It feels like we were just shopping for prom dresses and attending graduations and parties and now we are looking at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

If you are like most parents there is a sense of joy and dread for the start of the new school year.

Joy because you do not have to worry about child care, organizing your child’s free time, or them losing the knowledge they learned last year.

Dread because now the arguments over organization, homework, getting out of the bed, and nightly routines are about to begin.

It does not HAVE to be this way. In fact, every school year every parent has great plans to get organized but then your energy and the plan falls apart by the 2nd week.

In this post, I will give you 10 tips to get and stay organized for the school year. I will also share some of my absolute favorite finds that are low cost options to use to organize you and your kiddos.

Here's How to Get Organized

1) Now is the time to do your school shopping. School may not start for a couple of weeks but supplies are already in the stores. Get your class list and take a Saturday to shop for supplies,clothes and household items that you will need for the upcoming year. If you are not a fan of the crowds then my favorite spot to shop is Amazon! Actually Amazon is more of an addiction, but I love anything that makes my life easier. I will give you a few finds I adore.

2) When buying school supplies organize your child’s school subjects by colors. You can find folders, book covers, notebooks, and pens in the same color to help your child recognize and grab quickly their belongings for the next class.

For example

Yellow = English

Green = Math

Blue = History

Red = Science

Make it interesting and fun. Have them prioritize the colors from their most favorites to their

least favorite and assign the subjects the same from most to least favorite.

3) Now you have your color system going you need to have a way that your child can organize their homework and weekly projects. I suggest using a door hanging business organizer such as the 6 pocket organizer here. The weekly homework assignments, projects, papers, permission slips, lunch money, etc. go into the designated day, Monday through Friday, with a pocket left over for miscellaneous items such as extra paper, pens, and lunch money.

Have your child do their homework the weekend before or at the beginning of the week for the entire week and place it in the pockets ready to turn in on the correct day. This also will help you to glance into the pockets on the way out the door to see if they have grabbed everything and it’s all in one convenient place.

4) Does your child have a desk accessible to them so they can do their homework uninterrupted?

This needs to be organized as well to have supplies within easy reach to include paper,

paperclips, stapler, pens, pencils, pencil sharpener, glue, tape, calculator, rulers, index cards,

scissors, markers, erasers, reading lamp, and a hole puncher. These items can be stored in a rolling 5 drawer organizer that is placed beside the desk. This keeps items within reach but

keeps the desk cleared for homework.

5) Set a specific time and day before the start of the school week to organize for the upcoming week. For example, Sunday from 6pm -630pm can be the designated time to have your child pull out a week’s worth of outfits ready to go. You can use a wardrobe organizer to divide daily outfits. It’s a cool grab and go system that will save a lot of time and the inevitable whining “I don’t know what to wear” in the mornings.