HOW TO STORE SEASONAL ITEMS IN THE CLASSROOM

Teachers like you are often required to store their own instructional tools and materials.  This includes texts, bulletin board materials, manipulatives, and more!  You couldn’t possibly have enough storage for all of these items!  In addition, the rush of the school day makes it so you don’t have the time to find these materials, which often leads to you wasting money as you repurchase the same items.  Does this sound familiar?  What if I told you that you don’t need to do this anymore if you use my simple storage tips for seasonal items?  It’s true!  There are easy solutions to your problems!

This blog post will…

• offer advice on how to store seasonal items in the classroom
• share why it is important to store seasonal items in an organized way
• recommend tools that will help you store seasonal items without them getting damaged

Before we begin:

10 Organization Tips for Storing Seasonal Items

1. Seasonal and holiday items only need to be accessed once annually.  Therefore if you have a storage area that is harder to get to than other it would make sense to use it for these types of items. Alternatively, if you are fortunate enough to have a lot of storage space at home, you may want to consider keeping these items there in easy to stack and carry tubs when they are not needed at school.
2. Seasonal items tend to be varied in size. It is useful to use copy paper boxes or larger plastic bins to store these items. 
3. Always use containers with lids. Since you are not accessing them frequently you want to keep dust out.
4. Consider storing all related items, including books, posters, borders, etc. together in one container.
5. Posters and charts that are displayed on a wall or bulletin board can be rolled for storage. They will lie flat when stapled to the wall.
6. Depending on how much you have to store, you may find it saves space to combine several holidays into one container.
7. Use containers within the container. Keeping bulletin board trim, letters, fabric and accents in a Ziploc bag within the larger box will keep things neater and easier to access.
8. Drawers are handy for storing seasonal and holiday items, however they are not easy to move around. Also, they take up floor space. If you are considering changing schools or moving classrooms then I suggest picking a different type of container because these may fit your current space, but not a future space.
9. As a general rule, I try to limit items that are considered to be seasonal and get more bang for my buck by sticking to content areas when it comes to bulletin boards and displays. 
10. When I do a holiday-themed bulletin board I will often forgo the overly thematic borders for a border that complements the theme but can be reused. For example, in place oftrim gingerbread man trim, I may opt for a red and white border that can also be used with a pink background for Valentine’s Day and then a blue background to display President’s Day writing.

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