With a piano player in the house, we are forever struggling with places to store our music lesson books. Since we don’t own a piano stool with built in storage, those music books tend to get scattered around the top of the piano, on the dining room table, and any other place with a flat surface.
Piano students aren’t the only kids with a storage problem. Kids who play in either band or orchestra also have music lesson books that don’t always fit into their cases. For families with music storage problem, there are some easy ways to keep workbooks and music lesson books organized and easy to find.
Personal tote bags
This tip came from a music teacher of ours who plays accompaniment for a number of groups, directs choirs, sings, and substitute teaches at local schools. To keep her sheet music and lesson plans organized for these various activities, she uses an assortment of cloth shopping bags to store her music books. Instead of leafing through all her books when it’s time to leave in the morning, she simply grabs the presorted totes she needs for the day’s activities.
For kids and even parents, cloth tote bags are a great way to keep sheet music and lesson books organized. For a tote bag system to work the most effectively, each child will need one personalized tote per instrument to keep all her music separated. For example, a child who plays flute and piano should have one tote for her piano book and a second tote just for her flute music. To store these totes, they should be hung from a row of pegs in the coat closet or foyer where they are easy to find.
Personalized magazine holder
Cardboard or plastic magazine holders are available at most office supply stories and are a great way to organize music books on a book case. These holders are about 3 inches in width, and can easily hold a dozen music books. Our children customized their own cardboard holders with tempera paint and stickers so they could tell each other’s holders apart.
Magazine holders range in price from $3.99 to $9.99. For a cheaper solution, your children could even make their own magazine holders from an empty cereal box. To make a magazine holder, cut off the top flaps and one of the narrow side sections, then wrap the box in craft paper. Decorate and let dry thoroughly before placing on the shelf.
Wooden magazine rack
Thrift stores are full of funky and retro magazine racks which are perfectly sized for holding music books. Most thrift store magazine racks are priced beneath $20 and can be cleaned up, painted, decoupaged, or decorated with glitter and embellishments to create a functional piece of art.
Suspend from the back of a door
For families tight on space, hanging magazine racks such as the type found in bathrooms, are ideal storage solutions. These hanging racks can be hidden behind the door of the coat closet, and are large enough to hold all your child’s music books. For more than one musician in the family, you may want to install several racks so that each child has his own personal storage space.
While music lesson books don’t take up a lot of space, they do seem to get get misplaced more often than we like which is frustrating for parents and music students. By creating a storage solution just for your child’s music books, those lesson books will be easier to find when it’s time to practice or leave for a scheduled music lesson.
