How To Get Your Family Organized for Back-To-School

Back-to-school is always one of my favorite seasons of the year, because it has a very consistent theme: getting organized. Whether you have school-aged kids or not, early fall is a great time to reset your family and yourselves organized again for the upcoming season. From family logistics to school supplies, here are my favorite ways to get organized during the back-to-school season.

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The Organized Family’s Back-To-School Basics

Family Calendar

Every organized family needs a family calendar. Maybe you keep a shared digital calendar, but I have found much more value in a physical family calendar that is easily accessible by everyone—partners, grandparents, childcare, etc. Because the more you can share the information, the less people have to rely on you. Transparency empowers independence.

Earlier this year, we got this custom acrylic calendar for our kitchen, and it’s the perfect solution for coordinating our calendar as well as meals & babysitter notes. There are also plenty of more affordable options like this one or this one.

If you love your digital calendar and don’t want to hand-write a physical one, check out the Skylight Calendar, which is a screen that connects to any digital calendar and makes it available in a physical form. You can also set the screensaver to any photo or slideshow of photos. Such a fun option!

Labels

If you send your kids to school or daycare, you’re probably well-versed in labeling. If this will be you soon, consider ordering custom name labels. We love that these are washable and stay on for awhile (like a year or longer—perfect for the whole school year). I keep them in the kitchen and by the door for easy access whenever we’re sending something new to school.

Organized Meals

The most organized lunchbox award goes to…the Bento box! Joking aside, I love this lunchbox and I always hear great things, so I can’t wait to purchase some for my kids once they are school-aged.

Right now, our bigger issue when it comes to meals is simply coming up with something to eat for each meal of the day, and/or generating ideas for babysitters. For parents of school-aged kids, it’s the same thing—packing lunches is burdensome. So to mitigate this issue, I recently added a list of “go-to meals” to the inside of one of our kitchen cabinets. These are meals or components of meals that we typically keep stocked in our kitchen. So if you (or your kids’ caretaker) is ever experiencing decision fatigue around meals, there is a helpful list to guide the way to a solution.

Additionally, if you’d like to automate the meal process even further, I recommend implementing a “decide once” policy. Maybe for dinners, maybe for lunches, or maybe both. For example, pick 5 school lunches that you will pack, and then assign one to each day of the week. Yes, your kids will have the same thing every Monday, every Tuesday, etc. But it’s still varying it up enough so they don’t get sick of it. The other great thing about this approach is that you could really hone in on your grocery list and not accidentally purchase more ingredients that what you need.

Lastly, I would recommend batching meal prep work as much as possible. If you can, make lunches for Mondays through Wednesdays on Sunday nights, and then make lunches for Thursdays and Fridays on Wednesday nights. (Or come up with a similar schedule that works for you!)

Organized School Supplies

One of the most fun parts about back-to-school season is acquiring school supplies and then getting them organized. Every kid’s organization system is going to be personal to them, but don’t forget to include organization supplies like pouches and desk organizers in your family’s back-to-school budget. This will set you all up for a better year ahead.

If your kid has any electronic devices for their schoolwork, I strongly encourage a cord wrap or cord magnet. Even a pouch would do. Cord control is a little thing that can go a long way in terms of making one’s space feel more peaceful and put-together.

On-The-Go

Another big way to set your family up for success in this back-to-school season is to get your car organized. I have a whole post on car organization here. There are a lot of helpful products that allow you to take advantage of vertical space in the car, like this seat-back organizer or hanging trash can. And these headrest hooks would be great for backpacks!

Beyond a few helpful products, it is really the habits and systems that will make or break your family when it comes to coming and going from the house. Your car and entryways will quickly succumb to the strength of your system (or lack-thereof). And your sanity will quickly follow. To set your family up for success, create a simple system to reset all items every day. For example:

Empty all backpacks immediately upon entering the home. Only items that go straight back to school can stay in the backpack.
Remove & put away shoes.
Place dirty lunchboxes, water bottles, etc. by the sink.
Place dirty laundry in the laundry basket (keep one downstairs near the entryway if that’s easier).
Kids are responsible for completing homework & returning it to backpack.
Parent #1 is responsible for packing lunch, prepping water bottle, and ensuring labels are in place each night.
Parent #2 is responsible for adding lunch and water bottle to backpack in the morning, making sure kids are appropriately dressed for the day, and taking the kids to school.

Maybe your division of labor looks different, but the concept is the same. If you can create mini checklists for each step of the process, it’s easier to get in the habit of completing them consistently. And then the work becomes less overwhelming, and more second-nature. As I always say, structure creates freedom. 🙂

Roles & Responsibilities

A big part of making your back-to-school system successful is to clearly define the roles and responsibilities, especially between parents. Everyone’s situation is unique, but the more you can set up a clear boundary and delegate responsibilities fully & completely, the happier your family will be. For example, if one parent is in charge of daycare drop-off, they need to be in charge of any teacher communications in the morning as well. From planning to execution, end-to-end.

Anywhere you have a “hand-off” is a great place to implement a clear system. My bulleted system above is a great example: Parent #1 is responsible for prepping the lunch. Parent #2 should always know where to find it in the morning. Another example: if mom is breastfeeding but then dad takes baby to daycare drop-off, have a clear expectation for where mom writes down what time baby was last fed. Maybe you have a special app on your phones, or maybe mom texts it to dad every morning. The key is simply choosing something consistent, and communicating it clearly.

In addition to partners, its great to have a clear communication system with a babysitter. We used to have a nanny for our boys, and every day she watched them, I would write down what their lunch and snack should be. It made transition times much smoother.

Last, but certainly not least, don’t forget about the roles your kids can play in contributing to the home. The older they get, the more responsibility they can take on. Back-to-school is a great time to implement new chores, or simply solidify basic self care activities. A tactile checklist like this one would be a great tool for young kids learning how to manage their responsibilities.