I’m one of those ‘everything has its place’ people… but I’m also a mom to a 6-year-old boy. Our house isn’t SUPER organized like the ones you see pinned all over Pinterest (do people even live there??), but it also typically doesn’t get super messy. With the start of school, I thought it would be a good time to share my little tricks for keeping school work and backpacks from exploding all over my house.
First tip, check out Jack’s area in our front entrance way:
This is right when you walk in our front door and it’s pretty much been like this for the past 4 years or so. I just added the backpack hook recently though and it’s been working great! The umbrella hook holds Jack’s jackets and/or sweatshirts and all his shoes go into the basket. I also have a spare pair of socks in there in case we realize we need some right when we are walking out the door.
Jack knows that the moment he walks in the door, his shoes go in the basket and his backpack goes on the hook. Sure, sometimes the shoes end up next to the basket. However, this little system makes our lives SO MUCH easier to have it all right there, rather than doing the ‘WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?!’ dance while running around the house.
Second (and final) tip, the schoolwork station:
Every single day there is SOMETHING coming home from school. It may be artwork, homework, papers for me to review and sign, a calendar of upcoming crap, etc. I keep this little basket on our kitchen island and each evening when I empty Jack’s backpack I glance at each item and throw it into the basket. In the bottom of the basket, I have a few sharpened pencils, a glue-stick and some erasers.
Homework gets done each night and returned to the backpack. Everything else sits there until I have a few minutes to go through it all.
Conveniently the basket is located right on top of the trash can…
Like I said, I’m no Pinterest Queen but these little areas work for us. So now I want to know, what do you do to keep organized?
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing.
What good ideas! That really makes a difference, you can actually find things! I am going to try that shoe basket for my husband!
I have a dog toy basket, and a basket I keep under the coffee table, with things I might want to do while sitting on the couch. Such as my nails, small craft supplies, etc. I have a basket of unread books,too, which I clean out, regularly. I have a hanging bag that holds all of my small plastic bags in the kitchen. It hangs off of a hook on my island. These bags are for any small food, like a small onion, or a few pieces of cheese, whatever. This keeps me from having to look around for the plastic bags, which I forget to buy.
You are right, these areas really help. They keep me sane!
I love your ideas too!
I hang up the school calendar, lunch menu and newsletter on the inside of my kitchen cabinet doors so I know where they are, but also don’t have to look at their clutter all the time.
I started a shoe basket for my daughter a couple years ago and it works so well. My son has bigger feet than me to his won’t fit in a basket anymore so he just has them lined up in his room.
Shoe baskets really are the best! I also put the school calendar up — ours is on the side of the fridge so I can see it while washing my hands!