Classroom storage tips and tricks

Say goodbye to spending your evenings cleaning up your teaching space with these useful classroom storage tips. Having an organised classroom brings many benefits, but above all else, it makes your life as a teacher easier. By not always having to hunt for resources, your teaching can be more effective and efficient, as you can minimise disruption in class and know where everything is for when you need it.

Here’s how classroom organisation can save you time and reduce stress, while also helping to create a learning environment that pupils will love.

Organise your books into boxes

Shelves of books can look tidy, but it doesn’t mean you can find a particular title in a hurry. Instead, look to group books together into collections by year group or topic, as this means you can reduce the number of texts you’ll have to search through at any given time. The same can be applied to printed worksheets and other resources, and again, you may wish to group these by subject matter, by alphabetical order, or even by lesson plan if you have everything planned out that far in advance.

Turn to colour

While different coloured post-it notes can be used on note boards or in your diary to show tasks of varying urgency, the clever use of colour can also benefit your teaching space. Look to colour code books and journals by year group or class (even a small piece of electrical tape on the spine can work), before using coloured boxes to then store them in. This way, you’ll always know what resources are required for each class, while it’s also easier to manage marking and other essential tasks.

Laminate where you can

If you can, look to laminate key worksheets and other resources so they can be reused with different classes. Not only does this enable you to help the environment, but it can also reduce marking if you talk through it all in lessons instead. It’s also great if you need to teach multiple classes the same content, as you can use dry-erase markers and store the sheets in collections ready for each set of lessons.

Have a dedicated space for classroom supplies

From missing glue sticks to colouring pens and other essential classroom supplies, having a set space for them can help to keep your classroom organised. Make it clear to pupils that everything must be returned to the correct drawers or boxes at the end of every lesson, and use numbers to help identify when items are missing. Look to use a permanent marker to add corresponding numbers to every item and its lid, as that way pupils can look to match the numbers at the end of every class.

Keep your desk clear

A cluttered desk is not conducive for work and it can also give off the wrong impression to pupils if it’s not tidy. Ensure it’s placed in a position where you can see the whole classroom and look to keep your desk free from as many items as possible. Ideally, you’ll have space for your coffee mug and a desk organiser, basket or tray where pupils can hand-in work for submission. If you have multiple classes, you may even want to colour code the different trays of your organiser so that pupils have a set tray to leave work in.

Have a note board or mailbox for key communications

Dedicate one area of wall space in your classroom to key messages and notes for pupils – such as work deadlines or details of school events. This way, you can leave important documents in these areas and make it the responsibility of each pupil to stay up-to-date on things. You could also add numbers or letters to each document to represent each pupil if necessary, enabling you to keep track of who is looking at everything.

Create a magnetic wall calendar

An approach that can be especially useful in primary school settings is to have a magnetic calendar on the wall which displays all of the key tasks for that particular day. You can list out subject topics and activities on each magnet, and switch them each day so that every child has an immediate reference point of what to expect.

Organising your classroom shouldn’t be a chore, and it’s worth investing a bit of time early in the academic year to get it right. Regardless of which steps and approaches you take, be sure that they work for you – what works for one, won’t necessarily work for all!

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