It’s Back to School time in America right now! Everywhere you turn, you’re reminded that school has started for some and is just about to start for millions of others. Back to School time is my New Year, gone are the days of celebrating January 1st as my New Year… it’s now August 27th (at least it is this year).

Back to School is a time to get yourself, your kids, your home and your family completed organized and ready to take on the New Year. There’s lots of changes once the school year starts – homework, new activities, sports practice, daycare and the day being filled from beginning to end.

I’ve already begun prepping my house and my family for Back to School time because I truly need the next few weeks to get everything set and in motion for the New Year. One of the biggest things that needs to be done in my own house is ORGANIZATION. Everything needs to be organized – bedrooms, playroom, my office, closets, toys and clothing. Honestly, there’s nothing in my life right now that couldn’t use a little organizing pixie dust.

Here are some Back to School Organizing Tips (from a mom of 5):

1. Take brown boxes and literally go from room to room in your house and start purging for donation.
– Clothing that doesn’t fit
– Books that have been read
– Toys that haven’t been touched in months
– Towels that you don’t use
– Shoes that aren’t being worn
– Pots/pans that are ready to be replaced
– Furniture that is taking up too much space
– Video games that aren’t being used
– Baby items that are outgrown

2. Buy a Wall Calendar
As a digital mom, I know I should be saying set-up a shared google calendar or something very techy, but the truth is, a Wall Calendar is the best option to go with because it can be placed in the HUB of your home. We have one hanging right in our kitchen and every month I update it with appointments, schedules and homework due dates. Each boy has their own designated color on the calendar (as well as me and Matt), and it’s worked very well for us throughout the year.

3. Replace Crayons, Markers, Colored Pencils, Pens and Pencils.
If your house is anything like my house, after the school year there are 1/2 crayons, dead-ink markers, pens missing caps and 1/2 chewed up pencils everywhere. I recently just went to Target and bought 10 packs of crayons (they are 50 cents right now!), new pens, new pencils, new markers, new colored pencils, new everything and replaced the old with the new! I just knew it was time to get all new supplies for the house, too. I can’t tell you how good it felt to have everything replaced. It’s an easy thing to do, but a necessary thing to do.

4. Clean cupboards and fridge.
This is something that is good to do before Back to School time because it will give you a really good inventory as to what you have and what you need. My sons bring their lunches to school every day, so I constantly need to make sure I have snacks and lunch foods in the house at all times. They hate hot lunch, so we always need to be prepped with healthy and delicious food for them. When there’s a solid plan in place for food and you can easily see everything you have in your cabinets, it’s a very good feeling.

5. Hang those hooks.
One of the best things we did was hang hooks for each boy. As soon as they get home from school they hang backpacks and lunchpacks on the designated hooks for the each boy. It makes life SO MUCH EASIER to have everything in one spot when the boys come home from school… and not only that, there’s no running around in the morning going, “Where’s my backpack? Where’s my stuff?”