What to keep in a teacher desk drawer for a bad day

The drawer is for fixes. Think about what goes wrong at 10 am and keep the cure within reach. If an item has not been used in a term, it does not belong there. Keep the list short, and the drawer will stay useful.

The idea: fix the usual problems

Most bad days begin with something small. A dead phone, a dry marker, a headache, a split seam, a missing snack. The aim is not to be ready for everything. It is to fix the top ten things in under a minute.

Power: a charger that stays put

Buy a second charger and leave it in the drawer. Carrying one back and forth is how you end up with none. If your classroom has few sockets, a short extension lead helps, but check your school's rules on electrical items first.

Ruling: one charger lives at school, one lives at home.

Writing: more markers than you think

Whiteboard markers dry out when the cap is left off. Keep a few fine-tip ones. Add a pen, a pencil and a small stapler. If you hand out the same things every week, a tray that sorts them saves minutes. The same logic applies to the bag you carry marking in: sort it by job, not by size.

Ruling: if you find yourself borrowing the same item twice a week, buy your own.

Body: small fixes

A few plasters, hand wipes, tissues and something for dry hands. Follow your school's rules on medicines. Most schools do not allow teachers to give or store pills for children, and many ask staff to keep their own in a secure place. If you take your own medicine, ask the office where to keep it.

Add a snack, such as nuts or a bar, and a spare hair tie or similar. If you lose your voice, a lozenge or tea bag is handy, and the full routine is in how to stop losing your voice when teaching.

Ruling: keep it basic and let the school's first aid kit do the real work.

Comfort: a layer and a spare pair of shoes

Classrooms swing from cold to hot. A thin cardigan or a spare pair of socks helps. Some teachers keep a pair of flat shoes in the drawer for long days. If your feet hurt, look at insoles vs an anti-fatigue mat before buying more.

A worked example

Say you spend ten minutes each week hunting for a marker, a charger or a plaster. These are round numbers. Over a 36-week year, that is about six hours of looking. A tidy drawer with eight things in it gets most of that time back.

How to set the drawer up

Use a shallow tray so small things do not roll. Put the thing you grab most at the front. Label a small pouch for first aid. Keep the back for the rare items. Once a term, empty it, wipe it and put back only what you used.

What does not belong

• Valuables, cash or keys you cannot afford to lose.
• Anything dangerous or that school rules ban.
• Food that goes off. Pick dry snacks.
• Piles of paper. That is a different drawer.

What teachers often keep

A pattern across many classrooms: a stash of tissues, a mug, spare pens, a charger and a snack. Notice what you grab twice, and add it. Notice what you never touch, and take it out.

Rules and locks

Check whether your drawer locks. If it does not, keep anything private at home. Some schools have a rule on food, hot drinks or electrical items in classrooms, so ask the office. If the school provides a staff room, keep the snacks and the spare shoes there and keep only the quick fixes at your desk.

A good drawer is a boring drawer. If you open it and know where everything is, it is working.

Check it each half term

At each break, take ten minutes to refill what ran out and bin what expired. Plasters and snacks both have dates. Wipe the drawer, then put things back in the same places so your hand finds them without looking.

End of shift

• First to go: markers and the snack.
• Check on Friday: which items you used, and which are empty.
• Do tonight: put the pens back, close the drawer and leave the desk clear.