Back to school hustle

I know we say it every year, but wow summer just flew by! It seemed like it wasn't all that long ago that I was picking the girls up from their last day of school and taking them out for a day of fun. In less than a week, they return to the daily grind and I need to get our space ready!!!

By the end of the school year I noticed that left over supplies were being returned home. At first I was annoyed because the girls insisted that we keep them, but then the light bulb went off in my head and quickly I snatched them in a Lord of the Rings sort of fashion (my precious) and hid them.  When I did the kitchen command center re-do, I decided that would be the perfect place to keep the boxes of those supplies handy. Each girl had their own plastic box (to eliminate disputes) and inside would be the tools they would need to complete their homework during the next school year.  Even if your teacher wasn't able to provide the plastic box they required in the beginning of school, any box will do! Or I've seen them for as little as 97 cents at Walmart.

As many parents know, with the start of school also starts the influx in the amount of paper that comes into the house. I mean seriously, there's no wonder we're all concerned about not being able to replenish natural resources fast enough and I've only witnessed 4 school years!  One of the first things we do when we get home at night is I go through the bags and pull ALL of the paper out. I quickly sort out the important stuff that needs to be signed and returned, or information for upcoming events. I also pull out any homework and give it to the kids to do. While they're not looking busy, I go through their art work and returning homework keeping my favorite pieces and the others I put in recycling, immediately. Let's be honest here, if I kept every piece of paper my child touched, or drew on, I would be featured on the next episode of Hoarders. I like to keep something from the beginning, middle, and end of the school year so we can see the amount of growth. Of course I keep most art projects that have their hand print, I mean I want to be tidy, but I'm not heartless. Each child has a folder in my bin where I keep these items to be filed away in their school folders down the road. Once everything is cleaned out, the backpacks are ready to go for the next day and are placed back in our hall closet for the next day. (Picture coming soon.)

We made a rule in our house that we don't wear shoes inside. It's something that I grew up with and has just stuck with me ever since. We feel that it keeps our floors cleaner and besides I want to keep most things in a contained area.  So one of the bigger projects I tackled before school starts next week is our hall closet. I don't call it a coat closet because living in the south, we only wear coats for a limited amount of time. If anything this is more of a shoe closet for the family. After I pulled everything out, I had the girls go through their shoes and we donated, trashed, or handed them down. While everything was pulled out I vacuumed and got really motivated and painted the inside of the closet. (I've warned you of my easy distractibility.)

Top shelf holds the backpacks. 

The shoe cubbies and drawers were purchased from Target and have been one of the better systems that is still full functioning after nearly a year. I keep a basket on top of the cubbies that holds sunscreen and bug spray, a southern staple. In the drawers this is where I keep the girls socks. My goal in the mornings is to keep a flow going. Once the girls finish getting ready upstairs, they come down stairs for medicine and breakfast. The last thing they do is grab their shoes and go, we don't have time for them to run up to their rooms if they forget their socks. And they always do, problem solved.

We also found that night time was the best time to get everything ready for the next school day. Little ones, and big ones, are usually tired beings in the morning and the fights that would ensue over clothing choices were minimized when selected at night. If you want to take it to a whole new level, buy the large hanging shoe racks, there are usually 5 slots, and have them pick out clothes for the entire week.  BOOM! This is the first year that we don't have a school uniform, but I have organized their closet into two sections, one is school appropriate clothes and the other is not school appropriate or things I would prefer they not wear to school.

When school starts I also try to meal prep grab and go snacks and I like doing this on Sunday's.  I'll portion out various snacks in little baggies be it Cheeze Its, grapes, blueberries, or even cereal. It allows them to grab something while I'm sorting papers and they're doing homework without the question of "Can I have a snack", me stopping what I'm doing and getting easily distracted by something else.  It also eliminates mindless eating, something they'll hopefully thank me for down the road.  Having snacks readily available also makes it easier on me when I'm taking them to activities and I can grab them something to munch on before dinner. It takes time to do on Sunday, but saves so much more time during the rest of the week.

Granted I still feel new at this mother of school kids gig, I'm still learning different things as I go. Of course these are suggestions based on what works for our little family. I would love to hear things that have worked for you and yours!