unusual history books, etc.) hidden as surprises.

 

BTW, this is just me, but I'm a couple years ahead of you and will say it. As much as I LOVE books (and I have 6,000+ in the house!), I would buy an ipad and go to ebooks before I'd buy more bookshelves. I'm looking at buying a 2nd one for dd and nixing buying more books for her. She's at the point where almost everything is available as ebooks. It just doesn't make sense for me to take up that much space with books. Might even neaten her room, lol. She usually has about 100 books in there littering the floor. :)

 

PS. When she was little we did a lot with milk crates. Not what you wanted, but they were good for us. Books get heavy and create this domino/sliding effect. With the crates I could section off just read alouds for american history, just LA, that sort of thing. And of course they were configurable to our creativity and mood of the moment. Now I keep things in laundry baskets because they're easy to haul around. :)

 

 

We get most books from the library now. I can't afford an ipad at the moment, and I try not to buy anymore books unless I need to.

 

The shelf would also need to hold art supplies, manpulatives, etc...

 

I guess I'll have to stick with my original plan and just use baskets and such to keep things contained.

[Lucy the Valiant]

I have a big antique cupboard with 4 (dresser-size) drawers on the bottom and then shelves-behind-doors on top.

 

I can't stand the visual clutter of open shelves, and it also works as a natural "limitation" for my genetically-predisposed curriculum collecting (errr, occasional hoarding). :)

 

Plus it looks really nice in my living room, and - it was FREE! (labor intensive, but no $)

[deerforest]

Our school room is in a bedroom so I use the closet space for storing curriculum and stuff I'm not using yet. For stuff I'm currently using, I use a mix of open bookcases, magazine holders, and the desk apprentice from Staples (my new love).

[abacus2]

I have a storage cabinet similar to this one that holds most of our current school books. I also have these boxes from IKEA for our using right this minute books, one for me, one for each of my school-age girls, and one for library books on an open shelf of my china cabinet in the kitchen where we work. I have some Expedit shelves which I love, but I prefer my cabinet with doors for the school books.

[MountainViewHS]

We love the expedex book cases and since the openings are so large even over sized books fit on the shelves :)

 

Also I have I think 5 of this blue rolling bins full of books for later use. They also stack on each other, if you buy the lids. So one of our closets has them stacked up against a wall. If you're already going to ikea take a peak at them too.

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80098516/

[AnnaM]

We also have an expedit and I use bins to store books. I like being able to organize them by topic, genre or however else I need them. I always thought that book shelves looked seriously unorganized but something about the dividers in the Expedit make it look so much less cluttered.

[~Anna~]

And Billy are not prepared for a homeschool family I discovered last summer: I had to repair all the Billys :-(

 

I was planning on getting a Billy......now I'm scared. Any more details on what was wrong with them?

[joyfulmomSDG]

Our school room is in a bedroom so I use the closet space for storing curriculum and stuff I'm not using yet. For stuff I'm currently using, I use a mix of open bookcases, magazine holders, and the desk apprentice from Staples (my new love).

:iagree:

Everything in a closet is "off limits" to little ones without permission in our home. That is where board games, legos, play-doh, etc...are kept. This is how I keep my sanity! For our school room (a converted bedroom) I would have loved to add an elfa-type storage system in the closet, but we are currently in a rental so it wasn't an option. I use these shelves from walmart (in different sizes) instead since the bottom is solid & books don't fall through.

 

I also LOVE my Staples desk apprentice which I keep right on our large school table for my materials, blank paper, etc... & things we reference on a regular basis but the kids don't use on their own. The kids keep their active curriculum in these magazine holders from Ikea since they are pretty durable, although my rising 3rd grader might be running out of space in his for next year. Also, I had considered the Trofast system so I could implement a workbox-type plan, but it was a bit beyond our budget this year.

 

I do have some of the other cheap storage boxes from Ikea for all the misc. little stuff...index cards, post its, tape, etc...which could make any open bookshelf less visually cluttered. Love Ikea!!

 

The closet storage works well for us right now because it allows more space in the actual room. I have toddlers though, and it helps to have the floor space for them.

Edited June 8, 2012 by joyfulmomSDG

[Bloggermom]

This is how I have all of mine organized

[ALB]

I have an open bookshelf and use magazine holders for organizing our curriculum. I bought pretty red and white holders for dd's books, and blue and white for ds's things. It looks pretty tidy and organized that way. Things that we won't use this year are in an IKEA box on the bottom shelf. I like the Expedit shelves for books, TM's and workbooks, but I'd really prefer something with doors for art supplies and math manipulatives. I'm on the fence about purchasing one right now! I know one option is to use a decorative basket or box to hide art supplies and manipulatives, but I'm not sure if that's what I want.

[dalynnrmc]

Use? Store? In?

 

Are you implying that I should have a set place for these books?

 

Now's a fine time to tell me. ;)

[Homemama2]

I keep all of our books on cheap bookshelves (Target, Walmart etc.) The TM's I keep on the same shelves, but in sturdy magazine holders. I have one color of magazine holder per kid. It is easy to grab the magazine holder off the shelf each day over to where we are working, and everything is in one place. For storage, I have a cabinet from Menards, and also other bookshelves in another part of the house.

[unfrumpable.]

Well, I just use a regular bookshelf from Ikea for all my books and curriculum books. We don't have a lot of space, so we have 3 1/2 bookshelves (all matching in black from Ikea!) in the living room. My homeschool bookshelf is on it's side b/c we keep our 55 gallon snake aquarium on top of it. Ethan knows not to be messing with any of my books unless I specifically tell him to. He has his own bookshelf in his room which is overflowing even after major destashing after moving!

[Momof3littles]

Upper rows of a 5x5 Expedit from Ikea.

[threedogfarm]

A low, old bureau may work well for you. I picked up an antique oak bureau (only four drawers--two large below and two thinner ones above) for about $50.00 a few years ago. It's in our living room and I store my curriculum in there along with other things (like bill paying stuff in one of the small drawers). The things I like about it are: 1. it's small 2. it's low enough so that the top can be used to organize things or be used as a display table, etc. 3. it's very attractive 4. everything is out of sight.

 

You could put wood dividers in the drawers (we did that in my children's bureaus to organize their clothes--it works great!) but I just use them as is. Antique prices are so low right now that you should be able to find something for less than what you would pay at Ikea but with a little thought, it could be just as functional AND more durable.

 

We also have a antique library table in our living room that has a bottom shelf where I store smaller games in baskets, the microscope and all of its accessories. Baskets that store curriculum could also be placed under it too. It has two very deep drawers--perfect for keeping two laptops in one with their cords. The other drawer is (wow!) empty. I like that table because one of the children can work at it when they want to be away from the group but it looks so nice in the living room because it is in front of a double window with only a lamp on it. One of these days I will get a piece of glass to put on top of it to protect it better. . .Again, this is a lovely piece that is so useful!

 

Here's a link to a blog that illustrates what I'm talking about. This kind of cabinet can hold so much and yet it is very attractive. And if you look at consignment stores, junk stores, even antique stores you will be surprised at what you can find for not a whole lot of money.

 

http://smallnotebook.org/2012/02/06/create-a-good-first-impression/

 

At our house we homeschool in the living room and the kitchen so our stuff has to fit into the rest of the house seamlessly. That's why I use furniture pieces that work with the rest of the house.

[godsaggie]

I am currently saving to buy the Expedit from IKEA as well. I was afraid of the clutter also. But they sell the crates and bins that fit the cubes. Wal-Mart even sells those fabric bins that fit the dimensions also. I also checked and saw that those magazine boxes fit the cubes as well.

[QuirkyKidAcademy]

I try to explain in proper English (I'm not that good):

the shelfs of a Billy lies on small iron pins (don't know the word for that)

If the shelf have of lots of heavy books (teachermanuals, workbooks) the shelfs warps ( stay not right) and falls between the iron pins, which will make that your other shelfs also will fall.

 

To repair I use these: ( see at the bottom of the message)

It might be solution to use these at once, I am not sure.

I had NO problems with the shelfs full of pockets or romans just the HE shelfs gave a lot of problems to us.

 

But I have to add we are a moving family due to husbands job, so that could also be a problem, but my not so moving sil had the same problems on a smaller size.

 

HTH

 

 

I understand exactly what you are saying! My bookshelves have done that as well. We are also a moving family, and I think the constant rearranging has put stress on the shelves that might otherwise have held up well.

[justLisa]

I have the IKEA Besta units. They have fancier doors, and cheap ones that are just plain white. I have THIS except 3 wide instead of 2, and I have THESE doors, though THESE are cheaper. I LOVE the besta units because they are deep, and very sturdy. You can get interior organizers for them as well. In the left one, I have 2 pull out shelves for my printers, and one pull out frame for my hanging files. I kept the very top open just for display purposes. I have these shelves all over my house! The single tall unit is $85.

[Amie]

If you don't like the "cluttered" look, Target's "Itso" fabric cube bins are supposed to fit the Expedit shelves perfectly and they are cheaper than similar products from Ikea. They come in different fabrics; you can check your local store to see them in person. http://www.target.com/s/itso

 

If you google it and search images you'll see lots of examples. Here is one old random blogpost I found on it: http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/2010/08/ikea-expedit-bookcase-meets-target-itso-bin.html

 

Disclaimer: I haven't tried this and don't even own an Expedit. I have simply been drooling over them for while (we don't have an Ikea nearby).

[Plateau Mama]

I love the Expedit shelves. It enables me to sort by subject, grade or student.

 

I have the 2x2 that I use for our current stuff, one for each child, and one for teacher manuals.

 

I have 2 of the 2x5 units and I sort those by subject for readers for the children. On the bottom I sort curruculum not currently being used by subject/grade. These could be put in bins or baskets to hide if you want.