The end of summer always brings a mix of excitement and nervous energy for families. Transitioning from flexible summer days back to structured school schedules can feel overwhelming, but setting clear routines early gives your children stability and confidence. Adaptability is important, but a simple plan makes all the difference.
Here are essential, practical back to school steps you can take right now to set your family up for a smooth, organized school year.
Jump to:
- Key Takeaways
- Stock Up on Daily Wellness and Hygiene Essentials
- Streamline backpacks and school supplies
- Step-by-Step Entryway Organization
- What to Keep in Your Organized Entryway Landing Zone
- Before and After: Foyer Organizing Kid's Backpacks and Activity Supplies
- Incredible Tips on Labeling Kids' School Supplies
- Create a family calendar
- Two Calendars Busy Moms Need for Optimal Productivity
- How To Improve Time Management with An Academic Planner
- Create a section for paper management
- How To Keep A Family Command Station Organized
- DIY Kitchen Paper Management System
- How to Make a Wall Mount Current Week Paper Sorter
- Know your Kid's Support Network.
- Create a quiet area of the home.
- How to Organize a School Supply Organizer For The Home
- Establish a consistent morning and evening routine.
- Winter Morning Routines To Stay Productive
- FAQs
Key Takeaways
- Prepare for Back to School by stocking up on wellness and hygiene essentials to keep kids healthy during school.
- Streamline backpacks (affiliate) by cutting unnecessary supplies and organizing essentials for easy access.
- Create a family calendar to ensure everyone knows their schedules and important events throughout the school year.
- Set up a quiet study area to help kids focus on homework and minimize distractions at home.
- Implement consistent morning and evening routines to support a smoother transition back to school.
Stock Up on Daily Wellness and Hygiene Essentials
Cold and flu season can easily overlap with the school calendar. We have had this happen often when our kids were in school. For some reason, October into November was when our kids got sick every single year. Even when they were in college.
Pack Travel Essentials: Keep a travel-sized hand sanitizer (affiliate) and a pack of tissues in every backpack (affiliate).
Refill Home basics: Keep your bathroom and entryway stocked with good-quality hand soap and disinfectant wipes for a quick clean when they come home from school. Also clean the outside of the lunchbox and water bottles.
Build a simple restock plan: Set a monthly reminder to check supplies and replace what's running low.
Reinforce healthy habits early: For younger kids, when they come home, have them wash their hands for a full 20 seconds and do a quick cleanup of anything that may have gotten dirty during the day.
These healthy habits will help them stay healthy through college.
Streamline backpacks and school supplies
The next tip is to go through their backpack (affiliate). Remove supplies and minimize what they are carrying. Removing what they don't need will make it easier to keep the backpack (affiliate) organized. Check out our backpack organization post for more ideas.
Go through school supplies and sort them for easy access. Check areas like the study desk and the dining room area (if they study there) to make sure everything is organized and easy to access as needed. Stick to basic supplies like the list below.
- Pencils
- Crayons
- Markers
- Highlighters (affiliate)
- Notebooks
- Sticky Notes (affiliate)
- Paper clips
- Stapler
- Tape
- Posterboard (as needed)
Create a bag station
Have a hook or cubby area near the entryway for backpacks (affiliate) and other school gear. I like to make this area my main foyer where we can go through the garage (affiliate). I have had clients use the garage (affiliate) since they park their cars in there as well. It's out of the way and reduces clutter in the main entryway. Check out my foyer organization posts below for more hacks.
Step-by-Step Entryway Organization
When you walk in the door, where does everything land? Coat on a chair. Bag on the counter. Shoes kicked off in a pile by the mat. Sound familiar?
What to Keep in Your Organized Entryway Landing Zone
Is your entryway a mess? When you enter your home, are there piles of things lined up near the door? This area is called the entryway landing zone or drop zone.
Before and After: Foyer Organizing Kid's Backpacks and Activity Supplies
Like most parents, my kids are in after-school activities and activities during the school day, so to make my foyer neater and my kids' stuff more organized, I wanted to create a space for them.
Incredible Tips on Labeling Kids' School Supplies
If you have been visiting my blog, you know I love labeling everything. It not only helps everyone else know where things go, but it also helps when anyone loses an item. Recently, I became an affiliate with Mabel's Labels, a fun site for labeling kids' school supplies.
Create a family calendar
Everyone in the family needs to know their schedule and other people's schedules, especially during the school year. Mom or dad may not be picking them up on certain days, so keeping these schedules visible is important.
Creating a family calendar and hanging it near the kids' desk or in a common area will make it hard for everyone to forget what is happening each day. Below are some of my posts about family calendars.
Two Calendars Busy Moms Need for Optimal Productivity
As working moms/dads reassess what didn't work and prepare for another school year, time management is at the top of their list. Reconfiguring personal planners and calendars will help them feel less overwhelmed and more organized.
How To Improve Time Management with An Academic Planner
Some students prefer a digital planner, and others prefer a paper planner. We discussed apps that would help college students stay organized. Today, we are discussing how to improve time management using an academic planner.
Create a section for paper management
While many things are online, some after-school activities and teacher paperwork may not be, especially important papers. Having an area near the kids desk or in a common area like the kitchen will help keep these papers from getting lost. Below are some DIY paper management ideas we used in our home.
How To Keep A Family Command Station Organized
Over the years, I organized many family command stations. Personally, I love organizing them because they're usually in the kitchen and can easily become a drop zone for many families.
DIY Kitchen Paper Management System
Organizing the family's kitchen papers can be a daunting task. These could include papers from your kids' activities and school, doctor's appointment paperwork, manuals, and your own bills.
How to Make a Wall Mount Current Week Paper Sorter
Papers in the kitchen can get unruly quickly, especially with a family of four with two school-age kids. So, each Sunday, I go through my accordion folder and pull papers that correspond to the upcoming week. Papers for doctors and papers that describe events or activities for that particular week are placed in order on the
Know your Kid's Support Network.
Your school may provide you with a list of educators, librarians, and counselors' emails and phone numbers to call when you need something. Keep this list handy for quick calls or emails. Post it in the study area to motivate you or your child to reach out. The easier it is to find this information, the more likely they are to do it.
Visit your school's support website and keep the website information handy. Making a bookmark in your phone's browser for easy access is helpful too.
| Name | Email Address | Phone number |
| Bill's Teacher: _________ | ||
| Jen's Teacher: ________ | ||
| Librarian: ___________ | ||
| Counselor: __________ | ||
| Principal: ___________ |
Create a quiet area of the home.
Some school districts are still having school during the winter months when the weather is not great. Having a place for the kids to study is a great idea. They can use it for homework and remote learning if needed. This area doesn't have to be large (affiliate); it just needs to be efficient. If you need help creating a space for a home office, check out our post: HOW TO ORGANIZE A FUNCTIONAL HOME WORKSPACE. It's primarily for a home office but can apply to a kids' study space too.
How to Organize a School Supply Organizer For The Home
Growing up, I constantly looked for school supplies around the house while doing homework. Pencils were never in one place, and scissors were never around when you needed them.
Keep the space organized and distraction-free. A tidy area will help them stay focused on tasks.
Having the essentials near their desk and chair (affiliate) helps, too. Make sure there is a charging station (affiliate) and easy-to-access supplies so they aren't moving around too much, which can distract them from what they need to do.
Keep the area clean after they finish each day. This means moving items that are no longer needed off the desk and into an area or accordion folder (affiliate) organized by subject for easy access later or at midterm.
Establish a consistent morning and evening routine.
School can be scary for kids for a little while until habits and routines are established. Easy-to-follow routines will make this transition period less stressful for them.
Start morning routines the night before. Gather up the items they need and place them in their backpacks (affiliate). Create the morning routine (affiliate) with your child and walk through it with them so they know what to do and in what order. This works great for younger kids since it is fairly new for them. For older kids, you can make a laminated checklist (affiliate) of tasks for each child so they can easily follow along and not forget anything.
Check out my morning routine post for more tips.
Evening routines are handy. This evening routine (affiliate) will incorporate some of the new morning routines and add tasks like taking a bath, figuring out what to wear, etc. It could also include a tidy-up fast method like the one I created. Visit my post about setting up evening routines for more ideas.
It may also be a good time to shift theirs and your bedtime a little earlier. Start this 1-2 weeks before school starts, shifting in 15-minute increments each day so you don't adjust too much at once.
Winter Morning Routines To Stay Productive
When the sun rises late, and temperatures drop, getting out from under warm blankets can feel like a marathon. I've worked with countless clients who struggle with winter productivity, and the secret isn't willpower-it's creating morning systems that work with the season, not against it.
FAQs
Start 1-2 weeks before the first day. Shift bedtimes earlier in 15-minute increments, restock hygiene and supply essentials, and walk through the new morning routine together so it feels familiar by day one.
Stock travel-sized hand sanitizer and tissues in every backpack, keep soap and disinfectant wipes handy at home, and build in a simple habit, 20 seconds of handwashing right after school, plus a monthly reminder to restock supplies before cold and flu season hits.
A visible family calendar is the easiest fix. Hang it somewhere everyone passes daily, near the kids' desk or in the kitchen, so pickups, activities, and appointments are never a surprise.
Keep it small, tidy, and distraction-free. Add a charging station and basic supplies within reach, then do a quick end-of-day reset: clear the desk and file papers by subject so it's ready to go again tomorrow.
By doing these tasks before back-to-school practical starts, you and your family will be prepared for the new year and will be able to adjust as needed without too much stress. I hope this post helps you take charge of your school year. Feel free to check out the posts below for more back-to-school hacks.
Lucy Kelly says
Thank you for the practical strategies given in an optimistic and positive way. This is a strange time but we can do it because we must. Tips like this point the way.
Ronni says
These are excellent suggestions and very timely.
This made me think of a really cute product I just saw online. A zippered case for caring masks to school. Some thing the younger girls would love.
This is a super tip. Thank you for sharing it!
in your browser, create a folder in the top bar called “School Support Resources” and bookmark all the support website URLs you and the children will need for assignments before school starts.
Sabrina Quairoli says
I love that idea! We used Ziplock plastic bags but that's a great idea.
Julie Stobbe says
Great post to help reassure families who are feeling concerned about the new school year. I think mimizing what you take is very important. Less to clean when children get home. It is also important to buy backpacks, pencil cases etc that can be easily wiped down with a disinfectant. Stay away from cases this year that have to be put in the wash machine.
Janet Schiesl says
I am so glad that I don't have kids going back to school. So much planning needed and who knows if it will be necessary or needed. I have a nephew who will be a freshman in college. He was told he could only bring 2 suitcases of things, in case they closed quickly. And then I have a niece who took a car down to school in case she needs to leave early. Then she'll put everything in her car and take it to a storage unit. I think they are both going to college with several dozen masks each. Everything seems so temporary.
Melanie says
Thanks for sharing and covering some important bases. Even if we can't control everything happening at least we can be prepared. This will be an important time to teach our kids to advocate for themselves and take charge of reaching out and asking for help when they need it. I love your suggestions for keeping a log of their support network accessible in a few different places to help encourage this!
Melissa Rogers says
I loved what you said about getting to know your child's support system! I think that is a very powerful tool in having a positive experience this school year.
Sheri Steed says
Great tips. Such a strange situation for students and teachers - and all of us, really. I particularly think it's important to talk to kids about the current situation and the changing nature of things and find out how they're feeling. What concerns do they have? A lot of people are focused on stocking up on supplies and not on preparing kids to be in a good head space to succeed in this tumultuous environment.
Seana Turner says
What a timely post! Heading off to college, especially for the first time, is a tense experience. I can only imagine the stress these kids are feeling as they anticipate frequent testing and tons of rules about who, where and when they can do things. I think keeping them distracted before they go is such a good idea. The anticipation can be harder than the actual doing (for so many things). I completely agree about Khan academy - excellent!
Janet Barclay says
I think flexibility is the key to just about everything these days. I would definitely not want to be a parent of school-aged children right now. They have very tough decisions to make, and none of them are ideal. I love that you've provided information to help them during this challenging time.