Get Organized for a Great School Year

Are you ready for the kids to go back to school? Do you have to go back to school? It doesn’t matter who goes to school, your kids, you as a student, you as a teacher, your spouse or even grandchildren. The beginning of the school year affects almost everyone in some way. Getting organized can help you have a more successful school year.

Back to School!

Our school year has already started, it started a week early this year. I wasn’t ready and the kids really weren’t but it started none the less. On top of them starting school, I started a new job the same day, so it was a complete change for all of us. I knew it was going to be crazy the first week, so I had planned to write all my posts and have them ready to go. Well, have you ever heard the phase “men plan and God laughs”? That is just what happened. I got one post ready the week before and planned to finish another one over the weekend. Then we had some storms that knocked out the internet for the entire weekend. So, last Tuesday’s post didn’t get written.

While I didn’t get the blog post written, I did get all the stuff ready for school to start. Devin had his open house on Tuesday before school started and Shaylee had hers on Wednesday. Once we had the lists of stuff that they needed, Shaylee and I spent time on Friday going through our school supplies and seeing what we didn’t have. We keep the school supplies in Devin’s room on a shelf at the end of his bed. They were in a mess where they had grabbed what they needed through the year and just thrown stuff back up there when they were done.

Check to see what school supplies you already have!

I had Shaylee carry all the school supplies to the kitchen table so we could go through them. I cleaned all the shelves off completely and threw away a bunch of trash and junk from his messy room and rearranged some of the stuff on the shelves to give me 3 empty shelves for the school supplies.

After we finished picking out all the supplies that they needed, we made a list of what items we needed to purchase. It was a very short list since I had most of what they needed. Devin needed note cards and 2 binders, Shaylee needed 2 binders, a pencil pouch, and a green pen. I will still need to buy her black shoes and hose for choir later, but that is all we needed to start school. I spent less than $20 for their school supplies this time.

Both of their backpacks were in good condition for this year and we had even washed Shaylee’s at the end of the school year so it was ready to go. Some of the items they needed, I had purchased when they went on clearance last year or as I ran across a great deal during the year. Others were unused or barely used supplies from previous years. Example: Teachers request composition notebooks for their classes every year and rarely use more than 5-10 pages, so we save them. This year we tore out the few used pages and made a label to go over the class name, just like new.

Labels make it easy to find your supplies!

Once we were done, I separated the supplies out into writing supplies, folders/dividers/glue sticks, and paper/notebooks. I put all the opened packages of pens, highlighters and pencils into zipper bags. The unopened packages are in the bottom of a small clear tote and I placed the bags on the top. I told the kids to make sure and use the ones in the bags before opening any more packages. The markers didn’t fit, so I put them, the glue sticks and all the folders and dividers in another larger tote. Then I separated the packages of paper and notebooks into wide ruled and college ruled and stacked them on the ends of 2 of the shelves. I labeled the containers so that everyone knows what is inside. Now anytime the kids need anything, they should be able to find it easily.

Each kid needs to have a place where they put their backpack, instrument, lunchbox, etc… as soon as they arrive home. My kids keep their backpacks, shoes, instrument, coats, etc… in their room. Shaylee hangs her backpack on the post on the end of her bed and sets her instrument beside it. If she has homework or practices her music, she puts it back where it belongs, that way, in the morning all she has to do is pick it up and walk out the door. Her lunchbox is emptied out and hung up beside her lunch tote so it is ready if she wants to take her lunch the next day.

Everything needs a home!

She is not naturally organized, but having these rules and systems in place allows her to function better. She rarely leaves anything she needs to take to school at home. The few times she has left something at home, it was because she didn’t put it in her backpack when she should have. Organizing and planning are only as good as the follow through. If I put the scissors back where they belong every time I use them, then I always know where to find them when I need them. No system will work if you or they don’t use it, that is why it is important to keep it simple and easy to use.

Of course on Monday, both kids brought all the papers home for me to fill out. It is not fair, the kids go to school and I get homework, the same homework every year. I really don’t understand why we have to fill out all the same forms every year when nothing changes. There are a lot of different short cuts on filling them out, but they never worked for me because my kids are so far apart in ages they are always in different schools. I just do them as quickly as possible and get it over.

Once I have all the return forms completed, I then have a stack of information for each child that I may need sometime during the year. I divide these up into calendars and things that we need to reference regularly, things that we need to keep in case we have a question during the year, and things that need to be acted on in the future. I hang the calendars and things up on our bulletin board so they are easily accessible by the whole family. The syllabuses and other reference papers are placed in the kid section of my binder. Any papers that need to be acted on, such as yearbook forms are placed in the Sunday Basket until I am ready to order. This way we know where everything is and it is easy to find if and when we need it.

Being organized makes the school year go better. Last year I fixed up boxes for each kid to keep their lunch or snack food in. My daughter takes her lunch about half the time and having all the things she likes to take in one place makes it quick and easy for her to pack her lunch. By storing her stuff in a special lunch box, it keeps it from being eaten up and her not having food to pack for her lunch. Devin doesn’t take his lunch, but he does take protein bars, granola bars, tuna, and other snack food to have before his sports activities. By keeping them in a special box, he is able to grab what he wants each day very quickly as he heads out the door.

Another advantage to their boxes, is that it is easy for them to see when they are running low on certain items and they can put it on the list for me to buy. The protein bars and other individual packages can be expensive, so I need some advance notice so I can start looking for sales or deals on them. I don’t just run out and buy whatever they want the day they tell me, so they have learned to let me know a week or two in advance so I have a chance to find the deals before they run out.

Kids need responsibility so they can learn to be self sufficient!

By giving the kids the responsibility for their supplies, schedules, lunch and snacks, I am able to focus on what I need to focus on and they have the opportunity to learn how to plan and organize while they are at home and the stakes are not too great. The amount of responsibility increases as the child grows. When they were young, I did a lot of showing, telling and reminding. As they get older, the reminders get less frequent as they become better at managing different aspects of their lives. While Shaylee is pretty self sufficient in certain areas, she still needs a lot more involvement and reminders than Devin does at his age. This is our last year with him full time, so we are trying to make sure that he has all the needed skills to go out in the world and be successful.

While my experiences are directly related to my children going back to school, all these ideas can be used if you or someone besides your kids are going back to school, starting a new job or changing some other aspect of your life. Planning, organizing and creating systems put your life on auto pilot. I may not know how many notebooks we have or if we have a certain kind of folder, but I can find out very quickly because I know where to look. That is why getting organized makes the school year better, because knowing where to look is winning!

Are you an organized person or do you need all the help you can get? Do you have any tips that help you get through the school year? Leave a comment and let me know.

For more ideas on how I have got things under control in my house, read A Better Life and Creative Organizing in the Kitchen.

If you need more help, check out 100 Day Home Organization Program.

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