Upcycled Storage

I'm following and linking up to The Clutter-Free Classroom's project for organizing my classroom.  I've done a ton of work so far: gave you a tour of my classroom in the "Before" stage, cleared off a shelf of my stuff so student supplies can go there, cleaned out and organized a shelf for teacher supplies and resources, am still working on my desk (its a slow process!), and made Emergency Sub Plans.

This project is all about storage and using what you already have!

For years and years, I have used white plastic containers originally used for frozen juice to store pencils, colored pencils, and skinny markers.  All I did was put cute contact paper around the container after making juice and washing it out. It covers what was originally printed on the container well and the pattern isn't too busy for me.  I also have the polkadot pattern and love it, but it doesn't cover pre-printed patterns that well, since there is so much white in the design.

When I taught kindergarten and 1st grade, I had shared supplies in the middle of my round tables.  I bought these containers for each table:

I put one juice container in each of the smaller compartments.  One container had pencils, the other had either colored pencils or skinny markers (I would trade about every other week).  The larger compartment was for boxes of crayons with the child's name on it.  I kept glue and scissors in other areas, since I didn't want the kids to have access to these at all times (I am afraid of glued up books and cut hair!!)

You can see the green container inside the red caddy on this table.  This was my kindergarten room back in 2007, back when I had blonde hair! :)  I am helping a reading group with my first Donorschoose project - LeapFrog LeapPads!  The kids LOVED those things!  I gave them to another kinder teacher in my building this year, since my 3rd graders have graduated to iPod touches.  Gotta change with the times!  Read more about Donorschoose here.

What have you upcycled?  How do you store supplies in the classroom?