- Nazanine Eslamdoust
Don't know how to organize your kid(s) school supplies?
Wondering how you’re going to organize your kid’s school supplies, you’re in the right place!
Can you believe the summer break is almost over?!
Maybe you can because you’re counting down the days until your kids are back in school.
Or maybe you’re looking at the calendar with a bit of anxiety given the length of your to-do-list before school starts.
One of the items on that list might be “getting school supplies”. I can't really help with the getting part. But as a professional home organizer, you bet I CAN help you, if you're wondering how you’re going to organize your kid’s school supplies.
So here we go!
First, gather all school supplies in one place.
Yes, before you organize, you should declutter. And to declutter, you need to start by gathering everything. And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING.
So, go through your home and gather everything that can be classified as school supply. Old and new.
Once, you have everything, it's time to subcategorize all the items. Build the subcategories that make sense for you. To help: think “Like goes with like”.
Then declutter one subcategory at a time: it's time to make decisions on what school items to keep and what to let go.
You can categorize everything you're letting go into donation, recycling and trash. I use trash bags, I recommend you do too.
Now, we want to organize everything.
Organizing everything means creating a home for everything.
A home here is some contained space (or a hook) in your house, where each category lives and always go back into. Aka, the secret to keeping your home tidied in the long term.
There are many many many...many MANY different ways to organize school supplies.
Important is however that you choose a system that you and specially your kid(s) can maintain. So, no, it doesn't have to look pinterest-perfect. If it's going to look beautiful for 1.5 seconds, but then never ever again, that's not the right solution. It has to be functional for YOU.
To help, here are 2 of my favorite ideas for organizing school supplies at home.
1- Keep the supplies with a rolling cart
That's just my favorite idea, specially if your kid(s) tend to do their schoolwork everywhere in the place because they can roll the cart around.
Within the cart, you can separate the different categories with bins and cups. One of the shelves can be used for papers/folders.
I recommend the one from IKEA.
2- Use shoes boxes to separate the supplies
Use clear containers and label them. I recommend these.
Clear containers are great for kids, since they can see everything that’s inside, which means they are going to ask less where x or y is. Also, it helps when they're learning to tidy at the end of the day.
When in doubt, store it vertically.
One more thing - Always remember: When in doubt, store it vertically! It will almost always do the trick to make it work and gain space.
Now, it's your turn!
Too much on your plate, to take care of this yourself, I'd be happy to help. Just hit reply with the word “School” and I'll be in touch.
I truly hope you enjoyed this article, and I am here if you have any questions!
Until next time,
Nazanine
If you’ve found this post helpful, and you’d like insights and help on tidying and organizing your home, I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter below.
When you do, you'll get a copy of my decluttering checklist as a welcome gift. It's a printable checklist of all the categories and sub-categories, which will help you deal with the emotional overwhelm you feel when you want to start.
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