I live in a house the size of a shoebox. It used to fit us perfectly, but our family has grown since moving here, and now we’re officially outgrowing it. Because of that, my bedroom has become my sleeping area, office, and storage unit all in one—lots of clutter packed into one tiny space.

Now that we’re homeschooling and collecting all kinds of books and supplies, I really need to figure out how to keep things tidy. I have a terrible habit of putting things in places that seem logical in the moment, but when I need them later, I can’t remember where I put them. I hide things so well that even I can’t find them!

Before the new school year starts, I want to invest in some organizational furniture to help us get this chaos under control. I’ve been on the hunt for a bookshelf or something similar to store art supplies, books, and all the homeschool things that keep piling up. The problem is, where do you fit a bookcase in a shoebox? At this point, I’m thinking it might be time to go through everything we own and finally have a garage sale. Clearing out the old would give us space for the storage we desperately need. We’re going on vacation in a few weeks, so maybe once we get back, I’ll revisit this whole downsizing and garage sale plan.

In the meantime, I’ve added to my storage problem by receiving my binding machine today. And of course, I couldn’t just buy the machine—I had to grab the cute spiral coils too. I’ve been so excited to try this thing out, but now that it’s here, I’m intimidated. I always think I’m going to be a pro at using these gadgets, but then I end up struggling and feeling defeated. Honestly, I feel the same way about this blog sometimes, but we’re going to keep pushing and see where this adventure takes us.

Once I work up the courage to take the machine out of the box and give it a try, I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you have this machine (or something similar) and have any tips for using it, please share! And if you have storage ideas for homeschooling in small spaces, I’d love to hear what’s worked for you.