Mother Goose Time: Organizing Leftovers

I love that little school bus box, don't you?  It is jam packed with awesome goodness for me and my little girl to play, learn, and discover together. 

However, for a pack-rat like myself, I just can't bring myself to throw away so many wonderful things! Maybe it's because my husband doesn't want to invest in a color printer... I don't know... but the thought of throwing away some of the fabulously colorful items just makes my teacher brain scream, "No!!! I can use that again!"

Anyone else?

The facts:

I am a former teacher.

I am a crafter.

I am a mother of a toddler.

Anything can be used for learning.

I have absolutely no storage space for a box.

I am NOT throwing away this stuff! 

So with those facts laid out, the question becomes:

How am I going to store this stuff with limited space?

Organization happens best if you invest in the right tools from the beginning.
I know in the binder department this might seem a little steep at $9.99; however,
IT IS PERFECT!

  

Please allow me to share the LOVE for this particular binder.

That front packet is ready to hold the Teacher Guide.

See that pocket on the left, friends?  Worth the price for that thing right there.

Look at what I packed in that bad boy! A CD, another teacher guide called "Little Goose" (perfect for Tots), and a bunch of laminated cut out characters from our monthly book (also provided by Mother Goose Time)

I placed the Circle Time cards on the rings, and used sheet protectors to store all the rest.  The very first sheet protector holds Sweet Pea's journal, the thematic web, and any other main items used either in Circle Time or for the month.

    
Sheet protectors are the way to make things last.
I know... $22.19 for sheet protectors!?!? but this is a pack of 200. I used 22 on this month of storage...I will get 9 months of storage out of this one box.
That comes out to $2.47 per month on storage.
And trust me... compared to Walmart and some other brands of protectors out there I have used,
these are so worth it.

Sorry for the sales pitch there friends, but seriously, I have wasted so much money buying something I didn't like, couldn't return, and then having to buy the better thing in the end.
I just don't want it to happen to you too.

Back to the organization...
Each day is stored in its own sheet protector and I can toss any other items in there with that day's materials if I need to.

You can see that I added the little cards stored in a snack size baggie that went with the Living/Non-living activity in the left hand protector. 

The last protector has the Celebration Kit in it.

Mother Goose Time also sends loads of little things that I reorganize into our regular supplies.  For instance: the foam die went into our math manipulatives; the red pompoms went into our collection of pompoms; the extra colored paper went in with all our construction paper, ect ect.

In the end, I was able to compress all that awesome goodness in the
School Bus Box into a 2 inch binder.
And whenever Sweet Pea starts asking about magnets, or mixing things, or how things change and grow, I can flip open the Science binder, grab my teacher guide, and do those wonderful little activities with her once again.

Oh, how I love to be organized!
(most of the time this is a wish, but sometimes, I do get it done)