The beginning of each school year is always full of excitement and anticipation, from purchasing new clothes and school supplies to learning what classes you are in. However, as the school year goes on, you may find yourself accumulating school supplies and items that you don’t need.

When you find yourself with more school items than you know what to do with, it’s time to begin clearing the clutter. Whether you’re a student, a teacher, or a parent or guardian, 10 Federal Storage is here to help you declutter by offering advice on what to do with your school supplies. Read on to learn how students and teachers alike can donate, recycle, and store school items.

Decluttering For Students and Families

No matter how much you try to reuse school supplies from the previous school year, it always seems like you end up with more and more at the conclusion of each school year. For students and families of students, these school supplies can take up a lot of space around your home if you don’t find a place for them early on.

Thankfully, we have easy solutions for clearing clutter and getting rid of outgrown school items. These solutions include:

• Donating school supplies

• Recycling school supplies

• Preserving sentimental school supplies

Donate Unused School Supplies

The easiest way to declutter old school supplies is to donate them to schools or other resale stores. Goodwill or second-hand bookstores are both great options if you choose to go that route.

However, schools are always looking for donations of school supplies for classrooms as well as students who cannot afford school supplies. Donating supplies to local homeless or women’s shelters is also a good option to get helpful items into the hands of people who truly need them. 

Recycle School Supplies

Rather than buying brand-new school supplies each school year, you can simply reuse the ones you kept from the previous school year. From notebooks with plenty of pages left or pencils that are only gently used, you can easily recycle and reuse these supplies.

If you are an older sibling or a parent with multiple children, it is much more cost-effective to hand supplies down to the younger siblings. At the end of each year, do an inventory of everyone’s supplies and create a stash of the leftover items that can be used in the next school year. Not only is this cost-effective, but it’s also environmentally friendly. 

Preserve Sentimental Items

In addition to unused school supplies, students will also be bringing home projects at the end of the school year as well. While there are many homework assignments that you will probably just want to throw away, there may be some that you want to preserve for sentimental reasons. 

Here are some recommendations for preserving and storing school supplies:

• Rent a climate-controlled storage unit.

• Purchase acid-free envelopes for paper documents.

• Store items on shelves to prevent damage.

Decluttering For Teachers

As a teacher, you accumulate a lot of school supplies over the years that you may or may not have a use for anymore. While you can certainly ask your teacher besties if they need anything, there are some other ways to use old school supplies if asking your co-workers doesn’t work. However, before you can begin putting these solutions into practice, you first need to reorganize your classroom. 

Reorganize Your Classroom

At the end of every school year, it seems like you always have more and more junk taking over your classroom. From school projects to old textbooks, there are plenty of things that may be taking up space. Start by placing everything into separate piles denoting if they have to stay, can be thrown away, or should be donated.

Be realistic about the amount of supplies you have. While school supplies are precious commodities to teachers, there are certain things you can part ways with to make room for newer supplies for your classroom. Not only will this clear the clutter, but it will allow you to be more creative with your classroom decor and give you the opportunity to rearrange things. 

Create a School Supply Closet For Students

For items you don’t have space for that may still have some life left in them, you can work with the other teachers in your school to create a school supply closet for teachers and students. This solution allows you to give back to students who may need extra support when it comes to having the school supplies they need.

Find an empty closet or talk to your principal about borrowing some space in the front office. You can even get in touch with your school’s guidance counselor or social worker to see if they have any ideas for setting up a supply closet for students. 

Store Classroom Supplies

While getting rid of items is the easiest way to declutter, you still might find yourself with a lot of school supplies and not enough storage space even after purging. For the school items you still need but don’t have space for in your classroom, rent a storage unit. 

Self storage is an easy and affordable way to store school supplies. There are several reasons why storing school supplies in a storage unit is the best choice for teachers. These reasons include:

• Wide selection of sizes. Whether you’re storing a few boxes of notebooks or large classroom furniture, there is sure to be a storage unit size that’s right for you.

• Flexible leasing options. Save money by renting on a month-to-month basis so you aren’t paying for your unit longer than you have to.

• Convenient storage features. From climate-controlled storage to accessible drive-up storage units, there will always be an option that matches your unique needs.

• Easy access to school supplies. Even though you will be keeping your school supplies off-campus, storage units still provide easy and secure access to your items.

Check out our storage tips page and FAQ for additional advice. 

Rent Self Storage For Outgrown School Items From 10 Federal Today

Whether you need student storage or climate-controlled storage for your school supplies, 10 Federal Storage can help. We provide a wide selection of unit sizes and features to ensure you always have everything you need for school supply storage. 

Browse through our storage locations to find the one that works best for you. Then, rent self storage for school supplies online today!