4 Men 1 Lady

a lifestyle blog about the persuit of bringing beauty to a house full of men.

Homework station.

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This vintage library cart has been been around.
I’ve used it as a bar cart, a night stand and living room display cart.

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It’s latest duty…

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This year I have not just one but two kiddos in school.
The amount of school work scattered on our kitchen counters is out of control.
No can ever find anything in that tornado of school projects (though I did found a stale, mushed up cracker from who knows when in the pile).
We needed a system.

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Come in the door, hang your back pack on the magnetic hook on the side of cart.

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When it’s homework time we can unpack the bag and start sorting.
Things that they’ll be working on all week such as spelling, sight words, math packets go on their shelf.

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Each kid has a posted check list of things needed to get done each day so I don’t need to nag all afternoon.

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Each child also has their own shelf with accessories that are color coordinated so there’s no mistaking who’s is who’s.

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Most every supply they’ll ever need is at the homework station.
No more excuses for not doing their homework because they “couldn’t find a pencil.”
Pa-lease, I invented that excuse.

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They can even see for themselves what events are scheduled for the day.

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Oh yes, we’re painstakingly organized now.

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Hey Mc-ee-dees is the most successful fast food chain because of their SYSTEM for moving food, not because they have the best burgers.

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We’ve got ourselves a system now!

Source list:

Vintage library cart: school auction.
Letter trays, pencil cups, “spelling” notebooks, Eraser, : Poppin.
Magnets: Fab.
Calendar: Paper Source.
Timer: Anthropologie.

Special thanks to Poppin for providing their colorful school supplies and helping us get organized!

Comments

  1. Nice system! I bet this helps the kids stay on top of things (and mom too, of course.) It’s like walking into a clean well stocked kitchen at supper time, ha-ha!

  2. Love this Michele! Genius idea! I am totally coveting your library cart. Just might have to go on a hunt for something similar. Thanks for the eye candy this morning!

    Happy Wednesday!

    • Aww, thanks Tausha! It was so fun to meet you last week! Your studio is SOOO fun. BTW, do you know when the segment I did will air? Want to make sure and announce it.
      Thanks again girl! -Michelle

  3. I love it! I’ve coveted that cart in every one of its incarnations. How do you keep your youngest out of all the fun stuff though? I keep going back and forth between things down low and easily accessible so the kids can get and replace by themselves and putting things up high (it gets scary to open the refrigerator b/c something might fall down on you!) to keep the 2 year old out of everything!

    • I love it…the many reincarnations of my cart! Very cute. I too thought my little one would be in to all the supplies on the cart but he’s surprisingly not. Maybe I should be worried that he’s not more interested in school-ish things. I hope it’s not a foreshadow of the future. 🙂

  4. This is great! I have a bookshelf that is filled with our supplies. Anyone looking for a cart might be interested in a popular one called the RÅSKOG Kitchen cart sold at IKEA for $49.99.

  6. These are some great ideas! I’m not sure why I’ve not thought of trays before. My homework station is not nearly as neat as yours. It’s good to train them early to go through their backpack right away. Three kids paperwork is at least one rain forest worth of paper. We are guilty of just plopping all our stuff down and letting it pile up until we look like we have some sort of school busy-work paper plague on our house. We beg the person who has sinned to repent and save us from this growing paper demon. It’s usually me. Oh well. Plus, the pencils. Oh my goodness I am pretty sure they reproduce!?! But I like the canning jars idea you are using much better than the one we are currently using to wrangle them. So, this is my request for you: What would be a good treat to take to school friends that is NOT food (school says no more cupcakes or Krispy Kremes) nor pencils (’cause let’s be honest, pencils are not highly appreciated). I’ll be waiting in eager anticipation.

  7. Dear Michelle,
    I must admit that I am new to your blog and when I gave your blog home a visit today my jaw dropped. I’m a sucker for cute and thoughtful organization! Absolutely ingenious on your part – brava! And thanks for tuning me into Poppin, they have crazy cute things at a great price point.
    Cheers and I look forward to more of your awesomeness!
    Kate

  8. Waouuu!! qué funcional y todo muy bien organizado. Me encanta la idea. Felicidades Michelle! (espero que funcione y siempre esté así de ordenadito 😉
    Besos.

  9. You just made my day!!! I have been searching for something like this. I want an area that doesn’t take over the whole house. We are downsizing so my mud room area is gone. So perfect!!! Thank you

  10. LOVE your ideas!! Where did you get the little printer or what is the name of it? The one that makes the cute “caught ya…” cards, etc. THANKS!! 🙂

    • You’re so welcome! And kudos to you and your darling homework station! I love how it turned out. There’s so much less stress when you’re not hunting around for everything. 🙂

  12. I absolutely LOVE this idea!! That cart deserves all the heart eyes! I would like to feature this in a homework stations round up on the West Valley Moms blog including a direct link back to this post and one photo. Thanks so much for sharing such a great idea!

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Hey there! I’m Michelle; I’m an Passionate DIY’er and in constant pursuit of how to bring beauty to my house full of men (3 boys + 1 hubby). Stick around and see what I’ve got up my hard-working sleaves!

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