How to Organize a Homeschool Preschool Cart: rolling storage
Our homeschool preschool cart is an adored addition to our homeschool journey. It fits perfectly in our small space, symbolizing our modest beginnings as we grow and learn together. While our primary learning spot is our dining room, the cart often travels to our back porch. I dream of bookshelves brimming with enriching books for all ages and creating an ideal homeschooling haven. For now, we make the most of our compact space. What I love most is the cart’s convenience and effortless cleanup. After school time, we simply roll our homeschool cart back to the closet.
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What is a Homeschool Cart?
A homeschool cart is a metal rolling cart designed with shelves to neatly store and organize essential daily school supplies and books. These carts typically feature two or three tiers, along with extra magnetic hangers and accessories for added functionality to your homeschool cart organization.
We have the Simple Houseware Heavy Duty 3-Tier Metal Utility Rolling Cart in turquoise.
What is the Purpose of a Homeschool Preschool Cart?
The rolling homeschool preschool cart serves various purposes and offers benefits like reducing home clutter, providing easy access, allowing flexibility, maximizing storage, and reducing stress. Additionally, the cart can be assigned to each student, a specific subject, or for arts and crafts.
The shelves are versatile for arranging essential school supplies, art materials, composition notebooks, school books, teacher’s guides, and other frequently used items. Hanger tiles are ideal for hanging flashcards on a binder ring. You can also use suction hooks and magnetic containers for additional storage.
When to Use a Homeschool Preschool Cart?
A rolling utility cart provides easy access to school supplies for a flexible learning schedule. During homeschool days, simply bring out the cart for school time and put it away when learning is done. Currently, we use our preschool homeschool cart in the morning for learning and in the afternoon for hands-on activities. When not in use, the cart is stored in a closet. Although we are in the preschool homeschooling stage, these carts can also organize subjects with additional resources like science and math. They are useful for unit studies to arrange hands-on activities, books, supplies, and other materials needed for the study.
Where to Use a Homeschool Cart for Preschool?
A homeschool preschool cart is versatile and can be moved to any room in your home to facilitate learning. Our kitchen table serves as our main homeschool area, but the cart makes frequent trips to the back porch on beautiful days. It can also be easily transported to a schoolroom, living room, or any designated learning spot within your house. This cart is ideal for a small space.
What’s in Our Homeschool Preschool Cart?
On the Top Shelf: The Subject and Morning Time Tray
On the top shelf, I keep a file box for our morning menu, worksheets, construction paper, extra pages for the morning menu, notebooks, a dry-erase board, and a selection of picture books. Additionally, I keep a small plastic container stocked with a dry eraser, flashcards, dry-erase markers, a tub of play dough, and manipulatives. To add some creativity, there’s a craft bag with pipe cleaners, craft pom-poms, and other fun crafting supplies. Other recommendations include teacher’s guides, workbooks, textbooks, and other essential books and learning resources.
Here is what I keep on our top tier:
File Holder
- Construction paper
- worksheets and activity books
- Notebooks
- Dry-erase board
- Picture books
- Morning Menu
Small Plastic Container
- Dry eraser
- Dry-erase markers
- Flashcards (Alphabet Print Cards)
- Manipulatives
Craft Bag
- Pipe cleaners
- Craft pom-poms
- Tub of play dough
On the Middle Shelf: The Essential Supplies
The second tier holds a repurposed utensil organizer to organize essential school supplies.
Here you will find the following list of supplies:
- watercolor paints
- paint brushes
- glue sticks
- painter’s tape
- washi tape
- chalk
- hole puncher
- color pencils
- crayons
- markers
- hot glue gun with glue sticks
- tape
- scissors
- paper clips
- close pins
On the Bottom Shelf: The Hands-On Activity Storage
The third tier is dedicated to hands-on learning activities, like our sensory tray (or writing tray), which I frequently refresh with engaging themed manipulatives and a sensory filler such as colored rice or sand. I store the tray in a plastic bag but a plastic bin with a lid would work lovely. Additionally, I provide tools like tongs, a magnifying glass, wooden letters, resin numbers, and a variety of objects or printouts for added enjoyment.
Save Some Money and Repurpose a Few Items
You can often arrange your homeschooling cart by using items found around your home or repurposed objects that have been tucked away, such as:
- plastic storage containers
- pencil puches
- file boxes
- baskets
- recycled tin cans
- plastic caddies
- magnetic cups
- hooks
- clips
- mason jars
- coffee cans
What Should I Put in My Homeschool Preschool Cart?
More ideas for what to include in your homeschool cart:
- craft supplies
- student workbooks
- teacher’s guides
- language arts resources
- nature finds and books such as nature anatomy for nature study
- composition notebooks for journaling
- additional worksheets
- coloring books
- flash cards
- timer
- various art mediums
- finger paint
- dot markers
- magnets
- puzzles
- stickers
- stamps and ink pad
- blocks
- calculator
- ruler
Free Early Learning Resources to Check Out
Free Nature-Themed Alphabet Morning Menu: Early Learning
Grab your free morning menu HERE.
Free Nature-Themed Alphabet Print Cards
Grab your free Alphabet flash cards with beautiful watercolor images and corresponding words HERE.
Monthly Booklists for Kids: Picture Book Collections for Every Month
Get the complete booklist HERE.
Thanks for Stopping By!
Lastly, I want to thank you for stopping by! Please say Hi in the comment section and share if you use a rolling cart for your school. Do you have a homeschool preschool cart?
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you found it helpful, please share it with your friends and subscribe to the monthly newsletter. I am also on Instagram and would love to get to know like-minded mamas and grandmamas.
– With Great Joy, Katie
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