Making Use of What I Have: homeschool room

One thing I've been working on lately is making use of what I have. Not wishing for more and pining (or Pinterest-ing) over dreams. From fashion, decor, crafts, recipes, Pinterest is a goldmine of beauty. I want, I want, I want. It is a waste of time and contentedness to long for more since I'm not building a custom dream home, or hiring a nanny so I can go shopping, or able to eat desserts every day and not gain weight.


Contentedness is living with gratitude for what I have.


So when I keep seeing gigantic, perfectly organized school rooms, I think, "I want one of those." And again I say, "Contentedness is gratitude for what I have!" It's just that my school room/home office/craft paradise looks like this:

Let's see what we have going on in here:

• Bill paying center
• Brains of a home office for 3 businesses
• Homeschool curriculum storage
• Card making stuff
• Sewing center including necessary mending and "just for fun" projects
• Storage for 8 throw pillow that I got for incredible deals
• Piano book storage
• Scrapbooking central (a hobby I haven't touched in 5 years)
• Storage for a bunch of sentimental items I don't know what to do with
• 14 piles of crap
• 114 unfinished craft projects

Yes, you get the idea and probably want to go hide and cry like I do. There is nothing really functional about this space... like nothing. There is just too much clutter to get anything practical done.


I kinda ignored this space, closed the door, peaked in occasionally, cried and closed the door again, did a little computer work that was absolutely necessary, paid bills, sewed a little, for oh, the last 2 years. Then I saw a post on a FB group I belong to (Homeschool Momtogs). It went something like this:

Pottery Barn does the homeschool room

"Do you have a separate area for homeschool? The past two years at our old house we had no room for a special area, now that we've moved I finally have a spot. Looking at ideas on pinterest. "

I saw the post and thought, "Ya right, I wish I could have a school room." No sooner did the thought pass through my head than I remembered, yep, I actually have a room, but I am squandering it with clutter and mis-use.

When someone I've never met commented and said she just finished her school room. Stephanie included a link to the happy place, I drooled.

This is Stephanie's space:



The super wide angle lens makes this room look incredibly large, right? I actually asked her in a comment how big the room was because I was still thinking I COULD NEVER HAVE A ROOM LIKE THIS! It is only 13x10' feet. My squandered space is 10'3"x 9'6", smaller, but not by much.

My real-life dream is to rework the space and make it functional for

a) 2 grade school students + 2 trouble making preschoolers

b) 1 teacher

c) 3 home businesses

d) craft paradise



While I ponder, purge, organize, rearrange, sell, gift, and move EVERYTHING in the room, I'm looking for ideas. Pinterest has some great ones. My homeschool room board.


Some ideas I hope to incorperate:

Little kid desk like this.

Doing this with a globe.

Shelves something like this.

Love these colors.

Curtains similar to these.

Long functional desk maybe that wraps around the corner like this in Oak.

Organization like this.


It's a tall order, but doable I think. May the fun begin!!