Tips for Getting Organized in 2014

Organization....my weakness!!!! Anyone that knows me REALLY well-knows that I am NOT an organized person by nature!!!!!  People that see me at work-might beg to differ-but, those people have never seen my house or the inside of my car or the desktop on my computer!!!!! LOL!

If there is one thing I have learned in my 10 years teaching Kindergarten, it's that you have to be organized to survive!!!!!!! And, I'm talking SUPER organized!!!! If one thing is lost, or out of place or not at your fingertips the moment you need it-you LOSE them!! And, when I lose 26 5-year-olds attention and the noise level starts to rise and things start to happen that shouldn't be happening, my anxiety level immediately rises!!! LOL! Chaos is something that I don't deal well with!!!

So, here are a few ways that I have found work wonders for me. There are VERY few moments these days when I can't find what I want anymore in my classroom (besides my keys) :) So, I'm never wasting time looking for things and tearing my class apart trying to locate something, because, let's face it "Ain't NOBODY got time for that!!!!" 

A couple of years ago-I decided to get rid of my desk. BEST decision I ever made!!!! I have a small classroom and often have big student numbers (started with 26 kiddos this year.) So, this is a HUGE space saver. But, I found this PERFECT piece of furniture at a used furniture store in town. I LOVE it!!! The top of it has mailbox slots. So, I have a slot for every student. In this slot, I store their testing information, personal information and their portfolios. This is PERFECT!!! So, if I need to make a phone call, I know exactly where to quickly find their phone number. If someone loses a tooth-I go straight over, pull out their portfolio and write it down immediately. Quickly, easily, efficiently! No wasted time!!

Last Summer, I spent a TON of time going through all of my files!!! This hadn't been done since I started teaching here!!! I still had stuff from the teacher that taught before me. And, there would be like 20 copies stuck in a file of the SAME printable!!! LOL! What a waste of space! This took me WEEKS-but, I organized everything in binders by the month. I wish I had pictures of the inside of the binders to show you!

Inside each month is organized by theme. I have a zippered pencil pouch at the beginning of each binder to store small pieces. I also use these dividers to divide the themes. That way, if I have an art project example or something like that, I can store it in the divider.

 One of my most favorite things that I found this Summer are these little magnetic storage containers! I cannot tell you how much I LOVE them!!!! They don't take up ANY space because they hang right on the side of my cabinet!!! They have clear little windows so that I can see what is inside of each one and as soon as I take something out, I hang it right back where it came from-so, I always know where to find my stuff!!  I tried one of the teacher tool boxes that were ALL over pinterst a couple of years ago-but, I didn't have a good place to store that thing and it just wasn't convenient. The drawers would get stuck in it and I just wasn't happy with it. This is a WAAAAAY better option for me! AND they come in different colors-so, they match my classroom! ;)

I think it's sooooo important to have all supplies easily accessible to everyone!! So, if I'm in the middle of teaching and someone lost a crayon-they can go grab one out of the labeled crayon buckets. Or, if we are in the middle of a project and someone runs out of glue or loses their scissors-I can just tell them to go grab a new one for now and we never miss a beat. We just keep on movin' along! ;) I found these adorable polka dot baskets at Dollar General this Summer and made these cute little labels to put on them! As you can see, the labels never made it on! LOL!!! That gives me a goal for organizing in 2014! ;)

Here is how I have my books organized by theme.  I splurged on these AMAZING book bins this Summer and I'm soooooo glad that I did!! They are SUPER sturdy and JUST the right size for my books. I LOVE them! Before, I had bins from the dollar spot at Target and they weren't the right shape for the books and after only a year they were warped mangled! LOL! My goal this year is to make large labels for the outside of the bins and small matching labels to go on each book so that anyone can easily tell where to return the book to :)

Lastly, here is my Centers storage. You can find these Staralite containers from Target or Dollar General. They are the perfect size and they stack nicely. You can grab the labels that I have on these bins for FREE in my TPT store HERE!!

You can visit Blog Hoppin' to see how others organize or link up to share your own tips!!!