Storing Thematic / Seasonal Books

If you are new you may want to start here or check out my Clutter-Free Classroom Guide.

I thought I would share a system I used for storing thematic materials.

Yesterday I mentioned that I used to have copy paper boxes filled with thematic units (bulletin board borders, teacher resource books, children's lit, etc).

Well, when I started to declutter and downsize, those were the first to get weeded out. I stopped changing borders and backgrounds with each month / holiday / unit and started using borders and solid background fabrics that worked for the entire year. That eliminated a bunch of "stuff." It also left me with just teaching resources, master copies, and books.

I really scaled back on the resources and have slowly, but surely gone almost entirely digital.

So that whittled it down to just the books.

I LOVE snagging up those boxes you find at Target and Walmart that display pocket folders and other school supplies. I put all of my thematic books into them and then turn them around so that it creates a uniform appearance. I added a label to each and it made it easy to organize and find books as needed.

The above picture was taken a couple of years ago. Since it is the "off season" they aren't quite as abundant. Ikea sells magazine boxes really cheap that work well. You'll just want to be sure you reinforce them with tape.