Optimum Organization Saturday

Hosted by:  funin4b  and Ladybug Teacher Files

Things were pretty crazy at the end of school a year ago as usual.  It might have been slightly crazier due to my teaching partner of 6 years moving to a new classroom and a new teacher taking her spot in my room.  We are required to have everything off of our desks and most surfaces for the summer.  My room did not have a lot of built in storage so the closet was often jam packed.  I used this closet to keep all of my extra school supplies.  I love school supplies so my extras are quite the surplus.  I collect notebooks and folders anytime I can find them less than a quarter so I always have what I need on hand.

At the end of the school year after packing up my closet looked like this:  

This was bad!  There were supplies all over the place and varies things from around the room crammed in empty spots.  There was no rhyme or reason for the organization.  I just tried to shut the doors and forget about everything in there.








Last summer my husband and I took a great trip to Vegas with friends:

Vegas was not kind to me and I lost most of the small amount of money I was willing to lose playing penny slots and later video poker.  One of my favorite things in Vegas is the great food.  I especially love Max Brenner's, a restaurant that is all about chocolate.

While I was at Max Brenner's enjoying some yummy chocolatey goodies I checked my email.  There was an email from the Container Store.  I opened it and was surprised and amazed to find out that I had won a $1,000 gift card from their store for my classroom!  I had entered in their blog in the spring and was picked to be one of 10 teachers across the US who won!  I was so excited!  I love the Container Store so this was perfect!  Plus I knew my room was going to need lots of help and attention in the fall.

I spent a few hours right before school on a Container Store shopping spree. I knew I wanted to get things to fix the closet and a few other trouble spots in my room.  I also wanted to get things to share with my coworkers who work so hard day after day and are a part of my amazing team.  

After my shopping spree and a few hours of work I had my closet looking like a Container Store Ad, perfect and functional:

I was able to group all of my supplies together into baskets for easy use and it kept things that were often sliding all over like folders and notebooks all in one spot.  I used my label maker to label the baskets as well.

This year I am moving classrooms so I will have to make some changes due to a different sized closet in my room.  I am hoping to make the new set up just as organized though!

Be sure to stop by again on another organization blog hop to see other spots I organized in my classroom.

A huge thank you to the Container Store for their generosity!