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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Teacher Tuesday: triangle storage and organization

I love having lots of small percussion instruments for my students to use in class, and I am thrilled with the open shelving space that I have in my room to keep everything. But no matter what storage space you may have, some percussion instruments just don't lend themselves to neat and tidy storage, while making the instruments easily accessible for students to take out and put away independently. Last year I tackled one of my biggest offenders: hand drums (read about what I did in this post), and LOVE my new system. This summer it was time to tackle the other big issue: triangles! 

I used to have all of my triangles stored in a small plastic bin- the kind with holes in the sides- and it was terrible. The beaters were always falling out of the holes on the sides of the bin, the holders were always getting caught on other triangles or falling off and disappearing into the great abyss, and students had to dig around to find the holder before pulling out the triangle. 

My solution:


Can you tell what it is?


Yep, the hooks are for hanging necklaces bracelets, and the tray at the bottom is for holding earrings, rings, and other bits of jewelry. 

I wanted a way to hang the triangles so the holders wouldn't get tangled or lost, a place to keep the beaters, and I needed the whole thing to be portable so I could bring all of the triangles to the class if we were using them in another part of the room. This fits the bill perfectly! There are lots of jewelry organizers with the same functionality that should work equally well (just make sure the hooks are high enough to hold a triangle), but I got mine here.

How do you organize and store your triangles? I'm excited to have this new system ready for this school year- I think it will make it a lot easier to get them out and put them away quickly and easily!

9 comments :

  1. I LOVE this idea!! I have a bajillion triangles, so I'd need something bigger than that, but I'm excited about the possibility!!

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    1. Hi Molly- I think you'd be surprised at how many you could store on this one jewelry holder. I currently have 10 hanging on it, which is just 1 per hook, but there is plenty of room to put 2 per hook or even 3 or 4 without changing the effectiveness of the system in my opinion. I actually have a bunch more triangles myself, but I have the rest sitting in the old basket in my closet right now. I chose to do that because the truth is, most of the time I don't need more than 10. Usually when we use triangles it is in small groups- the biggest group being half of the class- with the others either singing or playing another instrument. If I need them for something specific they're there, but for the most part I'd rather just have out the ones that I use on a regular basis.

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  2. Good idea! I stored mine in a drawer, which worked okay for students being able to get them independently. The only problem was that they always had to dig around for the beater. Plus, the strings that held the triangles were always slipping off. Your idea would've worked so much better :)

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    1. I know right? My life is much improved without the digging around for beaters and strings, I tell you :)

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  3. I love this! It definitely would make it easier for students to fine the beaters. I have all of my instruments in drawers right now which I am liking because it eliminated the dust issue.

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    1. Drawers are so much better for keeping the dust away! At my last school I also had cabinets which helped too. I do like the open shelves because the instruments are out and available- it just changes the atmosphere somehow- but I could definitely do without the dust issue!

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  5. I have mine in a plastic drawer. I have the same problem with finding a beater and the strings slipping off. This would be perfect for my school! We are the Vikings and this kind of looks like a ship!

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    1. Haha, good point! You could even decorate it to really look like a ship! :)

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