12 Genius Back To School Organization Tips Moms Swear By!
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Conquer the chaos of a new school year with these back to school organization tips that will streamline your family’s routine and make the transition smoother than ever!
Hi friends,
Back to school season is here and for many families it means a whirlwind of new routines, jam packed schedules, and a flurry of activities.
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a first-time school parent, these back-to-school organization tips will help you streamline your mornings, simplify homework time, and keep the whole family on track.
Let’s make this school year the most organized and stress-free one yet!
This post is all about back to school organization ideas for moms!
Back to School Organization Ideas
Before we hop into organization tips, tricks and ideas, grab this ultimate back to school checklist so that you’re prepared and ready for the first day of school without rushing around last minute!
Now that you have a back to school game plan all organized, let’s get into back to these school organization tips!
1. Set up a backpack station
This has to be the ultimate back to school organization hack and I swear by it!
There are tons of ways to store backpacks at home but this is hands down the best, easiest and cutest in my opinion. Trust me, you need this.. especially if you’re a mom of multiple kids!
Instead of backpacks being dropped by the door and shoes getting kicked off in the hallway, create an organized space where everything has its place. No mess, no fuss!
This diy 9-cube organizer backpack station has held up for the last two years even with constant use!
With hooks for backpacks, bins for school shoes and command hooks for lunch bags or jackets it’s truly the ultimate after school drop off center that helps keep the house organized.
{Related Post: Easy DIY Backpack Storage and Organization Using a Cube Organizer}
3. Prep healthy & easy breakfast options
Now don’t get me wrong, we love a good bowl of cereal or pop tart as we run out the door but sometimes the kids feel like they need something with a little more substance. I don’t blame them, the school days are long and they need that long lasting energy!
To streamline early school mornings but still provide healthy and homemade breakfasts, we love to meal prep at least one breakfast option.
Check out this post for tons of kid-friendly breakfast options that can be made ahead of time!
A true time saver in the morning that you can feel really good about.
2. Self serve breakfast station
The one thing I absolutely dread the most about back to school season is getting back to early, busy and hectic school mornings.. There’s no time for literally anything. The more tasks that we can delegate and trust our kids to do on their own, the better!
Do you have to be the one who pours them a bowl of cereal or warms up their pop tart, etc? Probably not!
Your kids are likely more than capable of doing this on their own with a few minor tweaks to help foster their independence. This is why I love the idea of setting up a self-serve breakfast station with everything your kiddos need right in reach and easily accessible!
Letting your kids be more independent with their routine is not only great for their self esteem but also takes a giant load off of you. Use your normal “breakfast making” time to do something for yourself instead 🙂
4. Organize a homework station
Create an area in the house that is solely dedicated to being a quiet space where your kiddo can sit down and focus on their homework.
This doesn’t need to be anything fancy but should include a way to limit noise and have a small stock pile of necessary school supplies like pencils, erasers, markers, etc.
Finally you won’t need to worry about clearing off a space at the kitchen counter or reminding your kids to put away all of their supplies that they left all over the place!
There are tons of different ways to create a homework station for your family no matter how much or how little space you have. Having this space will be a huge game changer not only for their academic success but it’ll also save your sanity!
5. Put Together a Homework Caddy or Cart
Another way to keep homework supplies neat and tidy? A homework caddy or cart!
This is great for families with multiple kids who need to do homework in different spaces at different times.
Create a homework caddy or cart that can be moved around to wherever it needs to be! All of their supplies will be within an arms reach at all times.
Homework Caddy/Cart Essentials:
- Pencils
- Pencil sharpener
- Colored pencils
- Tape
- Glue
- Markers/crayons
- Scratch paper
- Lined paper
- Good quality erasers
What you stock your homework caddy or cart with will obviously depend on the age of your kids but this is a good starter list of solid basics most kids will need regardless of age or grade.
6. Create a family command center
This is truly the ultimate back to school organization tip that anyone could ever give you.
If you’ve managed to survive this long without a family command center.. major props but I’m about to make your life infinitely easier and more organized!
You need to create a family command center this back to school season to keep everyone in the family looped in on school activities, events, days off, etc. This will also act as a central space where keys, wallet, paper mail and routine checklists should go.
I’m a firm believer in having a large family calendar in a central area where everyone (including kids) can see what’s going on. It’s a key part to a family command center and is truly the star of the show.
This is the acrylic calendar I personally own, use and love:
7. Meal prep quick dinners for busy school nights
Next, let’s talk week night dinners!
After school activities and programs are kicking back up and the best way to avoid the stress of deciding if you’re gonna skip something in order to cook or eat out (again) is to meal prep!
Freezer friendly meals you can prep ahead of time and pull out to heat up last minute will be a saving grace. Think of them as an upgraded and way better tasting T.V dinner!
You can also prep dump-and-go meals for the crock pot! These are great for this time of year as the weather is cooling down and coming home to a nice, warm, ready-to-eat meal is the best feeling ever.
8. Set up a storage system for kids school papers
If this isn’t your first rodeo of the back to school season, you already know how many papers get sent home on the daily. Between school work, art projects, announcements, permission slips, etc. it can become overwhelming to keep up with everything.
The best way to tackle this is by having an area where your kids know to drop off any and all of their school papers. Ours is on top of our backpack station but you could also put it in your family command center!
Treat this area like a second mailbox and go through daily. I have an entire school papers organization system I use to sort though what to save, what to throw away and what to keep out as reminders but for starters these two items will go a long way in keeping you organized..
1. Keep important, time sensitive reminders and papers pinned on a bulletin board so everyone can see them..
2. This accordion style file organizer is what I use to keep the school work that I want to save in until I have a chance to start putting together their school year memory book..
9. Create a school work memory book
Instead of storing school papers that you want to keep for good in a large storage bin up in the attic, create an adorable school work memory book!
We live in a rather small home and storage space is limited but of course I still wanted to be able to keep writing samples, art projects, report cards, etc. without taking up a bunch of space.
This is truly the perfect way to display all of your favorite pieces from your kids school year! It’s super cute and can even be interactive. I was sure to include drawings, report cards, photos, valentine cards and everything in it.
Things that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to keep due to space, I was able to include in this book.
You can see exactly how I put together my daughter’s kindergarten school work memory book here!
{Related Post: How to Make The Sweetest School Work Memory Book}
10. Plan out outfits for the week
Having my kids plan out and organize their outfits for the week ahead has been a serious game changer!
We use a five shelf hanging closet organizer to hold all of their planned outfits for the week and it works like a charm. Theres one section for each day of the school week!
I have my kids put everything they’re going to wear on those days into each section, under garments included. This saves so much time in the morning and we never have wardrobe emergencies anymore either! Total win-win!
? Tip: Have your child get into the routine of checking the weather for the week ahead and planning outfits accordingly. My daughter either uses the weather app on her iPad or asks Alexa.
11. Hair caddy
We’re a big fan of caddies around here if you already couldn’t tell lol
As parents, we’re always on the go so things that can be “on the go” with us are always extremely helpful!
I’ve come to realize that this is a bit controversial but.. we often do hair while eating breakfast. I know, I know.. but hey, that’s on multitasking!
Anyway, since we often do hair in the dinning room, having all of our hair supplies in the bathroom is totally inconvenient. Instead we have everything we could ever need for any hairstyle in a little caddy that can be moved wherever we move!
Hair Caddy Essentials
- Hairbush
- Rat tail comb
- Fine Mist Hair Spray bottle (works like magic)
- Black hair elastics (this container lasted us the entire school year)
- Colored hair elastics
- Hair tie cutters (A must have for easy small elastic removal without tears)
- Our Go-To Cute bows
- Bobby pins (comes in a helpful clear magnetic container)
See even more ways we make our busy school mornings less hectic here!
{Related Post: Tried and True School Morning Routine Hacks That Actually Work!}
12. Establish a clear school day routine
The key to staying organized is to have clear, but realistic, systems in place!
We’ve already covered how to have a system for school belongings, now let’s talk about schedule systems. Establishing clear routines where everyone knows what’s next and what’s expected of them will have you and your entire family running like a well oiled machine!
The best way to stay consistent with a routine is to have a way to hold yourself accountable. Visual reminders and checklists are an awesome way to do exactly that, especially for kids!
We have a completely free printable that you can snag below and customize to fit your kids specific routine. It’s fully editable in Canva (also free to use & totally user friendly) so you can tweak it exactly how you want it!
✨ PS. This printable comes with both versions shown above. It says “good morning” but you can edit one to say “good afternoon” instead and have one for their morning routine and the other for their after school routine.
13. Keep on-the-go school supplies in the car
This back to school organization hack is for the soccer moms out there!
Okay, so you don’t have to be a soccer mom to use this hack but any family that’s constantly on the go with after school activities will find this extremely useful.
Multitasking is truly the name of the game when it comes to surviving back to school season. While you’re busy driving to practice or waiting for the rest of the team to show up is the perfect time for your kiddo to sneak in some homework time!
Keep a bin in your car that’s large enough to hold some busy family essentials. Trust me, this will be a total life saver! Stock it full of item similar to the homework caddy but keep a bit more basic. You can also add some prepackaged snacks, pens for last minute parent signatures, etc.
Clipboard with storage
Car hooks for backpacks
Car organization bin
14. Envelope of cash for school things
Lastly, this is such a simple trick but worked like a charm for our family!
Like many people these days, we hardly ever keep cash on hand. Everything is either digital with tap to pay or accepts a debt card.. everything except school related things that is. They always want cash or check (I mean, who even uses checks anymore).
We found ourselves always rushing to the bank or a nearby ATM (hate atm charges) every time a field trip, a book fair, lunch, etc. came up and it was becoming such a pain in the butt.
If you’re anti-cash like us, I highly recommend just making a quick stop to the bank at the beginning of the school year and getting an envelope of cash (probably around $100 or so) for school related things only. Ask for a mix of ones, fives, and tens and keep it somewhere out of reach of little ones.
? TIP: To make sure this money was only being used for school related things we kept a running tab on the back of the envelope. We’d just quickly jot down how much we took out and what it was for!
This post was all about back to school organization tips and ideas!
These back to school organization hacks and tips will ensure that you have the smoothest start to a great school year!
