Keep Your Transition to Fall Schedules On Track-10 Pointers from a Creative Designer/Home Organizer

With the back to school shuffle and fall activity schedules in full swing, anyone’s sense of normality can be thrown into a tizzy. While creating morning routines and schedules are great ways to calm the chaos, they tend to be highly personalized to each family and household needs. But fret not! Here are some ideas and tips that can help everyone transition seamlessly.

1. Curate Your Entryway

Establishing a spot in your entryway for everything your kids need to get out the door is a great way to get organized and help keep down clutter at the end of the day. Ideally, create a place to hang backpacks, coats, and lunchboxes. If space allows, using a bench and designated area for shoes can help cut down on clutter and the time (and effort) it takes to get the kids out the door each morning.

2. Create a Shared School Calendar

We live in a digital age, many of us rely on our technology to schedule our weeks. Look over your school’s academic calendar and put notable dates in your phone’s calendar app. It often helps to create a new calendar and color-code it so you can see exactly what you need at a quick glance. Don’t forget to share the calendar with anyone else that helps you or your kids during the school year.

Bonus Tip: Schedule notifications for the Sunday before the dates of picture days, early dismissals, and no-school days to keep you prepared.

3. Inventory Clothing

Without a doubt, your kid(s) have outgrown some of their clothing this summer. They’ve likely stained and worn out a few items as well. Before going out to buy new items, sort through their closets and drawers to pull out what’s no longer useful. This will help make space for new items and let you take inventory of what they need.

4. Use Pantry Organizers in the Fridge

Plastic organizers are a massive help in the pantry, but you should also put them to use in the fridge. It’s a great way to organize the various items you’ll put in daily lunches - cheese sticks, yogurts, etc. This is also an easy way to separate these items to create a “don’t touch” area to help minimize those times when you try to pack a lunch and have magically run out of something.

5. After School Routine Clock

The time after school can be a vacuum where plans seem to vanish and order turns to a chaotic free-for-all. Look over your after-school activities and evaluate how your family best operates in the afternoons. 

Use a mechanical clock that you can take apart and replace the face. Once you have your clock apart, create a color coded face with each color representing a segmented time for a specific activity. If homework is something that is routinely assigned, make a segment of time just for that. If there’s no homework, keep the routine by making it a reading time. Other segments to consider are free time, dinner prep, prepping for the following day, and bedtime.

6. Homework Stations

If you can, it’s ideal to create a dedicated space for your kid(s) space to do homework to build habits and consistency. But, if your home does not have space for a permanent desk for your kid(s) to do their homework, consider making a modular solution that can be setup anywhere. Most of the time you’ll just need the basics like a flat surface for writing and a container for utensils. Gather the supplies your child will commonly need, then organize those things in something like a desk organizer. Keeping everything in containers will help your family setup the work station with ease or maintain an organized space. 

7. Meal Prep to Save Time

Use the weekend to your advantage and meal prep on Sundays. Having everything (or mostly everything) ready will make the evenings a breeze. Additionally, having most of the meals prepped can make asking for help and adding dinner prep to a chore chart a lot less daunting for your family. You can apply this for school lunches as well.

8. Create a Supply Stash

What should you do with all the extra supplies that don’t need to go to school? Don’t put them in your kids’ craft area. You’ll likely need these supplies at some point in the school year and having them on-hand will save unplanned trips to the store for the random glue stick. Use an organization system that separates the supplies by type or by child and store them in a place that is out of the way.

9. Organize Lunch Boxes

Have you ever made your child’s lunch only to realize the lid for a very specific container has gone missing? Create an organization system that is specifically designed for lunch boxes and containers. Yes, it’s taking away some of your pantry or cabinet space, but having everything separated (that is, not with all the other reusable containers) will make those “off” mornings noticeably easier.

10. Schedule Family Time

The best way to stay on track with everything a busy family has going on is to stay in touch with each other. Prioritize making time to spend together whether it's daily at dinner or breakfast or weekly playing a board game or going on a walk.