Back To School Organization

[julifish]

School starts in 2 weeks and I feel like my house has exploded with school supplies and hopes of a school year of being organized and ready for class. I'm wondering how all you other moms keep your house and your kids organized for school. My kids are going into 8th and 5th grades.

So what are your tips for keeping yourself organized, home work supplies, things you need in the AM, bookbags under control and in general everything related to school? Anyone have ideas for getting teenagers out the door on time or a grumpy morning elementry schooler out the door in one piece? I'd love to hear your ideas on what works in your house.

Help this mama out!

[Milmomma]

We sorted and put their school supplies in there bags already. The bags hang on the door knobs in the entry way, so they are off my floor. The extra supplies we keep at home so they don't have to drag stuff back and forth stay in a 3 drawer thing by my scrap stuff.
As far as morning and getting them ready, I'm of no help. My kids are morning people, I am not. They get themselves up earlier than needed and make their own breakfasts. Then they come to check and make sure I'm up. My oldest makes sure the coffee is started. I love my kids when it comes to this part!

[kelley]

We homeschool, so we have crazy organization to do. I just got all their school curriculum and books about 2 weeks ago, but I still have to get supplies. All the books are still in boxes now, but in the next couple of weeks, I'll have a 5 shelf bookshelf for all the books. I have 4 students this year, so each will have a shelf for all their books, and then my teachers guides and record books will be on the top shelf. As far as supplies, in our mudroom I have a tall cupboard with no shelves in it, so I'm going to put a shelving unit in there for all of the art supplies, science supply boxes, and extra supplies like paper, pencils, index cards, folders, notebooks, etc. They each have a school bad they keep in their room that has their own current supplies as far as pencils, erasers, notebook paper. I'm no help getting them up because we don't get up early - well, they don't. I get up early for work, then after I work an hour or 2, then they start to get up, we have breakfast, and then start school.

[maryinaz]

Well, my youngest 3 were off to first day of school today!! (College boys is still here.) And our house is a mess from school supplies and packing their gear. I'll get it cleaned up and out of site today.

But the backpack thing is always a problem when they come home. We have a decorative niche in the hallway by the laundry room that I'm going to take the decorative stuff out of so they can put their backpacks in it.

Our excess school supplies go in a 2-shelf cubby in my office. Pens/pencils/other small items get put into plastic boxes and then the folders/paper/notebooks are just stacked in there.

My senior drives to school and if he doesn't make it on time, he gets "swept" which means he can't go to his first period and those late are put into one room for study hall. I hated that rule at first, but it does make the kids get to school on time and just a handful get swept now.

My other 2 have to catch a bus, so they are pretty good about getting out the door too. Gosh, I'm spoiled - it's been 3 years since I had to take kids to school. Next year, though, it will start up again! :)

[mariewilcox]

Well, it's just Cheyanne and I so things stay more organized than most homes because it's just 2 of us. Plus, I'm blessed with an organized child ;)

She's going into 7th grade so she's responsible for her stuff. She has everything in her room either on her desk or in it just waiting to pack into her new backpack (need to order that next week). She does all her studying at her desk in her room so her backpack goes directly in there and stays there.

I work from home so I don't have to worry about getting myself together in the morning. By the time Cheyanne's alarm goes off I've already been working nearly 2 hours.

I keep several breakfast choices that she is able to get on her own - bagels, cereals, fruits, and I make and freeze waffles on the weekend so she can just put them in the toaster. She is responsible for getting herself out of bed when the alarm goes off and getting her breakfast and getting herself ready. She does take her shower the night before because she usually has a practice or game anyway and hates going to bed sweaty, plus she doesn't like going to school with wet hair (she has really long thick hair and it takes forever to blow it dry!).

I don't have any advice for grumpy kids in the morning. Enough sleep and routine I guess and just reinforcing that it's what they have to do.

Before Cheyanne goes to bed she makes sure everything is in her backpack and ready to go in the morning instead of running around in the morning getting everything together. She also makes her lunch the night before and puts it in the fridge so all she has to do is grab it and her water bottle.

[BrattyMeg]

We have a bench organization thing right inside the breakfast area so when mine come inside from the garage they put any papers that need signed on the breakfast table for me, hang their backpacks on the hooks above the bench and put their lunchboxes on the bench. It's my responsibility to sign their papers and make their lunches but they have to have it where it goes for me to do that. There's also baskets underneath the bench with extra supplies they may need like pencils, lead, pens, crayons, scissors, pencil sharpeners. We had a big problem last year with stuff just getting thrown in the dining room corner every day and I finally had it and came up with this. So far it's worked pretty well.

We are back in school already here

[kscwgirl]

well.. I'm a little worried :D b/c we are moving the weekend before school starts :D we have sneak peek on the 9th so they can take all their supplies to school.. that will help. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to handle backpacks.. it's a mess at our current house so I want something more organized. We'll see.

[farrijc]

I buy school supplies from the PTA - they are on their desks the first day of school. Love it!! I realize that doesn't help you at all :p

[Sherri Tierney]

I am addicted to office supplies/school supplies so I have quite the stash. I have a closet in my office that is about half full of supplies. I have 4 (medium sized, maybe) of the 3 drawer sterilite containers in it and each drawer is packed completely full. I counted 29 boxes of crayons and 14 packs of Expo dry erase markers the other day. Anyway, we've already pulled out everything that their back to school lists call for and put them in their backpacks. I have mostly reorganized my stash I just have a few things to find room for as my drawers for pencils and markers are beyond full. Anything extra the kids need throughout the year is in there waiting on them.

The backpacks hang on pegs in the hallway. When the kids get home from school they hand me their blue folders. The school gives each child a blue plastic folder that gets carried back and forth daily. One pocket is for things to return to school (like homework) and the other is for important reminders to keep at home. I pull the stuff from the keep at home pocket and go through it. I write any important dates on the calendar and throw the memos for those away. If there is an order form for something and I want to order I write out the check immediately and put it back in the folder to go back to school. The kids do any homework and gets it back in to the folder and then the backpack. The backpacks go in the hallway for the next day.

One drawer in our buffet holds pencils, highlighters, tape, glue sticks, etc. that the kids might need for homework. I also have a pencil sharpener on my desk as well as markers, pencils, paper clips, stapler and more. They can grab supplies from either place to do homework OR they can use their homework caddies. Each child has a plastic box that is similar to a pencil box but large enough to hold folders inside. There is paper, scissors, erasers, glue sticks, pencils, etc. in each of those and those slide under the buffet so they are ready when the kids need them. They do their homework at the kitchen table, usually while I am cooking dinner so that I can help them if needed.

I have two cardboard magazine holders from the dollar section at Target that are on the book case in the living room. Those are for important school information for each child that I need easy access to. Last year I did 'picture person' where I went in and presented a piece of artwork to each class once a month and the folders with information about the artwork stayed in those magazine holders so that I didn't have to search for them when the day arrived that I needed to present the art.

Mornings... I am NOT a morning person and neither are my two kids. Having three of us who struggle in the mornings trying to get ready and make it out the door on time is pretty ridiculous. From the time my daughter was in preschool until she hit 4th grade, I didn't even do mornings. My husband took care of all of that. He works midnights and gets off at 7am. He would come home, wake up the kid(s) and get them off to school while I slept in. I loved it. :) Last year the kids needed to be at school earlier in order to ride the bus from our 'home' school to their appropriate grade level buildings. In order for them to be ready on time they had to be moving before my husband got home. A few weeks in to the year I started working at the school so I had to be there too. Struggling to get all 3 of us ready in the morning was awful.

This year we will have to be at school even earlier. I am being assigned bus duty/morning greeter so I need to be at school at 7:15 in the morning (last year I didn't have to be there until 8 but I was usually there about 7:30). I am looking forward to the extra pay but not the earlier mornings. I guess I will have an earlier bedtime too. ;)

Anyway... last year we weren't so organized but during the years when my husband had morning duty I did everything ahead of time to make it easy for him. My kids laid out their clothes every night (took baths/showers at night too) and I laid breakfast out on the table (minus milk or cold stuff) so that all they had to do was hop out of bed, get dressed, come downstairs, use the potty, eat breakfast, brush their teeth and hair and be out the door. It took probably 20 minutes tops when we were organized. When we weren't organized (like most of last year!!) it took us close to 40 minutes to get out the door. I like my sleep so I plan to be as organized as possible this year. ;)

[rach3975]

I put each child's school supplies in one of the reusable grocery bags. I used to put those on top of their closets, but now the bags are too full. This year they're in the basement waiting for the first day.

As far as bookbag and supply organization during the year, we have a bookcase like this right next to the door.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/expedit-shelving-unit__0092707_PE229406_S4.JPG (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10103088/#/50103086)

We each have a cubby, plus we have 1 extra that holds everything the kids need to do their homework. On the bottom we added a door to 1 square and it holds things like lunch boxes and coolers that don't need to be used everyday. The other bottom square has 2 drawers for hats and gloves. Extra school supplies that we aren't ready for go in a box in our pantry.

As for getting out quickly, I have no advice at all. My kids like to stall, so it takes us forever to get out even when I'm organized.

[KyRainbow]

I have a table right inside my front door that is designated for my daughter. She keeps her laptop there and her phone charger is plugged in there. When she comes in from school, that's where her backpack goes. She usually sits there on the couch to do her homework, so it's convenient and off the floor. There's a little wicker basket on my desk where she puts papers and stuff from school that I need to see. Her lunch box is in one of my kitchen cabinets because she doesn't use it often.
I always buy extra supplies at the beginning of the year, and those go into the bottom drawer of my desk for her to grab as she needs them throughout the year. Her backpack is loaded down with her notebooks and folders and French binder along with pencils and pens ready to go Wednesday morning (our first day).
Our morning routine is going through an overhaul this year, because she has an early class (7:20) and can't eat breakfast at school. I've bought a bunch of easy/quick breakfast stuff for her to grab while she's getting ready (bagels, granola bars, toaster waffles). We'll see how it works out, lol.
ETA: As far as getting a teenager out the door on time, lol...she keeps her phone in the bathroom with her while she's getting ready so she keeps an eye on the time, but I warn her when there's 5 minutes until we need to be out the door, and don't warn her again. It's up to her to be ready on time. If she's tardy 3 times she loses her phone for 3 days.

[Stacey42]

We have some coat hooks in the living room by the closet for their backpacks & they each have a cubby in the room organizer, like what Rachel posted, for their homework stuff. They already have their supplies in their backpacks and the backpacks on the hooks waiting for Open House in a week to take them to school.

My kids are crack of dawn people. They get up between 6 & 6:30 on their own, always have. Drove me nuts when they were toddlers but I love it now they are in elementary school. I get up at 6:40 & they are dressed already. I make breakfast & pack lunches while DH oversees them checking their bags to make sure they have all their stuff. He takes them down to meet the bus at 7:20 on his way to work.

I go through their bags as soon as they get home, go through the papers and get them started on homework if it's a football practice night, otherwise we leave homework until after supper

[mummytothree]

Well I did a school binder last year and I LOVED it!!! I posted about it in the forums last year and one my blog...you can check it out ::HERE:: (http://mummytothree.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-school-binder.html)

Here was the thread Steph started last year that might give you some ideas too!!

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57024&highlight=school+binder

Other then that I don't do anything real special!! My kids are pretty self sufficient with homework (9th, 5th, 2nd graders and a 2nd year preschooler) and anything they would need stays in their backpacks. They come home, get a snack and then start their homework. We keep all book bags in our mud room...everyone has their own hook. So as soon as home work is done the book bag goes right on the hook to grab the next morning.

The boys get their showers at night. The girls take theirs in the morning. I usually have a breakfast menu so we know what we are making and their is no fights or arguments as to what we are eating!!

[mummytothree]

Oh and about the teenage out the door...Mine is pretty good about managing her time and thankfully she isn't high maintenance but I still watch the clock for her and give her a prod every once in a while!!!

She rides the bus and she knows that missing it is not an option and she knows that if she dilly dallies I'll make her get on the bus half dressed/wet hair so she keeps it moving right along most mornings!!! :D :D