Are you looking for ideas for how to store students’ phones in the classroom? With the right storage idea, it is easy to keep classroom phones stored away in an organized storage system. Examples of these are phone sorter boxes, phone storage pocket charts, small drawer storage units, phone charging stands, and wall mounted storage racks. Most classroom teachers use the pocket charts to store cell phones, but the phone sorter boxes are becoming popular. Both options have ease of access for the students.

Safety and accessibility are important factors to consider for choosing the right place in the classroom to store cell phones. The teacher should have free access to the storage area. The students, depending in the class level, can have limited access. The phones can be in a locked system to keep them secure, or the teacher can keep them in a restricted access area or close to the teacher desk. Every classroom storage system for phones must have a number system for organizing the phones.

I love to find awesome classroom decor ideas. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a commission for purchases using my links. The ideas and paid links below are based on Amazon finds that are great student cell phone storage options for the classroom.

How to Get Students Put Their Cell Phones in the Storage Area

Teachers know the cellphone struggle. It is an ongoing daily struggle in every class with most students. One high school teacher has shared a strategy that has worked for her. This is her story:

After years of fighting for cellphones, this is what has worked. I took my classroom rolling metal cart and turned it into a phone station. I roll the cart to the door. “No cell phone, no entrance” is what I tell them. At first I did it without chargers and there was a lot of push back at the door.

I decided that I needed a way to encourage cooperation, so I added the phone chargers and sanitation spa. Red cords are Apple chargers, blue cords are android chargers. I use a large power strip so they can use their own chargers too. My kiddos that are germ-a-phobes use the sanitation spa.

This is a picture of her mobile charging station that she keeps at the door (No Cell Phone, No Entrance). She goes on to reveal what has happened since using this system.

What are the results? 98% cooperation. 3 out of 160 students fight it. That is so much easier than 60% of students fighting it. They have learned to appreciate the chargers. They are so addicted to their cell phones that their phones die on them during the day from usage. So now they are forced to charge it, but in the long run, they appreciate it because it helps them out. Even if they aren’t charging it they’re used to it now and they just comply.

For me, having it on a rolling cart is the game changer. Stopping them at the door is the key to collecting the phone. If they make it into the room that’s where the struggle begins. They take it to their desk. They argue that they will keep it in their backpack, but we all know they never do. Then we spend the entire instructional period telling students to get off their phones and put them away.

You can see that based on her experience, getting students to realize that there are benefits for them, can help to get them bought-in on the classroom cell phone storage system.

Types of Classroom Storage Systems for Student Cell Phones

There are manty ways of storing your classroom cell phones. The different types of storage are table-top phone storage boxes, over the door phone storage in pocket charts, wall hanging storage, drawer storage, and cell phone storage in charging units.

How to Store Students’ Phones in Table-top Charging Stations

Use a phone sorter box: This is a good storage idea for teacher to keep students’ cell phones sorted. It doubles as a charging station. See how another teacher painted this type of cell phone box to match her classroom theme in this post.

Make your own stackable storage units: These IRIS drawers are small, but perfect storing cell phones. The stackable drawers can stay on your teacher desk or go on a bookshelf.

Use a charger stand for multiple phones: Have a few charger stations set up on tables in your classroom. Each station will have a charger stand for designated phones to be stored there.

Use a classroom mailbox to store phones: A classroom mailbox with multiple narrow slots can work as a phone storage and charging station.

How to Store Students’ Phones in Wall Hanging Charging Stations

Use a hanging paper sorter: This wall hanging paper sorter holds the chargers on the bottom rack and the phones go in the other racks. It can hold six phones.

Hang a wall mounted phone charging station: This charging station is lockable, and it has padded slots. You can put laminated numbered cards in corresponding slots for students to take a card as their “claim ticket”. A good idea is to keep the charging station at the door so that students can put their phones away as they enter the classroom.

Store phones in a pocket chart on the wall: Pocket charts for phones can be labeled with a number system for organizing all of the students’ cell phones. These can be hung on the wall, over a door, on a tension rod, or over a whiteboard.

Have you heard of the pocket chart cell phone house idea? A teacher made one for her German classroom by hanging a numbered pocket chart on the wall, and bordering it with faux wood border trims to make the walls and roof. This made it look like a house. She added charging port hubs on either side on the pocket chart house as an incentive for her students keep their phones there. The heading on the roof ‘Das Handy Haus’ is German for ‘The Cell Phone House’.

I hope you have been inspired by the classroom cell phone storage ideas above. If you need tips for storing other technology devices, like classroom laptops and headphones, I have put together different storage and organization ideas in this blog post.

If you are looking for a good charging port hub for your phone charging station, this free standing hub has six vertically stacked ports.

More ideas for how to store students’ phones in the classroom will be added as I find them. If you’ve discovered a new idea for student phone storage, I’d love for you to share about it in the comments. Teachers are the ones who innovate and think up the most creative solutions for their classrooms.

You can find more blog posts about charging and organizing storage for these classroom devices: Kindles, i-Pads, Chromebooks, tablets, laptops, and earphones. Click on any device listed to take you to its blog post.

If you have any questions, you can ask me anything in the comments below.