Get ready parents, it’s time for back to school in just a few weeks. This time of year can motivate you to get everything organized and ready for the hustle and bustle of the school year. Your schedule runs so much smoother when your house is in order, so use these tips to get everything ready to grab and run on those hectic school mornings.
You probably do this every year. You start out the school year organized and committed to keeping everything in order. But by the summer, you’ve become the pack rat that you dreaded seeing ever again. School work can pile up, end of the year projects come home, the winter clothes come off and it’s off to the pool all summer long. Well, it’s time to get moving again. Don’t buy a single back to school item until you have made a space for everything that will be coming in.
Each child will need a backpack, pencils, crayons, glue, lunchbox, paper and more. Most of these things will end up staying at the school, so really you need to get ready for what will come home. You especially need to be ready for the things that come home that must go back, or things that come home that you want to keep. You may decide to dedicate an area of your entryway or your coat closet to these items.
If you have a coat closet, you may be able to hang coats on one side and install shelves and hooks on the other side. Each child will need a backpack hook. You can also label containers or large folders for each child’s work that you want to keep. When you look through their folders, you can quickly file the keepsakes and trash the rest. Keep a small trash bin at the bottom of the closet for this task. It will keep you from piling up the work on your kitchen counter or coffee table.
Next, you will need to have homework supplies handy. Use a metal bill tray mounted to the wall to keep loose leaf paper, construction paper and composition books. Then place a magnetic pencil holder to the outside with plenty of sharpened pencils and pens for quick and easy use. A hanging basket is a great place to keep crayons, markers, glue, glitter, pencil sharpeners, erasers and sticky notes. Leave notes for your kids on their backpacks that say things like “dentist appointment at 1:00”, “bring snack for the class today” or anything that you need for them to remember. A dry erase calendar used only for school is also a good thing to keep inside the closet door.
If you need to make space in your closet for all of these things, hang your coats on space saving hangers. Clips and cascading hooks can save you a lot of space. When everything is organized and ready to go, you will be too.
About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for slimlinehangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.
