School Supply Storage for tiny homes

That little bag right there? It is magic for my tiny house. It holds the necessary supplies for my kids to do their homework. In one little bag that hangs on their closet doorknob.

It isn’t unusual for kids to find their way to where the action is to do their homework. Often right smack on the kitchen table or on the couch. Our kids are no different. What IS different about homework in our home is that we have utterly no space to store various supplies. There isn’t a cabinet available for art supplies and homework supplies like many homes tend to have, even without realizing they do.

So, I employed the use of a tote bag to store each of their essentials for homework. These are ordinary tote bags found at your craft store that I embellished with outgrown dress shirts and a Sharpie. Rather than sewing, I simply used Heat Bond to adhere the pocket and fabric to the tote bag. I am a no-sew kind of gal. Besides, if I can’t find storage for homework supplies where on earth would I put a sewing machine? Right!?!

Each of my children have their own tote bags that are fundamentally the same. They have a pocket on the outside, a strip of button holes attached to the outside for pencils and scissors, and a potholder electronic sleeve on the inside. Then I stock them with their favorite PaperMate mechanical pencils, colored markers, patterned erasers and various papers, scissors, notebooks, file folders, and electronic calculators from Staples.

They don’t need to pull these out each and every day because most of their homework doesn’t require anything but a computer or pencil. But, these do get pulled out once a week or so because of the need for markers, paper, graph paper, or scissors. And it has been a life-saver to have it all in one easy, accessible, and compact place!

To embellish a tote bag you truly don’t need to sew! Pick up a roll of heat bond adhesive or fabric glue (I love that stuff too!) and use it to adhere your fabric. Once you use these products you will wonder why you waited so long!

Here are the steps I took to achieve the tote bag I have…

1. Cut strips of the dress shirt fabric to wrap the handles in. I tied the strips at the bottom of the handle and wrapped it around tucking the next strip in as I went. I tied it again at the end.
2. I used a t-shirt to create a square for the pocket and then used Heat Bond to adhere the pocket to the tote bag.
3. For the strip of fabric with the button holes I pulled out my needle and thread and ran a couple stitches on each end of the strip. While you can use HeatBond for this, I find that the needle and thread is much stronger for the purpose of hanging pencils and pens.
4. The strips of fabric on the fabric on the front of the bag I adhered with Heat Bond and made sure they and the pocket aligned perfectly.
5. I created a striped pattern on the tote bag with a black Sharpie
6. The electronic sleeve inside is simply a pot holder. Isn’t that clever!

However, you decide to create your compact homework station be sure that it is stocked with the necessary supplies. Head to Staples to grab the best version of the school supplies you can! —The entire week of January 17th, 2016 save 40% off all regular priced PaperMate products. (while supplies last)—

Remember, here at NellieBellie we believe in having LESS so you can have the BEST. Minimalism is simply taking out what you don’t need to make room for living the best you can.

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Newell Rubbermaid , but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #stockup4schools http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV