Back to School: Essential Storage & Equipment for Schools and Colleges
26th Aug 2026
Back-to-school season isn't just about notebooks, backpacks, and pencils. Behind every successful school year is a well-organized campus equipped to handle hundreds—or even thousands—of students, teachers, staff members, and visitors every day.
From secure school lockers and classroom storage to mobile presentation stations, athletic lockers, desks, and material handling equipment, the right facility products can make schools safer, more organized, and easier to manage.
Whether you're preparing an elementary school classroom, upgrading a high school locker room, furnishing a college campus, or replacing aging equipment, Material Flow offers durable solutions designed for demanding educational environments.
Here are some back-to-school essentials worth considering.
1. School Lockers: Start the Year Organized
Few products say "back to school" quite like a row of lockers.
School lockers provide students with dedicated space for backpacks, books, jackets, electronics, athletic equipment, and personal belongings. For administrators, they can also help reduce hallway and classroom clutter while keeping belongings organized and secure.
Material Flow offers numerous locker configurations for schools and universities, including:
- Single-tier lockers
- Double-tier lockers
- Box lockers
- Cubby lockers
- All-welded lockers
- Plastic lockers
- Athletic and collegiate lockers
- Cell phone and tablet lockers
Featured Product: Lyon Standard Double Tier Steel Lockers
For schools that need to provide storage for more students without using additional floor space, Lyon Standard Double Tier Steel Lockers are a practical option.
Constructed with high-grade steel doors and a secure recessed handle and latching system, these lockers are designed for demanding environments including schools, hospitals, gyms, and industrial facilities. They're available in assembled or unassembled configurations.
Shop Lyon Standard Double Tier Steel Lockers:
Lyon Standard Double Tier Steel Lockers
Need a different configuration? Explore the complete selection of Material Flow lockers:
https://materialflow.com/c/lockers/
2. Classroom Cubbies: Easy-to-Access Student Storage
For elementary classrooms, daycares, art rooms, laboratories, and shared learning spaces, traditional full-height lockers aren't always necessary.
That's where cubby storage comes in.
Featured Product: Tennsco 30-Inch High Cubby Locker with 6 Openings
The Tennsco 30-Inch High Cubby Locker provides six convenient openings for classroom supplies and personal belongings. Constructed from cold-rolled carbon steel, the unit ships fully assembled and includes coat hooks.
Adjustable shelves and hook positions allow educators and facility managers to configure the storage space to meet the needs of the classroom.
View the Tennsco 6-Opening Cubby Locker:
Tennsco 30-Inch High Cubby Locker
Featured Product: Lyon Kids' Cubbies
For younger students, Lyon Kids' Cubbies offer another classroom-friendly solution. These steel cubbies are designed at a convenient height for children while providing individual storage areas for backpacks, coats, supplies, and other belongings.
View Lyon Kids' Cubbies:
3. Athletic Lockers for High Schools and Colleges
Back to school also means back to sports.
Football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, track, and other programs require substantially more storage than a typical hallway locker can provide.
Athletes need room for uniforms, shoes, helmets, pads, bags, and personal belongings—and the equipment needs to stand up to constant use.
Featured Product: Victory Sports Lockers with Footlocker
Designed specifically with athletic environments in mind, the Victory Sports Lockers with Footlocker is an excellent fit for school and college locker rooms.
Made in the USA, these lockers feature heavy-duty steel construction, a shelf, bench compartment, and upper storage compartment. Multiple dimensions and configurations are available to accommodate different locker-room layouts.
View the Lyon Victory Sports Lockers:
For athletic departments planning larger locker-room projects, Material Flow can help identify configurations suited to your available space and storage requirements.
4. Mobile Presentation Stations for Today's Classrooms
Today's classroom often needs to accommodate computers, projectors, displays, AV equipment, and other technology.
Rather than dedicating permanent space to equipment that isn't always needed, a mobile presentation station provides flexibility.
Featured Product: Luxor Mobile Presentation Station
The Luxor Mobile Presentation Station provides multiple work surfaces for laptops, projectors, computer equipment, and presentation accessories.
Four rolling casters make it easy to move the station between locations, while locking brakes provide stability once it's in position. The adjustable keyboard shelf can accommodate different users and both seated and standing applications.
It's a practical option for classrooms, lecture halls, libraries, training rooms, and campus meeting spaces.
View the Luxor Mobile Presentation Station:
LUXOR Mobile Presentation Stations
5. Make Classroom Setup and Rearranging Easier
Teachers and facility teams know that classroom furniture rarely stays in one place forever.
Rooms are rearranged for new classes, special events, testing, assemblies, summer cleaning, maintenance, and changing enrollment.
Moving desks and stacks of chairs individually can turn a simple room change into a major project.
Featured Product: Raymond Products Student Desk/Stacked Chair Mover
The Raymond Products Student Desk/Stacked Chair Mover is made specifically for moving stacked chairs, desks, and compact tables.
Its steel construction, adjustable lifting positions, non-skid lifting surface, and 200-pound load capacity make it a useful addition to school and campus maintenance departments.
Instead of struggling with awkward classroom furniture, maintenance and facilities teams can move it more efficiently.
View the Raymond Products Student Desk/Stacked Chair Mover:
Raymond Products Student Desk/Stacked Chair Mover
6. Organize Classroom and Campus Supplies
Markers. Paper. Art supplies. Maintenance parts. Lab components. Office supplies. Chargers. Tools.
Schools accumulate an enormous number of small items—and keeping them organized makes them much easier to find when they're needed.
Featured Product: Material Flow Double Sided Floor Rack with Bins
The Material Flow Double Sided Floor Rack provides accessible, high-density bin storage from both sides of the rack.
Removable polypropylene bins make it easy to separate and organize supplies, while the double-sided design makes efficient use of floor space.
With bins included and a total unit capacity of 750 pounds, this system can be used in classrooms, maintenance areas, technology departments, vocational programs, supply rooms, offices, and more.
View the Material Flow Double Sided Floor Rack:
Material Flow Double Sided Floor Rack with Bins
7. Don't Forget Career, Technical, STEM, and Vocational Classrooms
Educational facilities aren't limited to traditional desks and classrooms.
High schools, community colleges, universities, and technical schools increasingly require dedicated workspaces for STEM programs, electronics, manufacturing, engineering, robotics, and vocational education.
For these environments, durable workbenches and industrial-style workstations can provide the strength, organization, power access, and flexibility that technical programs demand.
Explore Material Flow desks and workstations to find options for classrooms, labs, shops, offices, and technical learning spaces:
A Smarter Start to the School Year
A successful school year starts long before students walk through the doors.
Teachers need organized classrooms. Students need secure places for their belongings. Athletic departments need durable equipment storage. Technology needs to remain accessible. And maintenance and facilities teams need equipment that makes it easier to keep everything running.
From elementary classrooms and high school hallways to athletic departments, universities, community colleges, and technical schools, Material Flow offers storage, furniture, carts, lockers, workstations, and material handling equipment built for real-world use.
Get Your School or Campus Ready
Planning a school renovation, classroom upgrade, locker replacement, athletic facility, or campus storage project?
Material Flow can help.
Browse our complete selection of facility and material handling products or contact our team for help selecting equipment for your school, college, university, or educational facility.
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