When we decided to make the investment this summer to hire professional organizers to come in and clean out our basement, we had no idea what we would be utilizing it for.

Sure, we wanted a clean basement for the kids to play and one we could easily store items in an organized way. Before the organizers, we would spend hours in that lower level searching for things like shoes, winter coats and Christmas lights. Did I think it would become a classroom?! Uh, no.

Fast forward 3 months, it has transformed into a beautiful workspace for myself and the kids. It is far from complete, but I wanted to share some of the items I have found that are “must-haves” for creating an at-home school space.

Even if you are not homeschooling, I think these items are great for young learners.

The first item that has been a lifesaver is a white board. I recommend purchasing one on wheels, if possible. We bought ours from Amazon.

The rug that we have in our basement is not a necessity, but I get a lot of questions about it! Also, purchased off Amazon. Here’s the link.

We toyed with the idea of putting a small couch in the basement for lessons, but we opted for bean bags instead. I’m really glad we did that, because the kids can move the bags around… take them upstairs if they need to, etc. We went with the big dogs here and purchased Pottery Barn Kids bean bags. They are expensive, but they always run sales on these!

The maps (we have 4 total) have proven invaluable. There are 2 that I HIGHLY recommend purchasing. We purchased both of them from Amazon. The Children’s Map of the World is just really cool. Our pediatrician has this map, and my kids have always loved it… this map is super cheap and great quality! The second map we use almost daily is the large map of the world. I recommend spending a little extra for the laminated version. The kids love taking dry erase markers to it to mark countries, oceans and more.

A laminator came highly recommended, and I really am glad we bought one. We use it for crafts, art projects, math puzzles and more.

We have a table and chairs set up in our classroom. A lot of experts recommend not setting up a traditional classroom, you don’t need tables and chairs. I kind of disagree. The kids want a place to sit and do their writing, math, art projects. We use an old kitchen table and the kids have assigned seats. They really like it that way.

We have a large storage rack for the school supplies, books, worksheets. Jeff bought the racks from Webstaurant, it’s a 5 shelf baker rack. I’m sure you can find these on Amazon too. Regardless of what you choose, I recommend having some kind of shelving for organizational purposes.

And that’s it! Like I said, it’s a work in progress… but those are the items we use the most. Next up is putting up a wall where our storage is, laying more carpet and possibly painting our unfinished ceilings.

If you have any questions about any of the items in our Homeschool Classroom, feel free to comment below!!!