Beginning Organization & sneak peak of my room

UPDATE: Here is my new and improved room. So excited to have it (mostly) finished.

I have so much work a head of me.  I am blessed with a counseling office (photos to come later) and a big, beautiful classroom. The classroom, however, needs a lot of work to make it a functional and fun counseling room (and add my personality to it).  The counselor before used it for sessions and peer mediation, but did not really do anything to change the look of it. I have been inspired by a lot of blogs.  My absolute favorite space is THIS.  She has my dream room.  I love all of her organization materials and the way everything is set up.  I also love the video that Marissa made and plan on making my own to introduce the new room.  She also has some great organization stuff that I have been eyeing.

It is such a big space, but I am excited with the challenge of it.  Right now it is a bit drab.  My husband describes it as a "doctor's office," so I definitely want to change that.  We are waiting on confirmation on whether or not I can paint over the mural.  If I can...YAY! If I can't, then we will just cover it with fabric.  As you can see, my school was built in the 60s and still has chalkboards and cork boards.  It used to be the math & science room...so there are a ton of math and science stuff that are going to be removed.

You can see my science man in the back corner.  I am getting a screen and projector so I can use video clips and technology during my guidance lessons.  I am also getting rid of the tables and adding rectangular ones around the guidance space (which I will get a carpet for).

Just drab.

Love that I have 2 sinks and an eye wash.  Just what I always wanted. ;) haha

Lots of science materials to be removed.

I added labels to my file cabinets to organize my guidance lessons by grade level

Top: Before...all of my materials that were left.  There was just SO MUCH, I was overwhelmed.  

Bottom: After... I organized all the books and materials by subject and got rid of more than half of the materials.  I still have more to get rid of, but I will see what I use and don't this year. I wanted to have more than enough than regret getting rid of stuff.

So that is my first step in organizing my room.  I will be using the bottom shelves for counseling materials.  The bottom cabinets have a lot of games (most are from the 70s).  I need to invest in some more up to date counseling games. 

I love the amount of space I have, but I am ready to make it more colorful and exciting.  I will post more photos as I make progress.  

Update: I uploaded some more pictures of my classroom here.