How The End of the School Year is the Best Time to Prepare for The Next Year

We did it! We made it to the end of the school year! Or almost made it for some of us, my girls still have one more week of school, but then 8th grade graduation, here we come! I don’t know about your family but we are READY for summer! This school year has been a lot and we are ready for those summer days, a little less routine and not [quite] so many responsibilities.

But before you pour that lemonade and dip your toes in the pool, hear me out! The end of the school year is the very best time to prepare for back to school. I know, I know, we just finished and now I want you to think about back to school but keep reading. I promise future you will thank you!

Back to school can be a really stressful time for families. There are so many moving pieces and details that it can be hard to stay organized but there are a few simple things you can do now to make your life so much easier come August. It might sound daunting but tackling one or a couple of these every day for the first week or so of summer will make a world of difference.

First things first, unpack the backpack! One more time for those in the back, unpack those backpacks now! I can’t tell you how many times our team goes into a family home over the summer only to find fully stuffed backpacks from the end of the year hanging in the mudroom (who knows what is in those lunchboxes!). I’m not saying that you have to stop the summer fun the moment you kids get home from the last day of school but sometime over the next week go ahead and dump that thing out. Sort through and toss any papers you don’t need any more, gather any supplies that can be used for next year, clean out the lunchbox (!!) and add any items you want to keep to your sentimental storage. Then go ahead and hang that backpack up so it is clean, empty and ready for fall.

Next, the summer is a great time to tackle sentimental storage for your kiddos. We all know that throughout the school year it can be so easy to toss each and every masterpiece that comes home into the keep bin but let’s be honest some of those paint smears are not worth creating clutter in your home. Use the summer to go through any piles that have been building over the year and save only those pieces that you truly want/need to keep long term.I like setting up a system with a temporary holding bin (something like this here) that you can keep handy in your kitchen or mudroom to add items to throughout the week.Then periodically (or in this case at the end of the school year) you can review and move items into your more long term storage for memories (I like these for storage in a garage or basement). Another fantastic option is Artkive that will digitize your kids’ artwork and help reduce clutter in your home.

Finally, let’s talk school supplies! There is nothing worse than heading to Target the night before school starts and seeing rows of empty shelves except for a few weird folders that no one needs. A little summer organization can help you avoid that dreaded night. As you are unpacking backpacks, organizing desks or clearing out a homework area, take note of what school supplies you have, what is broken, what is usable, what never got used at all and what likely needs to be replaced. I love setting up a station to organize supplies (a couple of these shoe boxes are great for sorting things like markers and crayons).

You can then make an inventory of what you have and what you will need for next year. I suggest starting a list so you can easily grab an item or two each time you are at the store or pop them in your Amazon cart – easy as that! This effort now will help you not only avoid scurrying around right before school starts but will also help you prevent overbuying next year.

I truly hope that everyone has an amazing summer – we all earned it after another crazy school year – but I also hope you can use these few tips to help set yourself up for success come fall!