Tips to stay organized this school year.
Declutter Before School Starts
Just like you may like to reset on Sundays to get you prepared for a smooth week, the same goes for decluttering before the first day of school. It helps mentally prepare your child (and YOU!) by removing distractions and ‘noise’ from your surroundings. Top spaces to tackle: your family’s main drop zone, your child’s bedroom, their main study space (even if this is the kitchen table), their bathroom (or where they will be getting ready for the day), and their backpacks. Getting these areas free of clutter and trash will help you and your child start the year a little less stressed!
Create a Drop Zone for your kids
When your children are rushing in the door afterschool, they need an easy and accessible place to drop their backpacks, folders, lunchboxes and papers from the day. Find a central location (mudroom, spare counter in kitchen, entry way table) and designate this spot as the place for those things to get placed. We suggest placing some shallow bins for your child to place their daily folders, important papers from the day and even homework. We recommend a simple tray like these: Stackable Paper Tray - Brightroom™ : Target. Label these bins clearly, with your child’s name and what should go in them.
This is a great opportunity for your young child to take ownership and be responsible for placing their items in these bins everyday afterschool. Setting your children up with dependable and organized systems now, will only help them as they grow and create habits of their own.
3. Touch everything only once
That permission slip? The ‘get to know you’ form? Fill them out. Put it back in your child’s backpack immediately. School calendar? Skim for the important dates and enter them into your family calendar now. Then, pin it to your fridge or command center for reference. Do not put that piece of paper back down to deal with later, you won’t. It will take you 60-90 seconds to just fill it out now and have it done. Touch it once and move on with your life!!
4. Be liberal with the recycling of schoolwork
This tip is specifically for our parents of elementary school aged kids. As you are flipping through their folder stuffed with precious artwork, handwriting samples, math problems, or those papers that you are pretty sure don’t even belong to your child….be liberal with what you toss. ((After your child is safely tucked away in bed, and at the BOTTOM of the trash can, of course!))
What to recycle: the random worksheet of math facts, a preprinted coloring page they scribbled on, handwriting tracing pages, you get the idea. Things to keep: the adorable story they sound spelled and wrote, anything with their handprints on them, pictures they drew freehand…. things you’ll look back on when they’re seniors in high school with sentiment and affection.
Keep a small bin, similar to this one: Shimo Tall Storage Bins | The Container Store on or near your drop zone. Place those keepsakes in these (to always keep the main paper tray empty!) At the end of the semester, take another pass through them to eliminate any more that you and your child don’t want to keep.
5. Keep one keepsake tote per child for their entire school career
At the end of every school year, take those prized papers you’ve kept from the year and place them in a safe, weathertight and personalized tote—their forever home! We recommend this one: Weathertight File Box | The Container Store. Add hanging file folders labeled ‘preschool’ through ‘12th grade’, then place that year’s papers in its corresponding folder. At the end of senior year, you can gift your child their tote full of memories from their entire school experience!! If you don’t have time to source the product and label, fear not—A Clean Slate can make these custom to your needs and personalized with your child’s names! Contact us to learn more.
6. If all else fails, it’s ok to ask for help!
As much as we all want to, we cannot (and should not) have to do it all. A Clean Slate is here to help you source product, create systems and keep your spaces tidy while you are focusing your energy on the important things in life. It takes a village, and we would be honored to be a part of yours! Wishing you and your kiddos a happy, healthy and organized school year!!
💕, Livia and Shannon
