10 WORST Classroom Purchases Of ALL TIME! 

The fact that teachers so frequently make such bad purchases with such great enthusiasm shows what optimists we are.

Having retired after 37 years in education, I would say the one thing I wish I had learned earlier is that I didn’t need to spend money on 90% of the cutesy items to make the classroom trendy or cool. They made zero difference on what or if the student learned.

I had a couch and rug area. It was a disaster. Students were always racing to sit there and the rug was a nightmare to keep clean. After 19 years of teaching I have become a minimalist! 😂

Thank you for being vulnerable and showing us you aren’t perfect. I feel much better. This is a great time to consider the purge before summer. 😊

I want this channel would never end and would always promote joy. I adore your consistently original and innovative video style. You were. We all live and learn.

Such a fun video! I think all of us as teachers get grand ideas about new purchases that could be used for our classroom. Reality and expectations don't always match! Sometimes I have passed along purchases that didn't work for me to other teachers and they have been able to put the materials to good use. I laughed out loud with the Reese's message on your letter board. Love it! I hope you have an amazing week ahead!

The rainbow carts. 😂 former teacher here and now a stay at home mom. I use my old rainbow cart for my girls’ craft supplies. I don’t think a single drawer closes properly. 🤣 gosh the money I spent wanting to have everything matching my theme/colors. Often times on things that were totally useless or just fell apart the second I brought it into my classroom. This video is so relatable! You’re so excited to make your classroom look like a Pinterest room… hindsight is 20/20 right?!

Mini erasers- I thought they would be so much fun…until I found little pieces of them ALL. OVER. THE. CLASSROOM!

My favourite saying is “ sometimes you have to spend money to save money” Sometimes you have to purchase a more expensive good quality item to save yourself all the extra money on buying a cheaper one multiple times

This is your funniest video in a long time. I love the vibe of this - a dose of teacher reality + humor🎉! We have alll been there with you on the regrettable classroom purchases train.

As a sped teacher, bean bag chairs and yoga balls have been amazing but I have to be extremely clear on what my expectations are when using them. Students were only allowed to use bean bags while sitting in the library portion of my classroom. The yoga balls, I had very specific rules (no bouncing) or I’d take it away.

I remember you talking about the acrylic pencil container and I purchased it. It was a good idea but I agree that there are cheaper things that worked worked well: I like this video. It made me look back at my years and really think about what was needed and what was hype .

I remember you living right by Target. I also made some of those poor judgments for storage and decor. Although I've been teach8ng almost 30 years, you give me some fresh ways of looking g at my teaching. I've been purging the useless and remaking my classroom. Thank you.

I love how you made yourself vulnerable in this video. Thank you so much!

I’m with you on the letter board, Michelle!! Thanks for another great video!

Yes to all of these Michelle! It is my first year teaching and I bought about 50% of the stuff in this video and the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze!

If you ever decide to get another bean bag type chair, I recommend the ones stuffed with memory foam. We have added 20-30lbs extra foam chunks since buying them. We bought more foam to make it more firm, not because of it getting squished down. Only thing I wish we could have done differently is bought and added the extra foam at the beginning to make clean up easier. We got it all from Amazon

Thank you. I'm a long time substitute teacher and working as a special education paraprofessional this year. This coming fall semester (2023), I will be student teaching and then be ready to have my own room. I can't wait, I am totally looking for things that I can use and this will help me avoid some items!!!

Thank you for sharing.It's always helpful to know also what doesn't work 😊

Great presentation of your 10 disliked classroom items. You were spot on for all of the items, some of which I purchased.

so excited to watch this video! it’s going to be so helpful!

I have a small reading area with carpet. But instead of bean bags, I bought durable cushion shells that are stuffed with old towels, sheets, foam (from a destroyed couch cushion by my dog .. grr) and anything else cushiony you can think of. It wprks great as reward and fulfills my more ecologically friendly mindset along with huge durability.

Wow, Michele! Great video. I strongly disliked the rainbow cart which fortunately I did not purchase. I have used my letter board but lately it’s stashed away in a cupboard. I recently gave away my “breakables” and cried over the money spent. Our classrooms are our home away from home, but with 29 students I can’t control everyone and everything. Thank you for continuing to be open and honest and whichever decision you make, teach in a classroom or teach outside of the classroom, I will continue to follow you as your videos and podcasts give me not only good ideas, but also a good giggle.

This was a great video because we have all done this! I had the rolling carts for my students materials because we didn’t have desks. They actually held up and I still have them, lol. I too bought a bunch of the mini erasers and the students ended up ruining them so I took them away. 😂

This was on point! It can be hard to avoid that dollar spot and not get caught up in trends. This was fun to watch.

TY for this video Michelle! I am glad that I don't have any of those mentioned items in my classroom!❤

I had a pencil dispenser / straw dispenser gifted to me last year. My first graders absolutely loved it! I look forward to filling and using it again this year!

Me encanta tu honestidad. Gracias por compartir estos consejos. Saludos desde Panamá. :)

OMG... yes! I had the EXACT SAME ISSUE with the rainbow carts and switched over to the Sterilite ones as well! Those are still going strong! I think the biggest lesson we have both learned is making sure you have a purpose for something before you buy it - instead of "I like it" or "I'll find a use for it... someday!"

I’m so glad to see these videos. I love you Michelle but your early videos had me feeling like I was slacking so much 😅

I LOVED this video!!

Michelle loved this video! It spoke to me! Loud and clear!😂

So funny you mentioned the Erasers. I bought them at the Salisbury, MD Target and never used them in any of the classes I taught in. I had thousands! Last year and this year I signed up for the Chick Fil A Trunk or Treat and gave out all of my old school supplies there. I still have a few thousand to go for next year!

A (hopefully) upcoming 6th grade biology teacher, your channel is so inspiring for me and is probably gonna save me so much money lol You also make your content very bubbly and I never feel bored when watching your videos. Thank you so much for making this content to help upcoming teachers like me

Thanks for being vulnerable! Great video

I love most of these, agreed, not worth the juice! BUT I love my acrylic pencil dispenser (aka straw dispenser) and call it the magic pencil picker. I use it to reward kids. I throw in some regular pencils and then some "fancy" pencils (bought at hobby lobby after whatever holiday was just done) and lordy, my kinders think they are the best things ever. They are delighted to get a snowman pencil in August or a flip flops pencil in December. Thanks for making cute videos so we can all chuckle at our mistakes and teacher enthusiasm!!

Love this! I purchased so many of these things too. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the tiny erasers🙄😂

Love your videos, Michelle! If you see this comment, I'd love any tips on how to store teacher materials (books, supplies, files of paperwork) at home! After 6 years, I struggle with discerning what/how to keep, toss and digitize!

It’s always good to know your weaknesses and own it! As an OG subscriber I feel your pain going back down memory lane! I currently have a decor item that I purchased for my Dad’s classroom when I was in middle school (I’ve got a post on Instagram about it). I found this item at a QVC outlet (that was a thing before 2000). It’s called a “poop moose”. It was an expensive ($30)candy dispenser that poops candy. My dad would use it during exams as an incentive. Greatest idea I ever had until some students complained to admin 🤦‍♂️!

I agree with most but the carts! I love my carts! For classroom use I just have to tighten them up once in awhile. I have a word work cart and a math manipulative cart.

You are so cute! I can relate to so much of this! The bean bags and the rainbow skinny drawers, especially!

I have used magnetic borders for years. It has been very handy to divide up my white board specs so there are designated sections for different things. Kids know where to look without asking. This is really important too since I teach a second language class.

Teachers are under appreciated. I have taught in nontraditional settings. I do not know if I could even substitute teach in public school. Too many poorly behaved parents, yes ! Parents, horror stories if kids behavior and the school being afraid to provide consequences to students

We have all made these kind of purchases! I agree about the rainbow trays/drawers segment!!! I discovered that one!

I enjoy watching your teaching and non-teaching videos! Would love for you to do a Classroom Management video (elementary school).

I just love how you have a clip from The Office for every situation. "Mo money, Mo Problems". 😄

I hate those plastic drawers and the drawers break and you can’t replace without buying the whole thing. I actually got rid of them this year. I am looking ñ I tot hose plastic drawers from michaels. So thanks for the review.

I feel the same!!! lol :)) I am very careful with my buys now. I have so many STUFF and it is cluttering my room! :(

You called me out with the letter board 😂😂😂 I have two in my closet right now…. And random decor, try a new decor bundle EVERY YEAR 🤦🏽‍♀️

When you were talking about a straw holder, I thought you meant the pull up ones. I have seen those used for pencils and that is a mess too.

I totally understand about the letters. I meet you in April of 2020. I saw you had the word IMPACT, so loved it so finally 3 years ago I broke down and bought my word BELIEVE. Sadly, this year some of my letters fell of my wall and broke. I wanted it replaced badly, but did not want to spend the money. I finally got the idea to just purchase letters from TPT! So much cheaper!!

Totally agree with every statement… 100%. Thank you for sharing this video 😂❤

I have one of the carts that’s like half the size of the rainbow one that I use for my makeup and I hate that thing so much. The drawers do not stay on the track and I paid way too much for it to fall apart constantly.

I remember the video where you bought the Christmas- themed poppers from the dollar spot and I thought I had to have them, but I never found them. I had no idea what I was going to do with them! You make a really good point to make sure you have a purpose for something before you purchase it. :)

i had the same rainbow carts and quickly got rid of them as well!

Michelle! Love your videos! One question though, there’s this one font you used to use in your video thumbnails, I think around your first year at your second school. It was cursive and I love it but I can’t find the name of it. Can you help?

Loved the video! Curious, what greens where you referring to? 😅 I think I’m in that situation at that moment. 🙊

I appreciate the information about the rainbow carts. I have wanted to buy one forever, but I couldn't justify the cost.

Thank you, this made me remove the bean bags from my teacher wishlist.

I knew the rainbow rolling cart would be in here somewhere. In my first year of teaching, my mentor teacher asked me to just throw that thing away for her. She said it made her frustrated and sad everytime she would have to use it, yet she could not bring herself to throwaway her investment.

I bought outdoor ottomans from Target last year for flexible seating this year. Deflated within a couple weeks. I refilled them with fabric scraps. One's seam broke and the other is partially deflated. They work well for the short table I have so maybe I'll repurchase and use the partially deflated one and the broken one for refilling? Maybe I'm in denial.

Michelle it’s okay. We all live and learn. You’re a great educator and your students loved you

Wow, I disagree about the rolling carts! Maybe it’s the way I use them but mine have held up well and I love them. As a sped teacher I have a lot of small laminated supplies, task cards, visuals etc so it helps keep those organized vs larger bins etc.

I have a rainbow drawer set in my office at home. It drives me insane. I’m going to replace it soon because I’m sick of tearing up my fingers using an Allen wrench. I like the grey chair in front of the READ sign.

I also bought a metal cart but off of Amazon and I love mine! It’s been great!

I almost bought the straw container on your recommendation but decided the price was out of my comfort zone. Currently using a 50 cent cup from Walmart best sharp pencil storage ever!

I hear you on sooooo many levels, lolol. I work at a private school, so yeah, I've purchased many many...many...many things for my room. Bean bag chairs - never again. At least yours didn't mysteriously get a hole in them and leak beans all over your room. That little wooden stool you had? I purchased like 6 similar looking ones that were metal from IKEA when I went on my flexible seating rant. They were of good quality, but I unfortunately have to share my room with a Saturday school...and I don't know who runs THAT circus, but some of my stools did NOT survive. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree about the plastic/metal drawers on wheels. Yes, you're right, the drawers can come off the tracks and such, but I have not 1 but 3 in my room currently. I use them for Word Work, Work on Writing, and my STEM drawers. I'm kind of a classroom management freak in the way you're an organizational guru, so spend a LOT of time teaching my students how to use things; not to mention the consequences for misusing things (case in point, I had to close my library for a few days). I, too, am a sucker for the Dollar Spot and have to pretend I'm wearing blinders, that don't always work, when I go into Target. I cleaned them out of these metal baskets and sturdy magazine holders one year that I ended up using in my library. That was a good purchase. And I wish I could say that I've learned my lesson on purchases for my room, but I'd be lyin' like a rug!

What fun and comfortable (core building a plus) seating do you suggest for middle schoolers?

Lol agree 100% with the letter boards!!!

It's ok Michelle. You did what worked or what you thought worked at the time. I liked when you shared some pics of you in your classroom. Hubba, Hubba, White Board !! - Dwight

I watch this and I’m kind of glad I’m on a cart and go into classrooms LOL

🤣😂 Had the bean bags and got rid of them within the first couple of weeks of school 🤣😂

So my middle name is Michele and I think there might just be something with that name. I have purchased so many things from that list and found myself laughing and nodding throughout. Those stupid drawers were the bain of my existence. They now hold my Cricut rolls 😂. And in their place are now those stupid Target drawers that look like basket weave but sink in. Guess I'll be going to Michaels next year. Thanks for always keeping it real.

Bordette…🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I have GIVEN AWAY 3 of those long storage boxes of bordette…LAMINATED! I had 2 sets of each for every season, holiday, trend, you name it, I had it. When I started eyeballing the magnetic ones, I took a good long look in the mirror. 🤪🤪🤪 I still have one full storage box, but they are solid colors. Thankfully, there is now only one physical teacher store an hour away, so I’m not motivated to go shopping. And internet shopping for stuff like that just doesn’t do it for me. Thanks for the share!

If you buy the Michaels drawers right now, it's June 30th 2020, they are having a 30% sale until July 30th so now's a good time to get them!

The thing about beab bag chairs, for those that want to find a way to make it work because bean bag chairs are awesome, is to take pool noodles, slice them into roughly 1 inch pieces (or rings), and fill the bean bags with those. Those won't get smooshed and they will hold their shape for a VERY long time.

Love the dose of reality😂...I think we've all had 'those' kind of crazy purchases ...the kind you wonder what in the world were you thinking😬. YES, to a comfortable chair...yes to Lakeshore 'if' you think you actually 'need' a bean bag chair😅 (I had 2 from childkraft in the shape of arm chairs...they were nice...but you still had to readjust the beans) Sterilite were my organizing 'go to' since drawers actually would work. Thanks for sharing your insights with others. After 35 years in the primary grades, my list was just a tad bit longer🤦🏼‍♀️...lol

Where do you find the time to do all you do?! Girl, you've got some great guns!! 💪

I really enjoyed that video! I remember all of those things from your vlogs! I hate to say it, but I have the rainbow colored metal/plastic drawer unit in my home office. While, I love how it looks, you are right, it is so incredibly flimsy. Would you ever consider doing a 10 best and 10 worst purchases for your home (even if the items date back to your previous apartments)? I think that would be so fun. By the way, I bought the suitcases, the cord organizer and the plug with multiple outlets for my last trip and I love them! Thanks for the recommendation! I am counting down to your book release! Have a great week!

I bought a judges gavel because it was recommended by an older teacher as a good attention getter. Did not turn out great (kids got scared by the loud noise and someone stole the hammer). I prefer my doorbell method by far.

ALRIGHT… letterboard - totally agree lol Beanbags from Lakeshore were great! So TOTALLY DISAGREE! I did refill them myself and my fav janitor helped me vacuum and clean up but we Love WE loved them! Students would sit their during independent time as a reward, I’d nap there or grade there… I miss my beadbags!

Same thing happened to me with the green stuff.

It’s good to know it’s not only me who spend half of my salary for my crassroom materials 😅 Thank you for this video!

Mini erasers make really good game pieces or bingo markers

Your video just came in time for me not to buy the pencil dispenser, eventough the ones I was going to get were smaller and cheaper! By the way I do have one of the metal cart with the flimsy drawers that keep falling out of the rails!!

It has taken me 30 years of teaching and kind colleagues to learn less is more.

I bought AG1. Yuck! Had high hopes, but feel no different.

My coworker had a bunch of bean bags and she left school and gave me the bean bags. I bought a pillow to fill it cuz it was flat. Then I got bean bag covers and put three flat bean bags in it. At least they’re sturdy and don’t go flat now.

Matching also makes less visual distractions

I use the mini erasers for task jars for my students with Autism for fine motor skills practice. :)

I have that straw dispenser and I’m sure it was social medias fault!! 😅

Omigosh I’ve made almost all of these same purchases (and yes, lived to regret them!😂🎉)

I actually really miss the mini erasers. I'm not a prize box girl, but they were pretty good cheap prizes.

There’s different fonts for the LetterBoards??!

I would be blue beyond, my tas by luck both share fave color

Best video!!

I have those mini erasers. And I had to remove my bean bag chairs from my room because of student behavior and how students were treating them. 😮

Somewhere on the internet someone suggested putting plastic grocery bags to refill the bean bags. Best hack! That truly saved me a lot of money. However, you need over a hundred bags. 😅

I inherited a bean bag chair. It was flat. I bought one bag of filler that I used to fill my bag and a neighbors and saw the squished beans inside and decided i wouldn't buy anymore beans. Any shopping bags got shoved in the bag. Same noise, but it helped to keep it full and spread the beans. I have moved on from that room and left that chair behind. . . And bought new bean bags 😂

My beanbag chair lasted a whole 2 weeks before the student popped it