Back to School Declutter and Organization Plan Super Moms Need in 2024!

Hey friend! Can you believe summer is already coming to an end? Very soon the air will start to chill and the leaves will start to change and my favorite season will be upon us. But first, I have to survive back to school with three kids.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through decluttering and organizing your space to get you and your kids set up for success this back-to-school season. And I’ll share some of my favorite freebies to help you get there. From taming the piles of paper that come home daily to easy meal planning and prep ideas, we’re about to transform your home into a well-oiled back-to-school machine. Ready to say goodbye to morning madness and hello to stress-free school days? Let’s get organized together and make this the smoothest school year yet!

Handling All the Small Details of Back to School

Back to school means it’s time to clean out the kid’s bedrooms, sort through the last year’s school supplies and clothing, and go shopping. And for our family, it means it’s time to spend a serious amount of time syncing our family calendar with all the kid’s school calendars and activities. This year we have two in elementary and one in middle. Even though they are in the same school district, they have different start and end times, different breaks, and different first and last days of school.

On top of that, being a blended family, we share the kiddos with their mom and stepdad for half the week. So we really have to be on top of our calendars to ensure the kids have what they need and are where they need to be regardless of which home they are coming from that day! Luckily, my stepkid’s mom is a fellow lover of all things organization, so together we keep things on track!

A note: the title of this post says this plan is for moms, but it is for anyone in charge of getting the kids ready for back to school. That role might be filled by a dad, a grandparent, a grandparent, or as in my case, a stepmom.

A Little About My Experience as a Stepmom

I became a stepmom a little more than 4 years ago.  The kids were 4, 5, and 7 and were well on their way to being the busy kids they are today. Because I wasn’t around from the start, I came into a mothering role suddenly and there was a pretty big learning curve trying to keep up with everything that comes with kids. From finding meals they will eat, constant snacking, toys everywhere, jam-packed calendars between school events, birthday parties, and after-school activities. 

Between my husband and I, I am the one who loves schedules, structure, routine, planning, and organization. Also, I am a stay-at-home stepmom for now so it works for our family that I handle the lion’s share of tasks like back-to-school prep.

Going from being a single person, only responsible for myself, to learning to take care of a household and three children (not to mention 3 dogs) was challenging, to say the least! I often found myself feeling overwhelmed and behind on a lot of things.

To handle the overwhelm, I started systematizing as much as I could. I made cleaning charts for myself, a shared Google calendar for our blended family, chore charts for the kids, meal planners, calendars for kids, checklists for routines, and on and on.

You can get my simple weekly meal planner by signing up with an email on the sidebar of this or any post.

Getting the Hang of It

Now four years in I am finding my stride and refining those systems and I want to share them with other moms, stepmoms, and parents who might also find them useful. Also, I discovered Canva and love of graphic design, so they got a whole more aesthetically pleasing than my old charts on poster board.

A huge part of the reason I started this blog was to create a framework for my own life- a series of systems to help make life a little less stressful (and a little more beautiful). And I want to share it with the hope of helping others create more calm out of the chaos, and more comfort and beauty in their space. All so we can spend more time enjoying life with our tiny humans and families and pursuing hobbies and passions that set our souls on fire.

If you feel like you are continually overwhelmed and behind as a mom, stepmom, or parent of any kind, please know that you are doing your best and you are exactly the parent your child needs. Have faith in that. There is no perfect plan, things will always be in flux. The only constant is change. Especially when it comes to life with kids, everything changes constantly!

But you got this! With a little (okay more than a little) planning and preparation you can enter the school year feeling calm and ready to tackle it all. Spending a few hours over a few days now to create systems that help your family function smoothly for months, will be worth it in the end! Use this guide to crush back to school and beyond!

Put on Your Oxygen Mask First! Get Yourself Ready for Back to School Too!

Back to school means the end of slower summer days with fewer commitments and sleeping in. If I’m being honest, this is hard on me and the kids. I am not an early bird, nor am I a naturally routined person. I have to work very hard at both of those things to be up and ready with coffee made and anything done before my stepkids are up. So as I prepare for back to school, I am taking a little time to consider my own needs and priorities because I firmly believe that one cannot pour from an empty cup.

I fill my cup in the morning by having a little quiet time before the kids get up. My husband is a saint and wakes before me to let our dogs out and get coffee going. Which leaves me some time to stretch and wake up. After that, I grab my coffee and my planner and head outside. I start the day with 2-minute grounding meditation. There is nothing complicated or fancy about this- I stand in the grass with my hand on my heart and belly and breathe, taking in the sights, sounds, feel, and smell of the morning air. I usually do the Five Senses meditation.

This isn’t a concept I came up with, but it’s one I love. I made this little printable because I love to print, frame, and hang things like this around my home to serve as mindset reminders for myself and the kids. But I obviously need it to be cute if I am going to hang it up in our home, so I made my own.

Establish Your Routine First!

After quick meditation, I take a few minutes to drink my coffee, hang out with our dogs, and plan out the day. Ideally, I would love to get up early enough to get a workout and shower in before the kids wake up, but I am not quite ready to join the 5 am wake-up club. To be honest, I’m usually late for 7 am club, so planning to get up at 6 this year upcoming school year is going to be a challenge.

But I know that this routine sets me up to be my best self, so I can show up as the partner and stepmom I want to be, so I will make this a priority. After taking care of myself, I am better able to show up and start getting things ready before the kids wake up and in a better space to greet them when they wake up.

Parents are some of the most selfless creatures, I know, but I think we all know that when we don’t take care of ourselves, it becomes harder to care for our kids. It’s harder to be patient, empathetic, and attentive when you are drained. It’s more than okay, in fact, I’d argue that is imperative, to take care of yourself so that you can be the best parent you be!

Take care of yourself, for yourself and for your kids!

Creating Your Routine

Think about your life and what habits make you feel your best. How can you build a routine that supports you and your mental/ spiritual/ emotional health so that you can be the best version of yourself? Think about what time you can carve out to have that daily self-care practice. Maybe you can only find 10-15 minutes for now. That’s okay! Find something you can consistently do for yourself daily. You deserve it! And your kids deserve happy, grounded, emotionally-regulated parents! 

Okay after that very important aside, let’s get to the back-to-school preparation!

First, get your PDF copy of my Ultimate Back to School Checklist, and then read on!

The Great Purge: Decluttering for a Fresh Start for Back to School

Before you go out and buy anything new, it’s time to assess what you already have. Get some bins, bags, and boxes, and get ready to declutter. Get the kids involved with this process. It will help them see what they already have and teach them a little bit about responsible consumption. It’s also an opportunity to save a little money by not overbuying.

Sorting Through Last Year’s School Supplies

Have your child’s (or children’s) school supply list(s) handy and try to shop your home first. You might already have a lot of what they need on hand. Get a couple of bins or organizers and sort through all the school and art supplies.

Put the items to be used for back to school in a bin and mark those items off the list. For everything else, do a quick declutter: throw out broken pens, pencils, dried-up markers, and any trash. Organize the remaining supplies in cups, bins, or caddies for easy access to crafts and homework.

Donating or Recycling Outgrown Clothes and Shoes

Help your child go through their clothing to see what is too small, too ripped or stained, or just no longer wanted. Clothes that are really ripped or stained can’t usually be donated, but you can look into recycling them if you have a clothing recycle near you. Or you can try to reuse them at home. Old tee shirts and sweatshirts can be cut up to become cleaning rags. Soft cotton tees are great for washing mirrors and windows.

For clothes that are in good shape, but no longer fit or are just unwanted, donate them! If you can, please donate to a local kid’s charity where the clothing will be given free of charge to kids in need instead of giving them to a thrift store that will resell them.

To find a local charity in your area just do a quick Google search and make some calls. Most of them will be happy to take gently used clothing and you will be helping kids in your community get the clothing they need! 

Find a Family in Your Community to Give Unwanted Items to

You can also give away unwanted items in community groups in your area or online. Search Facebook for your local Buy Nothing* group and see if you can give the items to a family in need. Yes, this takes a little more effort than taking items to a thrift store. But that effort could go a long way to support someone in your community!

*Buy Nothing groups are online community-sharing resources. They are built on the foundations of reducing consumption and helping community members in need. In most of these groups, you can make a request for items you need, that people in your community might have and not need. And you can make a post of items you want to give away.

After sorting the obvious discards, have your kids try on items they are not sure about. Use the section for clothes needed under step two on the checklist to mark what your child needs and how many of each item they need. Fold and put away the clothes they are keeping. 

Decluttering & Cleaning Backpacks and Lunchboxes

Clean out backpacks and lunch bags. Evaluate their condition. Are they okay for another school year? Great, machine wash if possible or wash by hand. I like to soak ours in hot water and dish soap in the sink or bathtub, then scrub. Then place in the sun to dry. I tend to do this a few times a year because kids are hard on things.  

Are they worn down, broken, or severely stained? Might be time for new ones. Kids are hard on stuff and their tastes change. We tend to buy new stuff every two years. I try to encourage the kids to avoid anything too “of the moment” (i.e. we don’t do character backpacks) so it will last for a few years. 

Set Up Your Command Center: Your Home’s Back to School and Family Hub

We’re about to start our kitchen renovation and I will soon have a beautiful family organization cabinet like this one. But for now, I have to make do with hanging the calendar and chore charts on the kitchen wall.

Setting Up a Family Calendar System

This can be done digitally, on a paper calendar, or on a whiteboard calendar. Right now I am using a whiteboard because I want to be able to add things throughout the month. But I am in the market for a digital calendar option, especially one that can be synced between two homes! If you have a recommendation, please let me know in the comments of this post!

Print or look at your kid’s school calendar(s). Go through the calendar month by month, adding birthdays, holidays, trips, appointments, games, practices, parties, spirit days, half days, days off school, special parent events at school, etc. This will be tedious, but we are working on setting ourselves up for the school year.

Be sure to note big due dates for the kids on the calendar so they can begin to see their responsibilities and visualize how many days they have to complete them.

A little preparation now will mean less stress later!

Creating or Updating Chore Charts & Responsibility Reminders

Because our kids go to a Montessori-style elementary school, we call chores “jobs” as they do in the Montessori tradition. Our kids have daily jobs, broken down by morning, after school, night, and weekend. I use the chore charts I got off Etsy to track their efforts for their allowance and accountability. And I made these posters to remind them. 

Creating a Back to School System for Incoming and Outgoing Papers

My stepkids are always coming home with party invites, report cards, permission slips, notes, etc and those things often get misplaced or accidentally recycled. This year I will be creating a family inbox and outbox to manage all that paperwork. This could also be done by creating individual cubbies or folders for each child.

Find a system that works for your family. Find a time that works for you to go through the bins. Mark any important dates on the calendar. File anything important and empty at the end of the week.

I love these ideas below and I also need a system for mail and other document. I am ordering this wall-mounted paper organizer and will use this to manage all of the papers that come in and out of our home!

Wardrobe Wizardry: Simplifying School Clothes

My stepkids struggled with getting dressed for school when they were younger. Thankfully, we are (mostly) past the point of morning meltdowns. This is in part simply because they are older now, but I also credit the fact we have developed consistent routines. We have consistent routines for the morning, after school, and evening.

Setting up an Outfit Planning System

Planning outfits the night before can help cut down the time it takes to get dressed in the morning. Create a routine of laying out the next day’s outfit after bathtime or any time that works for your family.

You can also plan outfits for the week using an in-closet organizer. Create a Sunday routine that involves planning a week’s worth of outfits organized into cubbies labeled with the days of the week. In each cubby include bottoms, a top, socks, underwear, sweat sweatshirt if necessary, hair accessories, hats, etc.

Implementing a Labeling System for Younger Kids

Labeling drawers with both words and pictures of what’s inside can help little kids get dressed independently.

Back to School Meal Prep Magic: Streamlining Breakfast and Lunch

If you do one thing off this list, make it this one! Creating a system for managing meals can have a huge impact on your time and your grocery budget!

Taking a few minutes to assess what you have and making a list of what you need will prevent you from overbuying while grocery shopping. Which will save you money and reduce food waste, a huge issue in The States.

Create a routine for meal planning. Choose a day of the week to clean out your refrigerator, tidy your pantry, and take stock of what you have. Then start planning some meals for the week with things you need to use. Use a meal planner like my freebie to jot down your ideas and to make a grocery list for other items you need.

Creating a Meal Planning System for Family Meals

Every Sunday, I like to plan out meals for the upcoming week. If you are organized, you can do this for the whole month!

For me, this looks like sitting at the kitchen island using my meal planner to jot down ideas. After I have the meals for the week sorted out, I post them on our family calendar using these little meal magnets I made using my label maker and these whiteboard magnets.

I made magnets for about 50 of our most common meals. With three occasionally discerning little eaters to cook for, I tend to get in a bit of a rut in terms of making meals they will actually eat without relying on the same few meals. Creating these magnets helps me to quickly visualize broad ideas and arrange them through the week (or month) to create variety.

Create a system that works for your family and answers the age-old question of what’s for dinner?

Organizing the Pantry for Quick Breakfast Options

Again if you’ve a meal planned, you already know what you are making for breakfast. Make your life easier by keeping regular breakfast items somewhere easy to grab.

If your kids are independent enough to make their own breakfast, you can help by setting up easy options for them. You could create a cereal bar or you can keep bread, bagels, and other baked goods and spreads near the toaster.

Setting up a System for Easy Lunchbox Packing Before School

Again, since I’ve already planned out breakfast and lunches for the week, I don’t have to spend any mental energy deciding what to make. Which is great because I am barely human before 8 am.

To simplify things, this year each kid chose a color for their lunch accessories. This makes it easy for me to visually group all their stuff as I am getting lunches ready in the morning. I love these colorful and functional bento boxes so much. They’re really substantial and don’t feel cheap and breakable. They are big enough to pack enough food for bigger kids and they’re easy for the kids to use.

Plus, our kids got a little bored of the typical cold lunch options last year, so this year I wanted to get them bentos with thermos. These are perfect so far, but they do have a lot of little pieces, so we’ll see how long we can keep track of all of them!

I also found matching lunch bags and ice packs, because it will make it easier to keep things together as their lunch supplies travel back and forth between both homes of our blended family. We still need water bottles and are trying to move away from plastic. I am looking to get them these stainless steel water bottles in the same color as their lunch bags.

Also, because the organization by color per kid makes my brain so happy.

Prep after Shopping to Make Meal Time Faster

After grocery shopping, I like to wash and prep fruit and veggies for easier access throughout the week. Things like cutting up celery and carrot sticks and storing them in water. Or removing grapes from the vine. I also wash everything in water and white vinegar to kill spores and preserve the produce.

Find a system to make it easy for you to add something fresh to all of your kid’s meals.

For other snacks, have a bin in the panty with easy-to-grab items to add to their lunch.

Prepping and Freezing Meals for Busy Weeknights

The only way this works for me is by making a double batch of dinner for the night and freezing the other half for another night. But if you can plan and make meals ahead, go for it!

Morning Madness Busters: Streamlining Your A.M. Routine

A good morning routine requires a good evening routine the night before! Set yourself up for success by having things prepared the night before.

Implement a Night-Before Prep Checklist

For me that means having the kid’s bento boxes washed, making sure the kitchen is clean, and making sure the kids and my husband and I all get to bed on time.

Establishing a Smooth Morning Routine with Time Blocks

There are so many ways to do this. But basically, create a simple and easy-to-follow routine for your kids. If your kids are young, make it colorful and use pictures. Canva is a great free tool for this kind of job!

Create an ordered list of their morning tasks. For us, this looks like the following:

• Wake up at 6:45
• Get dressed
• Make your bed
• Eat breakfast @7 am
• Brush your teeth
• Brush your hair
• Pick up your room and bring down your water glass
• Put your water bottle and lunch bag in your backpack
• Get your shoes and socks on and be in the car by 7:30

Creating Grab-and-Go Accessories Stations

The accessories and stations your family needs might vary by age, interests, and season. I have bins for hair brushes and hair ties in the top drawer in the kid’s bathroom for my stepdaughters. In our mudroom, I have bins for winter accessories like hats, gloves, and scarves. And a bin for summer accessories like sunglasses, sun hats, rash guards, etc.

Consistently putting these items together in a place that is easy for kids to access will decrease the amount of time spent looking for hair ties or gloves while rushing out the door for school!

Setting Up a Bin for Out of Place Items

After our kids leave for school there are usually blankets, stuffies, and other toys randomly left around the living and dining room. They take care of a lot of things in the morning, but these little comfort items they bring down in the morning often get left behind. And I honestly find it really endearing as I know the days of them carting around blankets and stuffed animals will soon be coming to a close.

But we have dogs that will chew these cute things up! So, I start the day by gathering them up and placing them in their basket on the staircase. When they get home or the next time they clean their rooms, they’ll bring the basket up to be emptied.

This simple basket keeps me from stressing about the clutter and I don’t have to constantly bring things up to their rooms. This also keeps the stairs a lot neater and safer than my old system of just pilling their stuff on the stairs!

After-School Organization: Taming the Daily Influx

If you already created your family’s system for managing important papers, then all you have to do now is teach the kids to use the system. Establish a daily routine for them when they come home from school.

Implementing a Backpack Emptying Routine

When the kids get home, have them empty their backpacks and check for any important papers they need you to see and place them in the designated spot. Have them bring their lunches and water bottles to the kitchen.

Have them clean out their backpacks for trash and miscellaneous. If you have a little boy that “miscellaneous” might be mostly rocks.

So. Many. Rocks.

Have a Clear Routine or Set of Rules for Free Time

I personally think making little kids do homework is absurd! Not that I don’t believe parents shouldn’t be an integral part of their child’s education because I wholly believe that. I just think it’s wild that our kids spend 8 hours a day and five days a week at school and still have homework outside of that!

We only get a few hours together every evening which is often filled with activities, making dinner, bath, etc. I think that especially for little kids, daily homework unfairly takes away time at home that could have been spent doing other forms of learning like cooking, baking, reading, puzzles, playing outside, etc, and family time.

It can create a lot of tension in the home with tired kids and parents trying to get through a task neither really wants to do.

Because of this, we let the kids have an hour or so of free time to play outside with toys or just to hang out with us before starting homework.

Our only rule is no screen time until homework is done (and they have daily screen time limits).

Create a routine that works for your family.

Organizing Gear For After-School Activities

After-school activities often mean rushing home to get a snack and do homework and then heading back out. Set your family up by making creating a checklist of what the kids need for the activity. This way, the kids can pack their stuff and make sure they have what they need. Keep it together in a bag by the door you leave though.

Homework Haven: Crafting the Perfect Study Space

Create a space that is quiet and free of distractions and that is well stocked with anything they might need to get homework done. The space should be clutter-free and away from distracting tech.

Create a Quiet Reading Area

A cozy corner where kids can sit and read might encourage them to spend a little more time with their noses in a book instead of their eyes locked on a screen.

Organizing School Supplies for Easy Access

Organize anything they might need including pens, pencils, markers, erasers, scissors, and glue into bins or caddies. Organize different kinds of paper for their homework and crafting needs. Include blank paper, lined paper, and construction paper.

Setting up a Charging Station for Devices

Charge distracting tech like phones and tablets away from the homework station, but have chargers for laptops or devices they use for homework nearby.

The End! You Made It!

And there you have it- your ultimate guide to back-to-school decluttering and organization! I know it was a lot- it was a lot to write about! But by implementing these smart strategies, you’re not just tidying up; you’re setting the stage for a smoother, less stressful school year for the whole family. Remember, a little prep goes a long way in avoiding those hectic mornings.

By the end of this, you will have decluttered, cleaned, shopped, organized, and prepared. Your kids have all their clothes & school supplies ready and they have a concise morning routine. You have a system for breakfast & lunches, a way to organize papers, and chore charts, and you’ve marked all the big events on the family calendar.

And you will be ready to handle all things back to school! Let’s get started! Grab those labels, dust off that calendar, and let’s turn chaos into calm. Your organized, stress-free school year awaits – let’s make this the year you conquer the back-to-school madness like never before!

Warmly wishing you and your tiny humans a smooth back to school and beyond!

And if you have a little more energy- try tackling your car organization next! Read this post to make sure you are prepared for everything when on the go with kids!