If you have school-age kids, you know that once school starts, everything gets a lot more chaotic at home. With all those backpacks, school projects, sports, homework, and more, it can often be overwhelming. The good news? With a little bit of preparation, planning, and simple habits, you can keep your house organized during the school year with ease. The tips, advice, and hacks below, brought to you by NSA Storage, will prove it! Read on to make this school year the best, most organized year ever!

First, Do a Deep Declutter 

It’s difficult to keep your house organized when there’s clutter everywhere, something that can easily happen over the summer. If yours is a cluttered mess, declutter first before using any of the tips and hacks below. Here are a few examples:

• Go through every child’s clothes and donate anything that no longer fits (or they don’t want).
• If something hasn’t been used in the last 6 months or longer, donate, sell, or toss it.
• Broken items that have no value should be tossed.
• Valuable items that are no longer needed or wanted can be sold on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. Baby furniture, bicycles, sports equipment, fine clothes, etc.
• Toss any expired food and snacks.

Create an Organization System for the Family

Before the school year starts, it’s best to create an organization system for you and your family to use. It can be as simple or complex as you like, and will help make everyone’s daily routine less stressful. Below are a few tips to create yours:

• Use a Calendar– This can be a wall calendar or a calendar app everyone can use on their phone. Whatever you choose, a calendar can help keep track of everything, from events and activities to sports, exams, dances, etc.
• Create and Stay on a Schedule– Schedules can be very helpful for you and your kids. Bedtime, for example, or wake-up time, breakfast, dinner, homework, phone or TV time, etc. Once you make it, stick to your schedule and make sure your kids do, too.
• Assign Everyone their Specific Responsibilities– Assigning specific responsibilities is a powerful way to stay organized and create good routines for your kids. The tasks should be age-appropriate so that even smaller kids can get involved. These can include things like preparing snacks, doing dishes (or loading the dishwasher), filling water bottles, checking homework, etc. Speaking of routines…

Set Up a Weekly Cleaning Routine

One great way to combat the inevitable mess school creates is to create a weekly cleaning routine. Here’s how:

• Pick one Day a Week to Clean and Organize Everything– Choose the best day of the week to fit your family’s schedule. Saturday morning (to get it over with) and Sunday evening (to start the week) are two of the best times.
• Assign Tasks to Every Child– Let the kids know what they need to do so that there are no arguments. Be as specific as possible.
• Declutter Common Usage Areas of Your Home– The entire family should be involved in this, especially the mud-room, kitchen, and entrance.
• Go Through All School Papers– All the kids at once or one at a time, go through to keep, file, or toss their school papers.
• Restock School Supplies– From pencils to potato chips, restock anything the kids need to get through the school day.

If you create a cleaning routine and stick with it, you’ll find it’s easy to keep your house organized. Plus, everyone will be less stressed and better prepared for the week ahead.

Keep School and Other Essentials In a Central Spot

You can waste lots of time in the morning searching for misplaced items. To avoid this and get the kids out the door on-time, use a central spot to store them all. For example:

• School supplies like paper, pencils, markers, etc.
• Snacks and drinks
• School shoes, sneakers, and socks
• Bathroom items like brushes, toothpaste, deodorant, and soap
• Winter clothes like hats, gloves, and galoshes

Label, Label, Label

Labeling can be a godsend if you have more than one child. When something is labeled there’s no way that one child can say it’s theirs when it’s not. This can cut way down on arguments and fights that create chaos on school mornings. Here are a few labeling tips to use:

• Label everything. Books, lunchboxes, water bottles, 3-ring binders, backpacks, you name it.
• Use indelible, permanent markers where possible.
• If you use actual labels, make sure they’re waterproof.
• With several kids, color-coding might work well.

Not only will labeling reduce family friction, it will prevent another student from claiming something is theirs when it’s not.

Weed Through Everything That Comes Into Your Home

A lot of things come into your home during the school year, from permissions slips to flyers, forms, and even food. Before they get spread around your house, get rid of anything that’s not needed, wanted, or used. For example:

• School papers that aren’t needed for grades, permission, or something important.
• Junk mail.
• Arts and crafts that your child doesn’t want or need.
• Food like candy, cake, gum, etc., from school parties.

In the end, anything not essential for your child to thrive in school should get tossed in the garbage.

Set Up a Drop Zone

We’ve talked about drop zones before. It’s a spot, usually near the main family entrance, where backpacks, shoes, jackets, etc., can be “dropped” when the kids get home. For example:

• Hang hooks for backpacks at different heights for different kids.
• Have a bin for shoes and boots.
• Put up some shelves for lunchboxes, gloves, hats, sports gear, etc.

Use NSA Storage to Stay Organized

As we promised, we think you’ll agree that there is a way to keep your house organized during the school year. From drop zones and labels to time-saving routines, today’s tips can make the difference between optimum organization and mind-blowing mess.

If you find you still need more storage space, reserving a storage unit online from NSA Storage can definitely help! Clean, safe, and highly secure, a storage unit can be used to store almost anything. 

If you’re short on storage space at home, storage units can be a blessing. Reserve yours today and, no matter what you decide, have a fantastic school year!