Just this week, I’ve seen a couple teachers using over-the-door shoe pocket organizers to store classroom materials.
I’ve used them for years, too, so it’s fun to see the same idea working for others. Great minds think alike, right?
I have several shoe organizers like these, though I don’t actually have shoes in any of them. They work well for all sorts of storage for a variety of reasons:
- cheap and available in lots of stores
- see-through, so you can see what you have
- easy to get things in and out
- can be cut to fit otherwise hard-to-fit places
- vertical storage uses wall space to free up shelf space
- holds small stuff that can otherwise be hard to store
In one room I saw the pockets being used to hold early readers and flash cards. They were tucked away behind a door, but easy for the teacher to get to quickly – and great for pulling out a stack of flash cards to quiz kids whenever they have a couple extra minutes before the bell rings.
In another room, the pockets had been cut into a long narrow strip and were on the wall right inside a closet. They were full of all sorts of random small things that can be hard to keep track of: student magnifying glasses, stickers, clothes pins, and craft supplies like feathers, popcicle sticks, googly eyes and pom-poms.
My favorite was a pocket organizer that had been cut into strips lengthwise. They were being used on an awkward slanted ceiling in a closet – turning wasted space into useful storage.
The pockets were attached to the ceiling/wall with what looks like duct tape and a ton of staples. They were filled with office supplies: sticky notes, pens, tape, glue sticks, etc.
The pockets could also be cut and attached to the edge of a table and filled with supplies for a center, art project or science experiment.
They could be used below or along side a white board to hold dry erase markers and erasers. You could even attach the pockets to the wall sideways since markers are supposed to work better if they are stored horizontally.
I have several of these at home too. There’s one on the wall behind my daughter’s bedroom door to hold things like tiny doll shoes and clothes. Another is on the inside of a bathroom closet door to hold makeup and hair accessories. Lots and lots of hair accessories. Another is on the back of the door to our laundry room/mudroom; it’s used for gloves, sunscreen and other things that we often need on the way out the door.
A place for everything, everything in it’s place!
