I try to mix up my classroom design every year.  Two years ago I tried all-child-responsibility, which meant a lot of really low shelves and crates, all with very few items on them for ease of retrieval/return.  This felt like a rat maze.  So last year I went with a more minimalist approach - I got rid of some furniture, set up everything in stations, and went back to teacher-moderated storage.

This year I'm trying to deal with reality.  For instance: I never use the mounted white board in my classroom for anything other than hanging charts and messages.  So I don't really need to make it a focal point, right?  And apparently the smaller carpet in my room is so old it can no longer be cleaned, so I need to have one rug-seating area rather than two.  And while putting the play kitchen in the corner makes it more like a playhouse, it also makes for an exciting area hard to resist when five-year olds are tired, grumpy, and want to see what will happen if they just refuse to follow the rules.

So I moved the kitchen to the front of the room, covered the white board with fadeless to make a new bulletin board, and put the workbench in the corner.  Since I can't make a little chill-out/morning meeting station by the door without a rug, I need to figure out what's going in that corner.

I also cleaned out a closet that has hooks and I think was intended to be used as a cubby.  I had been using the hooks to store scooter boards, but since I finally cleared out all of the detritus left behind by the teacher who used the room before me* I piled those in a storage cabinet.  That means I can ditch a rolling coat rack/cubby unit.

That leaves me with figuring out where to put the tables and how to set them up.  Hmm.

*By the way: bad form, particularly if you are still teaching at the school, just in another room.  Sure, it's easy to tell yourself that it's a lot of useful stuff.  But let's face it: you know it's mostly junk, with a few mimeograph masters from the early eighties.  It took four years to clear it all out of my room, and it included insect parts, multiple copies of the same useless blackline master book, notes from staff meetings held in the late nineties, chalk bits, and tins I was afraid to open.  By the end of it, I was lurking, waiting for the custodian to come by and take it out so I could holler, "IT'S NOT MINE!  I SWEAR!"  Leaving an absolutely empty room is preferable.