With 8th grade winding down and a Farewell graduation ceremony on the calendar, it’s time to revisit a few quick and easy ‘end of the school year’ tips to help make our lives easier! I’ve shared these before, but a little reminder now is helpful so that you (aka me) don’t find a stinky PE shirt wadded up at the bottom of a backpack in a couple months…
Throw in a Load of Laundry
I don’t know why, but everything that comes home from school ends up with that funky, stinky school smell. And if you ignore it… it will just get worse and more potent!
Grab your kid’s backpack and their lunchbox, empty them completely (put it all on the kitchen table, we’ll get to that next) and throw them in the laundry washer. Then, hunt down and add in any PE clothes that might be residing in a nearby bag. Last, add in a few towels (this especially helps if your lunchbox has a plastic interior) and put everything through a normal washing load. Let the backpack and lunchbox air dry and they’re ready to go for next year!
Do a School Supplies Review, Purge and List
Remember that pile of stuff that you pulled out of your kid’s backpack. Now is the time to have your kid go through everything and separate it into trash and keep piles. Then, when they wander away, you go through it and re-separate it into trash and keep piles.
Each year I’m usually able to reclaim at least a few binders, some folders, scissors, pencil sharpeners, and an assortment of pens, pencils and markers. Those go into the ‘use next year’ pile that gets put away in the closet until August.
Then, the stuff that is okay but not trash, gets absorbed into the house stuff (like mostly used post it notes and notebooks that still have a little life left in them). Anything broken, empty or gross goes into the trashcan or recycle bin.
As you’re doing your sort, make a list of items that can’t be reused for school next year. Keep this list in your phone’s Notes. Over the summer as you are out and about and see things on sale, buy the things on your list that you need.
Happy End of School Year!