9 Back to School Organization Tips Every Mom Needs to Know

9 Smart Back to School Organization Tips for Moms

Trying to organize your kids for back to school after a long summer break can be tough. Everyone’s having so much fun enjoying summer and doing nothing (except you, the mom… you’ve been busy doing everything to ensure your kids can enjoy their summer break) that the last thing anyone wants to be thinking about is going back to school.

But in the blink of an eye back to school will be in full swing, so here are some back to school organization tips for moms to make the transition easier on you, your kids, and the whole town.

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Use these First Day of School chalkboards to document your kid’s changes throughout the years and always have something to look back on.

9 Back to school organization tips for moms

Make a to do list

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything that you need to get done before the school year starts, so before you let yourself go full-swing crazy, sit down and make a list of everything that needs to get done.

Making a back to school to do list will help you get everything done in a timely matter without constantly worrying that you’re forgetting about one thing or another, but, many people can start to do lists… it’s the whole following through with that list that many people fail to do. If you have a hard time completing your to do lists, this formula will help.

You’ll feel accomplished as you check things off your to do list and you’ll be able to see how much stuff is left to get done every day, which will allow you to split tasks up over the next few weeks until school starts so you can still enjoy your last few summer days. Because what happens when things get left to be done last-minute? You find yourself running around like a madwoman with no direction and accomplishing nothing.

(Not sure how – or where – to start your back to school to do list? Start with this and go from there.)

Gather supplies

On your back to school to do list you should include a section for back to school supplies. But, before you head out and buy those supplies, do a quick search through your house to see if you have any carry-over stock from last year’s back to school shopping that you could use this year.

There may be extra pencils that your kids didn’t end up using, rulers, calculators, pencil sharpeners, etc. hiding in your house.

Search your house for school supplies to save money and cut down on the amount of clutter your house collects.

(Not sure what back to school supplies your kids need? Check out the back to school supply checklist-by-age, here.)

Get back into a routine

If you and your kids are used to staying up late and sleeping in all summer, jumping into the back to school grind of getting up at 6:30 will take its toll on you.

Instead, start getting everyone back into the school routine before school even starts. Start getting everyone to bed earlier and getting back into the routine of waking up earlier as early as a week or two prior to school starting.

Get organized in the evening

When school finally starts up again, get into the habit of getting everything ready the night before.

This way, instead of having to deal with tantrums and fits over what outfit they want to wear, school lunches, and whatever else in the morning when you’re trying to get the kids ready for school, you can have everything laid out and ready to go in the evening, so that in the morning everyone grabs their designated piles and gets on their way.

Spend some time just before tucking the kids into bed picking outfits for the next day, planning lunches, and packing school backpacks.

Then in the morning all they have to do is get dressed, put their lunch in their school lunchbox and grab their backpack and they’re ready to go.

Meal plan lunches

Many moms find planning lunches for their kids to be just as time-consuming as planning dinners for the week (I use this so that I don’t have to plan lunches, but I still know exactly what we’re having every day).

Instead of trying to think of something to make for your kids for lunch in the morning, make a lunch meal-plan for the entire week and prepare – and have your kids help prepare – the lunches in the evening so they’re ready to go in the morning.

(Then you can use this to keep everyone’s lunches organized in the fridge so each kid knows which is theirs.)

Use wall magazine racks to organize papers

Your kids will bring many papers home over the school year that need to be signed, looked over, or kept by none other than you.

To organize all these papers and ensure none of them get lost, I like the idea of using this rack mounted on the wall to keep the papers separated, but easily accessible.

Once you have the rack up, put these labels on it to organize the rack. Have one section for papers that need to be signed, one section for papers that are signed and ready to go back to school, one section for papers that you need to keep, and another section for miscellaneous school papers like report cards.

This way you never have to worry about losing important papers around your house – you can keep them all together with one cheap organizer.

Keep up with chores at home

Back to school is a busy time for everyone in the household, but it’s important that your kids chores and responsibilities at home don’t get neglected.

You can use this to keep everyone accountable by creating chore charts for your kids. This way they can easily check off everything as it’s done and they can see what they still have to do for the day.

Create a family command center

A command center is a place in your house that keeps everyone organized.

My favorite type of family command center has a calendar (I like this mom calendar) so everyone can glance at it and see any special events happening this month, a bulletin board and whiteboard, a paper organizer to keep school papers and other important papers organized (or you could put the magazine holder from back to school organization tip #6 up here), and a bin for each kid where they can place their backpacks and anything else they bring home from school.

(Here’s a really good example of everything you’d want in your family’s command center.)

Get an alarm clock for kids

If your kids are in school they are definitely old enough to start doing some things independently.

Rather than having them rely on you to wake them up every morning, get their clothes, pack their lunches, etc., allow them the freedom to wake up when they want, but with enough time to get ready before school, pack their lunches, and get dressed.

Getting your kids their very own alarm clock and allowing them to choose what time they want to wake up (with some guidance from mom and dad, of course) will give them a sense of responsibility and give them motivation to get ready in the morning – since it depends on them, not on you pushing them along.

This alarm clock is perfect for kids as it allows the parents to set an “OK to Wake” time, which, if you have kids who are particular early risers, encourages them to stay in bed until an appropriate time. It also teaches kids how to use their own alarm clock.

Conclusion:

Back to school is a busy time, but you don’t have to be as unorganized as most people out there are. Simply use these back to school organization tips to learn how to organize back to school – everything from back to school supplies to back to school routines with these back to school tips!

Let’s quickly go over these back to school organizing tips for parents one more time:

Make a to do list (and a back to school shopping list)
Gather supplies (always check your house before going back to school shopping so you don’t buy duplicates of items you already have)
Get back into a routine (get your whole family back into the school routine at least a week before school starts back up)
Get ready in the evening, not the morning
Meal plan for lunches (I use this meal planning service to save a lot of time)
Use wall-mounted magazine racks to organize school papers throughout the year
Give each of your kids their very own chore charts (you can grab some here)
Make a family command center (this is everything you need for a command center)
Give each of your kids their own alarm clocks

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Do you have some back to school organization tips that you’ve used every year to make back to school with little kids easier? Feel free to share them with other moms below!