Which are the best hooks for classroom storage? These can be suction hooks, over the door hooks, magnetic hooks, adhesive hooks, and ‘S’ hooks. The type of hooks to be used is determined by the shape of your classroom furniture and the materials and surfaces that items are to be hung from.

Magnetic hooks are used on magnetic whiteboards, and metal cabinets, doors, and cupboards. Over the door hooks are hung over the tops of cupboard doors and classroom doors. S hooks are hung from horizontal bars like tension rods, magnetic whiteboard rods, and chart stands. Suction hooks go on smooth airtight surfaces like glass windows and whiteboards. Adhesive hooks are made for sturdy surfaces like walls and wooden doors. There are also ceiling hooks which come in different types.

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 the best types of hooks for hanging up items in your classroom.

Types of Hooks for Classroom Storage

Examples of hooks used to hang up items in the classroom are magnetic hooks, over the door hooks, adhesive hooks, S hooks, and suction hooks. 

‘S’ Hooks for Classroom Use

Hang pocket charts from classroom partitions with ‘S’ hooks: Make a classroom partition by using a tension rod with a curtain. ‘S’ hooks can be used to hang pocket charts from the partition. I do not recommend plastic S hooks because they can either break or bend the wrong way. I like the metal ones with the soft covers on the ends because they are safer for students and are the most durable and strong hooks for classroom storage.

Over the Door Hooks for Classrooms

Hang pocket charts over cupboard doors: A pocket chart with over the door hooks can be hung over the cupboard door to hold earphones, calculators, or phones.

Coat Rack Hooks for Classrooms

Hang earphones on coat rack hooks: Wall mounted horizontal wooden coat hook racks are used in classrooms for storing headphones, coats, aprons and backpacks.

Use a small coat rack hook for hanging up light items: A teacher asked her custodian to install an 8-hook horizontal coat rack on her cinder block classroom wall for hanhing classroom aprons. See more hooks for hanging up classroom aprons in this blog post.

Wall Hooks for Classrooms

Use two-pronged wall hooks for hanging up student backpacks: If you are allowed to drill into your classroom wall, mount up a wooden bar on your wall with a drill, and add double pronged coat hooks for hanging up student backpacks. See more ways for teachers to store classroom backpacks in this blog post.

Command Adhesive hooks: These Command hooks hold on tight to walls and tiles. It is the most commonly used adhesive hook in classrooms.

Adhesive hooks for painted walls: Hang light-weight items like flashcards or masks from these adhesive hooks (paid link) with a large clear base that sticks to painted classroom walls. The surface area of the adhesive base is large in porportion to the hook itself to help it to stick to the wall. They stick well to painted cinder block walls.

Concrete nail wall hooks for classroom wall: The teacher that used these picture hanging nail hooks on her classroom wall said that her newly painted walls were repelling any type of adhesives so she needed to find a hook that could go into the cinder block walls with a regular hammer. She used them to hold up a shoe organizer for headphones, which is a pretty heavy item to hang, but it holds it with ease.

Magnetic Hooks for Classrooms

Hang students’ pencil cases from their desks: Use strong magnetic hooks to hang flashcards on rings, hall passes, or students’ pouches from their desks.

More Classroom Hook Storage Ideas

What do teachers hang up in their classroom on hooks? These are items that are commonly hung from the classroom ceiling, wall, whiteboard, cupboards, classroom door, and desks. Teachers use hooks to hang up pocket sleeves, flashcard sets, earphones, work centers, student aprons, anchor charts, pocket charts and more.

Hang earphones on the wall: Use hat hooks, cap hooks or earphone wall hooks to store your students’ headphones right on the wall.

Hang student backpacks from the desks: Teachers can use strong self-adhesive hooks to hang the bags on the front of the student desks.

Hang up anchor chart pads on your whiteboard with magnetic hooks: I hate it when weak hooks keep slipping down and leave streak marks on your whiteboard. These magnetic hooks are strong enough to hold up large anchor chart easel pads on a magnetic whiteboard.

Ceiling hooks for decorations: Hang streamers and other decorations from your class ceiling by using metal, plastic, or magnetic ceiling hooks. You can check out this post I wrote, which goes into more detail about ceiling hooks.

These anchor chart hooks have different uses: This science teacher uses this anchor chart mounting system to hang both anchor charts and student lab aprons.

Another useful benefit of using a lot of hooks for hanging things up in your classroom is that you can use it for making individual student supply storage areas for your students to access their tools. As long as you have a clearly labeled area, these items can be kept safe until the students need to use and return them. Using up wall space for storage will save space if you have a small classroom. Examples of items that can be assigned in the individual student supply stations can be found in this blog post.