5 Easy Classroom Organization Tips for Teachers

I know what it is like, to desire so deeply, to live in a more organized state of mind. To operate daily and live from a place of clear and organized structure. To be so put together all of the time and for our workspace to feel the same. I have spent majority of my years as a high school teacher, living in the chaos. Accepting clutter and the disorganized mess as my company. However, this school year I am committed to change. I am committed to a more organized classroom. And I am sharing specific classroom organization tips that I am implementing to help make this my new reality!

Are you tired of teaching in chaos? Are you done with never being able to find the one thing you are looking for in your classroom of chaos? Sharing FIVE classroom organizational tips for teachers for the new school year. Five classroom organizational tips to help keep you confident even through the crazy Ready to meet a more organized version of yourself? 5 steps to get you there!

Listen to the Podcast Episode

Many of us are getting back into the swing of things with the new school year coming up. Getting the kiddos squared away. Preparing yourself for all things fall. Personally, I am so excited to start transitioning into a brand new season. For myself, this back to school season means I am fully head deep in the hustle and bustle of starting a new school year. Which is exactly why I want to take some time and give inspiration for how to keep your classroom organized. Tips and tricks to help keep your classroom a place of organization, free from clutter. 

I know as a teacher, it can be so easy to coast through life, accepting the messy and the chaos as status quo. And that’s what I’ve done for so, so long. It really hasn’t been until these past few years of learning to balance life as a mom and teacher, as someone with lots of different things on her plate. Struggling to balance it all, that I realized some things in my life had to change.

Specifically, my approach and my perspective on how to keep my spaces clean and tidy needed to be reevaluated and focused on just a little bit. In order for me to really live in a place of optimal living. A place where I could make sure that I’m taking care of myself and my family well. As well as making sure that my priorities were intact. 

I Couldn’t Do This Alone

Now, I couldn’t do any of this alone. I am not that capable. Nor, am I that talented. I am the girl, very determined and incredibly eager to make all the changes happen as quickly as possible. But I can’t do that on my own. Truthfully, I have so much of all of this to thank the incredible Chelsi Jo Moore of Systemize Your Life. I have gotten to know and work closely with Chelsi over the past couple of years and her brain and heart are truly amazing.

Chelsi’s podcast, the Systemize Your Life podcast is a life changing podcast that I have been binging for years now. Through this podcast, Chelsi Jo shares practical tips for everyday life for moms, especially working moms who are trying to balance all the things. Her specialities include time blocking, systems for business, and home organization. Her episodes are SO good and share practical steps of how to organize your day, organize your week and organize your life. All so that way you can thrive in both your home and your business.

So, if you are looking for another great podcast to add to your weekly rotation, especially if you’re looking for how in the world can I find more organizational tips, more productivity tips. If you desire to find more order in your everyday life, then you absolutely need to tune into Systemize Your Life.

Living in Organized Chaos

If any of my coworkers were to read this they may laugh. The reality is, for a majority of my life as a teacher, my classroom has been a place of absolute clutter and disarray.  I would be described by most of my coworkers as disorganized chaos. Personally, I prefer to call it organized chaos. I have my own organizational system, but it might not look that way to the eye that is walking into my classroom.

Finally, I got to a point where trying to balance mom life, teacher life, personal life,  I couldn’t waste any more minutes looking for things on my desk, or looking for things in my classroom. It was taking too much time away. And left me feeling so frustrated and annoyed at myself. Which led me to think, how can I take the things that I’ve learned about organization and apply that to my classroom?

How can I apply that to the space that I live in and work in pretty much daily during the school year? Our classrooms are a home away from home. So many hours are spent there. So much of ourselves, our energy are poured into this space. Therefore, it really needs to be a place that is organized and clear to allow us to be the best type of person and to be the optimal teacher that we are created and designed to be. 

The Benefit of Maintaining an Organized Classroom

As a teacher with a little one in daycare it is even more beneficial to maintain an organized classroom. It wasn’t until after I returned to the classroom from my maternity leave, when my son was in daycare, that I had to rely on subs a lot. And the reality was, anytime before a sub would be in my classroom, I would have to spend close to an hour of dedicated time in my classroom, completely devoted to getting things ready for a sub. And I’m not referring to creating lesson plans, nor am I talking about preparing the sub folder.

The truth is, I needed to spend significant time preparing my physical classroom space for a sub. In particular, my desk, the table next to my desk. I would have to spend close to a full hour doing things that were extra just to get my classroom in a place of of order. Where I felt comfortable allowing another human to occupy that space. And that was mainly due to not wanting to leave a mess or disorder for another human being that was helping me out by covering my classes!

So this became a thing. If I knew I needed to have a sub, I also knew that meant spending an extra hour getting my room ready.  And I’ve realized that’s not sustainable. I realize that I can’t keep doing that. And in order to be a better teacher, I needed to operate from a place of more organized structure within my classroom.

Five Tips to Get Your Classroom Organized (and Stay Organized) This Year

Five tips on how to keep your classroom organized this school year. Five tips to support you and your organization goals. So that this year can finally be the school year you feel confident in. That you know it truly is possible to live from an organized classroom and state of mind!

Classroom Organization Tip #1 – Figure Out What Causes You the Most Clutter and Start There

The very first classroom organization tip to keep your classroom organized is to figure out what causes you the most clutter and start there. Anytime you’re trying to organize any space, first evaluate the situation and think what is actually causing clutter. Where is the mess beginning? Once you figure out where the mess is beginning, start there to fix it.

For me, within my classroom, the thing that is always everywhere or sometimes misplaced, is student work. As a teacher, there is SO much student work. Specifically things to grade, things to file, and things to pass back. It can all feel so overwhelming, wondering where in the world all these pieces of paper need to go.

Paper is Everywhere!

One of the things preventing my classroom from staying organized is constant paper everywhere. It sits in the corner of my desk. Then the pile stacks up OR half of the stack goes in my book bag and stays there for two weeks. Driving here and there, everywhere until I finally grade the things.

In order to organize your classroom, first figure out what causes the most clutter and start there. Whether that is your resource library, or student work, or your own teacher pens. Whatever it is, figure out what is causing you the most chaos, the most clutter. And start tuning into that and figuring out how can I organize this in a way that makes more sense? Identifying the problem area is the first key step to maintaining an organized classroom.

Classroom Organization Tip #2 – Everything Must Have a Specific Place

The second classroom organization tip is everything must have a specific place. In order to keep an organized classroom, you need to know where things go. If things don’t have a specific place, well then, they’re just going to be messy. Which means when you are looking at your clutter, you must decide if its something you can get rid of OR create a new little section of organization within your space for that item.

In order to keep an organized classroom, the secret is for everything to have a specific place. A place to store your copies that will be handed out tomorrow and later this week. Do you have materials that you’re using to teach the next day? That needs a space. Extra supplies. Supplies that you have that are extra for you or supplies that are extra for students. That needs a space. 

Helpful Tips on Where to Store Things in Your Classroom

I have bookshelves in my room that are specifically for class sets of textbooks. I have every single thing that would be for students organized in a bin. I have extra computer paper, extra notebook paper, highlighters, colored pencils, markers, everything of that category is in its own separate container. Labeled and in its own separate place. I know exactly where it goes, so I don’t have to worry about getting that out of its location.

I have a locker cart that has six little cubby drawers in it. And within there are the hardcover pencil boxes full of pencils, glue sticks, markers, and black pens specifically for students to use. And what’s great about this is I actually have had this system in place since I began setting up my classroom in 2014.  And it’s moved with me from the old school building to the new school building. It’s easy because I know where the specific things go. And if somebody needs to borrow something, I can easily point them to the right direction. Therefore, in order to keep everything organized in your classroom, everything must have a specific place.

Classroom Organization Tip #3 – Create Your Own Filing System

The third classroom organizational tip to keep your classroom organized all year long is to create your own filing system. Now this will look different based on which grade level you teach. And if you teach in the younger grades and you have smaller class sizes, this is going to be a lot easier to manage. But, as a high school teacher with over 120 students each semester, I have my very own filing system for both student work and my own teacher work. Including teaching materials and extra copies and such.

Create Your Own Student Filing System

One of the easiest ways to maintain an organized classroom, especially within the high school setting is to have your own student filing system. Within the first couple of weeks of the semester, I will create a Manila folder for every single student. Now, I will usually do this on a day where my students are working on something either in groups or individually, so I’m not having to use extra time outside of the classroom hours to get this done. But every student gets a manila folder.

I just change the same folders every year. I use a label to cover the name of the previous student and write this year’s students name on it. Within these student folders I keep a copy of the receipt of the syllabus and the student information sheet. And then all paper copies of assessments will also be filed in their file folder. That way, when a kid comes in for help, they want to go over something. I know exactly where it is. I don’t have to spend hours upon hours searching for things. I know exactly where it is. In order to maintain an organized classroom, a student filing system is essential.

Create Your Own Curriculum Filing System

In addition to a student filing system, you may also want to include your own teacher filing system. Within your own filing cabinets, actually take the time to figure out how to organize your files? How you are going to organize your class materials? I will keep things on my desk per unit. And then once I am done with that unit,  I will put the remaining materials in the filing cabinet. I will hold on to the copies while the unit is happening, and then once the unit is over, I will put the extra copies in the filing system. 

I will always keep just one manila folder on my desk. I say manila folder. It’s actually a very pretty floral design folder. I am a big sucker for all things teacher supplies and will always end up picking up a new thing of file folders from Target that is visually appealing! And so I have that sitting on my desk, one for each prep and that’s where I keep my original copies. That way I have. an organized system of this is what material is being covered each unit. Therefore, create your own filing system, have a student work filing system and a teacher work filing system in order to keep your classroom organized this year!

Classroom Organization Tip #4 – Don’t Overcrowd Your Desk

The fourth classroom organization tip is don’t overcrowd your desk. This is key to organization in the classroom. Make sure your desk is clear of any clutter. Focus on only keeping the things on your desktop that you actually need. There’s a lot of things that you can put in your drawer, out of your line of sight. Additionally, there are plenty of things you can place at a nearby location.

On my actual teacher desktop, I have a large desk pad (think of giant mouse pad). It’s super long, taking over almost three fourths of the length of my desk. My computer sits on it. My mouse pad sits on it. My mouse sits on it. And it’s a pretty design that I really don’t want anything else to sit on that space unless it’s something I’m currently working on.

So that’s a great tool to keep a clean and clear desk space. I also will have on the corner of my desk, one of those modular trays, that’s like a little stacking system. And I keep important papers there. I have one for paperclips, one for my go to pens. The key to organizing your classroom is to only keep the things you absolutely need on your desktop!

Classroom Organization Tip #5 – Organize Things By Specific Category

The next classroom organization tip to keep things in order in your classroom is to organize things by specific categories. This is where I have a lot of fun. Despite my organized chaos, this right here is something I have always done consistently within my classroom. I can most definitely organize things by specific categories.

Take my collection of pens for example. Sitting on my teacher desk is a total of ten different mason jars. And each mason jar represents its own separate brand and style of pen. So within my mason jar pen collection I have my round up of favorite teacher pens, call these my MVPs. They include bold permanent marker Sharpies and thin tip marker Sharpie collections. As well as paper mate flare pens and paper mate ink joy pens. Also included, my favorite writing black pen, Sharpie S Gel black ink pens. Then there is my beloved Zebra Mini Line highlighter pens.

Organizing Your Classroom By Category

So everything is organized by exact type of writing utensil. Not only do I have my writing utensils organized super specifically, but I also have all the books on my bookshelf organized in different bins per category. This way it is so easy for me to pull out what I need.  And it’s way more. visually pleasing to the eye, especially as a high school teacher. Therefore, if you are in elementary and you have reading books for students, that might need to look a little bit different, but it’s just a thought of a way to actually organize your bookshelf by category.

Additionally, I utilize all the cute folders to keep track of all the things. Classroom information, class rosters, grading materials, and as many storage bins and baskets as possible to just keep everything organized in its place.

Bonus Tip to an Organized Classroom – Use a Three-Tier Storage Cart 

A bonus classroom organizational tip to really keep your classroom organized is to use a three tier storage cart. This is such a fun addition to any classroom space. I absolutely LOVE my white, three-tier storage cart in my classroom. It sits right next to my side of my desk and is completely organized. On the bottom tier I keep my teacher copy of each prep’s textbooks.

The second tier includes my resource books that I use daily, as well as my notebooks and folders for keeping my own notes and papers organized. The top tier includes all my favorite pens, as well as my classroom keys. So, I always know where they are.

What I love the most about my 3-tier storage cart for my classroom is that I can use it as an extension of my desk. It allows you to keep the things you love right near your desk, neatly organized and close by. But also, can be moved because it has wheels!

The Essential Gear to Use to Keep Your Classroom Organized 

Finally, the last thing I want to share is the essential gear that I use for keeping my classroom organized. Specifically, a list of things that are essential to keeping my space in my classroom organized.

• a three-tier storage cart (fabulous for organizing extra materials and its on wheels)
• pretty filing folders
• Sharpies (to label everything)
• Mason Jars (for organizing pens & other writing utensils)
• Modular cubes and desk trays
• Paper trays
• Wire paper organizer
• Mouse pad

So those are the essential things that I use for keeping my classroom organized. Mainly the things that I use for my desk space and keeping the desk space organized. When everything has a place and a purpose to it, it is SO much easier to keep your classroom organized.

Inspiration and Motivation for an Organized Classroom

I hope this gave you a source of inspiration to work through the areas in your life that need a bit more structure and clarity. I hope you can find that and take these tips and it can allow you to have a better day and a better week for this upcoming week ahead. Cheering you on every step of the way!

Looking for Additional Classroom Organization Tips?

Looking for additional inspiration and support to keep your classroom clean and organized. Sharing classroom essentials for back to school, the specific things needed to help start the new school year off right. As well as, advice for teachers for a brand new school year! Specific tips and words of encouragements for teachers heading back for a new school year!