I recently found myself doing something I hadn’t done in years…
Setting up an entirely new classroom.
After 24 years of teaching—and nine years in the same classroom—I knew exactly where everything belonged. I’m actually the opposite of a hoarder. If anything, I occasionally get so overstimulated by clutter that I throw things away…and sometimes regret it later.
Even though I regularly purged and kept only the materials I actually used, I had still accumulated years’ worth of supplies, resources, and classroom essentials.
Before I packed a single box, I did something that made the entire process so much easier.
I walked around my classroom and created an organization plan in a Google Doc for every cabinet, drawer, shelf, and storage space. In the plan I included pictures and notes about that space-what worked and what could be improved.
This is not a Pinterest or Instagram plan but a functional plan.
I literally wrote things like:
- Top cabinet by the sink
- Bottom cabinet by the sink
- Left cabinet
- Supply shelves
Below are a few examples. Don’t judge me too harshly-it was at the end of the school year!
I also leaned on one of the biggest ideas from my Understanding by Design training: begin with the end in mind.
As soon as I knew I would be moving, I started collecting copy paper boxes (and their glorious lids!). When it came time to pack, I didn’t try to cram each box as full as possible. Instead, I packed materials that belonged together. Keeping related items in the same box made unpacking much faster because I wasn’t hunting through multiple boxes to find everything I needed.
I also made sure to clearly label every box. Trust me—after a few weeks of summer break and classrooms being cleaned, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you forget what’s where. Good labels are worth the extra few seconds.
One thing many teachers don’t think about before moving is that you’ll probably inherit a classroom full of furniture, supplies, and instructional materials. In our district, the general rule is that anything a teacher personally purchased moves with them, while anything bought with school or district funds stays with the classroom.
That can leave you with duplicates of…well…just about everything.
My advice? Don’t feel like every inherited resource has to stay in your classroom. Keep the items you’ll actually use and move the extras to a shared storage area if your school has one. I certainly don’t need a million pattern blocks in one room!
Not only does this keep your classroom from becoming overcrowded, but it also ensures those school-owned resources remain available for future teachers instead of getting buried in a cabinet where no one remembers they’re there.
As you merge your own supplies with the resources already in the classroom, take your time and adjust your organizational plan as needed. This is the perfect opportunity to create systems that actually work for the way you teach.
Every August we spend hours making our classrooms beautiful, but very little time making them functional. Six weeks later we’re stuffing papers into random cabinets because we never decided where anything belonged.
Once students arrive, you won’t have the time—or the energy—to completely reorganize your cabinets.
My goal is to make every storage space so functional that I’m never tempted to shove things into a cabinet with the promise of “I’ll deal with it later.” Instead, I want every item to have a logical home so staying organized becomes the easy option, not another task on my to-do list.
A classroom that functions well isn’t about having the most storage bins or the prettiest labels—it’s about creating a space that works for you, supports your students, and saves you time throughout the year.
There’s nothing glamorous about cabinets and storage, but it’s completely worth the time spent upfront.
Of course, this is just the beginning of setting up a new classroom, but it’s a great starting place!
