Back-to-school organization begins at home
Credit to Author: Claudia Kwan| Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:00:48 +0000
It may seem counterintuitive, but getting ready for back to school starts at home, says professional organizer Linda Chu.
“For those who have children, September is the beginning of the year, not January,” she says. “Think back to the chaos of the previous year, and think about what you can do to prepare for the year to come.”
First, she recommends heading to the closet and dresser. All of that summer sunshine and fresh air could have triggered growth spurts, and some garments are ready for the rag bin after a season of adventures. Trying on fall and winter clothing now will prevent scrambling to keep the children clothed in the busy weeks after school starts.
Keeping shoes and outdoor gear organized is a great way to help ease the back-to-school transition.
If you’re saving hand-me-downs for a sibling, pack them away and label them by size and season; it should hopefully make things easier the next time you have to do a big clothing sort. If you’re ready to move on from outgrown clothing, consider having a clothing swap with other parents, or donating them.
This is also a good opportunity to set up organizational systems for the school year.
“Get bins for their clothes, have them lay out full outfits for the week, once a week after doing laundry – get them involved in the planning and preparing, ” says Chu. “Factor in what you’ll need for sports and extracurricular activities day by day. You can make laminated lists, put index cards on a bulletin board, mark it on a dry erase calendar. Make it plug and play, make it easy for yourself!”
If you don’t have one already, it’s time to set up a command centre in the hub of your home; in many households, that’s the kitchen. Start with a big wall calendar visible to everyone. Mark all of the extracurricular activities, Pro-D days and stat holidays (many schools publish their calendar for the year on their websites), and occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries.
“Do colour-coding – each person gets a specific colour. There are removable colour pens that you can erase if something changes, but schedule everything on the calendar,” she says. “That includes pickup and drop-off arrangements for each kid, and contact information if you’re relying on a friend or another parent. Book in date nights and babysitters too, as far out as you can. If your kids are a bit older, you can try using an online calendar that’s shared.”
Healthy snacks for school lunches are at the ready and easy to grab on the go.
The command centre should also include a way to wrangle all of the paperwork associated with school. A combination corkboard/whiteboard and tiered wall-mounted pocket file folder system would be ideal, since you could organize permission slips, flyers about various programs, and notices about activities. The two boards would provide space to display artwork on a rotating basis, the all-important calendar, and emergency phone numbers, as well as space to write reminders or notes to each other. If there’s room, hooks to hang backpacks would be handy; it would hopefully encourage kids to pull papers out of their backpacks the very day they’re sent home (as well as lunch containers with old food.)
• collecting up and organizing school supplies, before going out and buying new items
• stocking up the home pharmacy with bandages, cold medication, vitamins, even lice shampoo (just in case)
• putting a change jar together for bus fare, extra lunch money, school bake sales, etc.
It may seem like a lot of work to set all of this up, but Chu promises the payoff is worth it. Think back to how things were last year, and how much better they could be.
“Running late all the time, missing appointments, calling friends and family in desperate need – it all gets done but you’re always in a panic,” she points out. “This is about taking a kinder approach to the school year. If you make all of these things ‘plug and play’, it sets up a solid foundation so that you can be totally present for all of the other things that are going to come in the front door, like disagreements with other kids and disappointments at school. If you have a schedule, you can go to Plan B, but if you haven’t even set up a Plan A, you don’t have any options.”