Back To School Stress Free Organization Tips

It’s August so you know what that means… it’s Back to School Time!! Yes our days of being held captive by our own children are over!! Ok, Ok I’m just kidding but back to school is an exciting time not only for the kids but for the parents too. It’s also a time of busy and stressful mornings and activity filled days and weeks. So I thought it would be fitting to share some of my time saving and stress free back to school organization tips.

The number one thing that I have found to be the most important tool in staying organized during the busy school year is, to have a weekly dry erase calendar. Now I have tried the monthly dry erase calendar, but it just doesn’t seem to work as well as the weekly in helping me to remember what we have to do each day. I would add everything to the calendar  at the start of the month and then just forget to check what was on the agenda that day. With the weekly calendar it forces you to look at your week ahead and write it down. I fill in my weekly calendar on Sundays, and I have it in my kitchen next to my work desk so I can glance at it often. It’s a busy mother’s must have item! It’s the only way I keep track of school activities, sports, tutoring and family events. Doggy date holder Magazine Holder 

Another helpful tool is to add everything to your phone’s calendar. That way when you’re out and about you still have all the information at your finger tips. I also like to set alarms for certain activities like soccer practice or games. You can schedule the alarm to be recurring every week or one time. I like to set the alarm for 30 minutes before the event as a reminder. Let me tell you this awesome alarm feature has saved me a time or two! You can also set a reminder alarm for birthdays which is aways helpful. How to use Android Calendar      How to use iPhone Calendar 

So you know that old adage, ‘A place for everything and everything in its place?’ Well this is absolutely true for staying stress free and organized during the busy school year. You need to have a place for everything if you are to stay organized, and your children need to be aware of these places so they can put the items in the correct location. When we remodeled our current home one of my top priorities was to have a drop zone, or as I call it in Southern California a faux mudroom, since we don’t get a lick of snow! But whatever you call it having a designated area for your kids to drop, or dump rather, their backpack, jackets, shoes, lunch pails, etc is a must! Cement Tile 

In our previous home I had a weird little niche in the hallway leading to my bedroom and the garage. So we took advantage of the space and built a drop zone or mudroom area there. You can also put up a little drop zone area in the laundry room or garage. Just invest in some baskets or bins and some coat hooks. Another good option is if you have a closet under the stairs. You can also purchase entryway benches that provide ample storage and don’t need to only be used in the entryway. So get creative and set up a designated space for the kids to store all their school and sports gear. It will make mornings go a lot smoother when the kids and you aren’t searching for where their backpack is or where they took off their shoes!

Remember How I said everything has its place and everything in its place, well I meant it!

I also like to have the kids sports uniforms and gear in a designated space as well. You could also have a designated drawer in their dresser or a bin in their closet. This is a real time saver and stress saver when its game day or practice. They know right where to go to grab their gear.

I recently purchased these Adidas bags for the kids for soccer this season. They have come in very handy. I keep their ball in it and before we leave I will also put their water bottle in it. It just makes it easier when they have to walk or run rather, to the field.

So lets move onto lunches shall we? Sundays are my busy prep days. I like to get all the laundry done for the week ahead, fill in the weekly calendar and get the kid’s lunches made for the week. Luckily for me my children are creatures of habit and only like turkey sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly! So I will make half turkey and half PB&J for them for the week.

Once I’ve made the sandwiches they get bagged up and labeled. My daughter only likes light mayo and a certain kind of turkey, and my son likes lots of mayo and mustard and different kind of turkey meat, so its imperative that we know who’s is who’s! Now I know not all kids only like to eat a sandwich for lunch everyday, but it is a great organizational tool to prep as much of their lunches for the week as possible. So maybe you make a couple of sandwiches and a couple with left overs from dinner. Whatever it is just try to prep as much as you can on Sunday. Trust me this is a great time saver. Then when the kids get home I grab their lunch pails and just refill them for the next day. The kids also love when I write little notes on their sandwich baggies.

I Added these cool lunch boxes this year and so far the kids are loving them!! They have these little compartments for all their snacks and a little cylinder for dip. Its also nice not having to put everything into ziplock bags like I had to do before. Less trash for the environment and less money out of my pocket! It’s a win in my book.

They fit right into the kids lunch pails. My daughter loves them, my son not as much, but he doesn’t really like any change, but he’s warming up to them.

I throw in their snack for first recess, sandwich and drink and an ice pack and off they go.

In the morning the kids have three stations they have to pass through. Eating station, Dress station and Teeth and Hair station. Once they have completed all three stations they can have free time. The kids do really well with this concept. Im always asking them have you gone to the dress station yet? Or you should be in the teeth and hair station. They love to have some free time each morning to play video games, or watch tv, so they try their best to get through all three stations quickly. I can’t tell you how much having this system in place has improved our mornings. Before our mornings consisted of my husband and I yelling at the kids to,” hurry up!” Now we just say,” If you don’t get through all three stations you won’t have any free time.” It’s amazing how fast they move then.

Another time saver I’ve adapted this school year is setting out the kids cereal bowls and cups the night before. My mother in law recommended this, and since she had five kids I thought maybe she knows what she’s talking about! Some nights I have the kids pick out which cereal they want in the morning and I’ll set the box out by their place setting. Place mat

Speaking of cereal I like to keep all the cereal and kids snacks/ lunch items on the lower shelves of the pantry. That way they can go grab their own cereal or snack and don’t have me going into the pantry a dozen times a day. Plus having all their lunch items in the one area helps when packing lunches. I got these bins about a year ago and I’m so glad I did! They keep everything organized and in its place, plus storage bins are pretty in expensive.

Ok so we passed through the eating station so now it’s onto the dress station. I lay out my kids clothes the night before. That way I get all the arguing about what they’re going to wear out of the way. Once the outfit is picked out there is no changing!  I keep the clothes either at the end of their bed or on the dining room table so they can go from breakfast straight to getting dressed. And FYI everything you see here is from our local thrift store, with the exception of my son’s shoes and my daughter’s boots. If you’re not already shopping at the thrift store for your kids clothes you should be! I find the cutest clothes there for a fraction of what they’d be new. My son’s clothes are from the Gap and both my girl’s dresses are from Children’s Place. They all look brand new. So get on down to your local thrift store and check it out for yourself! It’s no different than if your girlfriend gave you some hand me down clothes.

Choo Choo!! This train is moving on to the teeth and hair station, all aboard!! Sorry, got a little too into it! My kids are all still fairly young so they use my bathroom for the most part. So I have all their toothbrushes together. I love having my girl’s hair ties and bows organized. It takes just a second to find the right one. I used to have them all just dumped in a drawer and I would be digging through for minutes trying to find a rubber band. It also helps the girls pick out what they want to wear in their hair that day.

Having their jewelry organized on a jewelry holder has been super helpful too. I have two very fashion obsessed daughters. They always have to be fashionable as my oldest daughter says.

So I feel like we covered the getting ready for school department pretty well. Now comes the fun part, when they get home and have homework. I’m just kidding I don’t enjoy doing homework every night. Come on teachers I don’t have time for that! But such is life with kids in school so we might as make the most of it. Once the kids get home I let them have a break. I have found from trial and error that 40-45 minutes is just the right amount of time for them to decompress from the day at school, but not so long that they’re completely out of school mode. I used to wait until after dinner to do homework and it was like pulling teeth. There were tears, tantrums and lots of yelling. So I’ve discovered that if they’re still kind of school mode it makes it a lot easier to get them to sit down and do some homework. I set the timer when they get home for 40 minutes. Once the timer dings its time to sit down and knock out the homework. Chairs

Having a designated spot for the kids to do their homework is important. Its like when they tell you don’t put a toddler in their crib for time out, because that should only be used for sleep so they know when they go in the crib that means it’s time to sleep. Well the same is true for a kids homework station. You should do their homework in the same location each day so they know when they sit down in that area it means it’s time to work.

I also like to have all their project supplies in tubs and in the same cabinet. That way they can just grab the tub and have their glue, scissors, markers, pipe cleaners, glitter, etc. to help them complete any little project they may have that day.

These two items above are wonderful. The School Days Album goes all the way through graduation. And the portfolio is great for saving school work through the years, because lets face it we can’t save it all, so this is just enough storage for the really important pieces. Plus I think the kids will enjoy looking through these one day when they’re grown.

I hope this post has been helpful and hopefully has given you one or two tips to help stay organized and stress free this school year. Please comment and let me know what you thought and if you have any back to school survival tips. I hope you all have a fabulous school year to come!!