In special education, we have a TON of resources that are bulky, piecey, and just plain aren’t easy to store. Over the years, we come up with our own tips and tricks for storing things to make it all work.
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For me, storage has to be three things:
- Easy to access. (because we could need something at a moments notice)
- Easy to see what’s inside. (because otherwise, I won’t ever find or use it)
- Takes up minimal space. (because we never have enough space)
We make a LOT of our own resources, and if we DO properly store them, we will be able to:
- Use them year after year with ease.
- Protect them from becoming weathered quickly.
- Have a vast library for when any new student with any ability walks in.
This is HUGE. Storage is more than organization. It’s functionality. It’s time saving. It will literally make you a better teacher. It’s worth the investment to get all of the above- year after year.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to store resources.
These plastic zip envelopes (affiliate link) are literally my life saver. My mom recently dropped a pack of these off and I have bought multiple packs from Amazon since. they Stretch so they can fit alot- you can see through them (HUGE WIN), and they are thick plastic to protect. I love to through seasonal recipes we didn’t get to, extra pieces to bulletin boards, and seasonal items in these. These even have small ones that are perfect for storing your color coded visuals!
Math books shown: Simple Math 2 Adapted Books
Bins for adapted books. This is just for the ones I am keeping out at the time. All of seasonal bins go in the big plastic bins labeled by month and get added to these little ones each month. (although the math and science stay out all the time!) These bins are the perfect size because they can store full adapted book sets (with the landing page!) And can slide into a bookshelf for easy storage. They can easily be pulled on and kept on a desk in a bin when you are working with students during centers. If pieces do fall off, they fall into the bin- and nothing gets lost.
From this view you can see how perfectly these 5 books fit! These bins are literally perfect! I found them at target in the office section. (similar here)
File folders shown: Simple ELA file folders
File folders- we have all come to know and love them. One of my most asked questions is how to store them! I love doing it this way. I keep them in magazine racks by theme, I can still see the tab so know what to grab, but they compact them for storage- I can fit so many of these on one shelf!
This one is holding 18 file folders! That’s huge! I love how tightly it keeps them stored, if pieces fall out they fall into the bin, and again, I can grab it off the shelf and bring to a center table and easily differentiate for any student who comes over. It keeps my center table neat and clean (rather than a bunch of file folders spread across).
The one shown is this brand from amazon (affiliate link), but this pack of 8 (affiliate link) is too good to pass up.
curriculum shown: Simple Math
And lastly, curriculum. I prefer to laminate my curriculum pages, and have students work through with a dry erase. I use post it notes to mark where each student left off. The more things you laminate- the less ripped up pages, lost pages, and disorganization you deal with. I also love that I have these FOREVER, and am saving a ton on paper and ink in the future. Because I put each in it’s own binder- I have to search for some really good binder deals. Here is my favorite set of white binders (affiliate link) (because white= cheaper) and I color code with the title tabs!
What’s your favorite storage tip? Do you have a favorite solution? leave it in the comments!
(( This post did contain affiliate links. You don’t pay any more, but if you purchase from my link I get a small commission. This allows me to try everything out that I recommend to you and keep my blog running smoothly (and providing you free resources like this one- so thanks for clicking my links!))
