Perfect Spot for Books- Repurposing a Dish Drainer

I have a fifth grader and ninth grader-  and of course the one and two year olds. Our school room is a library/ workspace/ research center/ playroom/ craft room all rolled into one.

I am always looking for new ways to organize and maximize space. I have tried workboxes, cubes, shelves,  plain old stacks of books, everything I think of to store the kids’ books. I desperately wanted to keep each child’s books together, easily accessible and, of course, easy to put back.

Nothing I tried quite worked for my fifth grader. She’s very visual- if it isn’t in plain sight, she won’t see it. UNTIL… I happened to stumble onto a picture of school books being store in a dish drainer. I went out and got one the very same day- and guess what?? It works! She loves it! It keeps her books separate but together. Perfect!

Re-purposing a Dish Drainer

Repurposing a dish drainer
As you can see, the kids and I share two 6ft tables. I divided the joined tables into thirds and voila! We each have our own workspace. The carousel in the middle keeps rulers, scissors, glue, markers, wipes, odds and ends. Notice there are no pens or pencils in the carousel? That’s because they tend to disappear at an alarming rate. So, I gave each of the kids a couple of each and put the rest in our supply closet. The kids each have pouches (like Julia’s pink one there) that contains extra pencils, pens, a highlighter, big pink erasers and a mini pencil sharpener. I use a cleaned-out candle jar for mine. (I do love re-purposing!)
Well, there it is.. re-purposing a dish drainer into a book holder. Who knew?

2 thoughts on “Perfect Spot for Books- Repurposing a Dish Drainer”

  1. Pingback: Day 30: How to Organize Your Homeschool -- 36 Expert Solutions ~ Annie and Everything
  2. Pingback: How to Organize Daily Curriculum with the School Cart | TSNW

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