Get Organized for Back to School
This is for all of the parents transitioning from pool bags and suitcases to backpacks and lunchboxes while it’s 90 degrees outside. Summer vacation is a short break here so back to school sneaks up fast.
Here are the steps to get your kids’ rooms and closets organized for the new school year. They can help with this process, too, so they can learn how to organize and care for their own spaces. The older they are, the more significant their participation.
Here are 10 ways to get Back to School Organized so everyone is ready:
Go through all the clothes. As messy as it will be, pull everything out of the drawers and closet.
Be ruthless with review: what doesn’t fit? Is stained or ripped? What do they refuse to wear again? Pull out all of the rejects so they’re not included in the re-organization process.
If you’ve got younger kids who will wear those clothes, box them up and label the sizes/ seasons/ types. You think you’ll remember but don’t put yourself under that kind of pressure. Clear bins are best.
If you don’t have younger children to save the clothes for, give them to a friend or donate them. QUICKLY. Don’t let them hang around taunting you.When you’re putting everything back (they should be helping with this) group like items together in drawers and in the closet. You can label the tops of the drawers to remind them of what goes where.
Drawer dividers are great for separating rows of clothes in a drawer. And file folding allows you to put more in a drawer.
I like to use slim line plastic hangers to hang their knit tops and t-shirts if there is room. These don’t catch like velvet hangers do and make selecting a shirt a few seconds faster.
Forget about pairing up socks. Choose your battles. Just store them together in a drawer or basket.Check their shoes, too, for mismatched pairs (they’ve got to be SOMEWHERE!) and make sure they fit. See above for saving or donating.
Get a shoe rack for their closet if they have more than a few pairs. When shoes have a home, they are more likely to get back to that place. 🤞🏻Also, check for clothes that belong to their friends. Set those aside in a bag with their name on it to be returned.
Clean out their school bag. You really don’t know what’s in there until you dump it all out. It could probably use a run through the washing machine, too, and a nice dry out in the sun. And let’s normalize using the same book bag unless it’s falling apart!
3 ring notebooks should be cleaned out of the previous year’s paperwork. Check the condition to see if they need to be replaced or just need new tabs
If your kids play sports, their gym bag definitely needs to be fully cleaned out. Check all of their equipment to make sure you can find it all prior to cleaning.
Ditto if they have a bag for carrying sheet music or art supplies. Now is the time to clean it out of last year’s papers before starting the new school year.
As frightening as the bathroom can be, it should also be edited to toss out empty toothpaste tubes, broken barrettes, and stretched out hair bands. Once it’s clean, grouping items together by type in drawers or in the cabinets will make getting dressed in the morning easier.
Set up a real alarm clock. Get kids out of the habit of using a phone for everything and invest in a basic alarm clock that plugs into the wall. Whether it’s digital or analog, kids gain a better understanding of time being able to see the numbers change. This will serve them well into adulthood.
Hang a cork board in their room. Not only is it good for creativity and personal expression, it gives them a designated place for the pictures and memorabilia they want to see….and it keeps it from being tacked or taped to your walls.
Good luck this new school year and let me know how the prep goes.
