The beginning of the school year is a great time to establish habits that can last all year long!  Establish a place to bring all items that come through your door.  All papers, coats, book bags, shopping bags, purses, etc. need to have a home.  These homes should be established close to where the item enters the house.  If a coat or book bag is currently suppose to be stored in a location far from the door, my guess is that it doesn’t get there too often.  Look for spaces behind the door to place hooks to store commonly used coats and purses.   Look for a corner where you can place book bags, purses, and briefcases onto shelves or into baskets.  Have in and out boxes for mail and paper that comes into the house.  You can create one in/out box set for each person or one in/out box set for the entire family.  Don’t be afraid to use the trashcan for “storage” when it is warranted! 

Organized for Homework Completion

• Children get homework starting in kindergarten.  This means that your child(ren) needs to have a place to complete their homework.  Here are some hints to help make homework time less stressful:
• Establish a place to complete homework.  This can be a desk in the child’s room, the kitchen table, or a table in another convenient location. 
• Ensure that the desk or table is the right height.  The child’s feet need to be able to touch the floor when they are sitting in the chair and the desk needs to be at the right height for the child’s arm to rest and move comfortably without straining the back or shoulder muscles.
• Necessary supplies should be organized and easily accessible.  Consider getting a rolling cart, storage box, or hobby box to house items such as scissors, glue, stapler, crayons, pencils, pens, markers, tape, calculator, and other items consistently used for homework.  It is best to differentiate these supplies from items used for arts and crafts during free time.
• Create a homework routine.  Some children might need a snack before working on homework.  Other children might need to complete homework and then have a snack.  Some children need to have limited free time before settling down to homework.  Your child’s personality and needs coupled with scheduled afternoon activities may dictate the routine.
• Establishing a few homework habits can make homework time easier and quicker which will make everyone feel successful!

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Organize Outdoor Toys

Make sure that all toys have a place to live.  Whether or not you store them in a garage, somewhere outside, or inside, here are some basic hints to help those toys organized:

• Consider the age  and height of the child(ren) and whether you would like them to access the toy independently or with assistance
• Do the items need to be enclosed in individual containers?  If so, consider rolling carts, clear plastic boxes with lids, and clear plastic drawers.
• Can the toys be in open containers?  If so, consider baskets or bins on shelving.
• Do certain items need to be housed together?  For example, do you want the baseball bats with the baseballs?
• Labels all containers (even if they are clear) with pictures or words.
• Do the articles need to be portable?  If so, are they transported a short distance or a long distance?  When choosing a container for portability, consider the final weight of the container.  That will determine whether or not the storage item requires wheels, one or two handles for carrying, or a way to transport on the child’s back.
• If you have a garage, can you attach the piece of sports equipment to the wall?
• Do any of the items require a security measure?
• Include the child(ren) in planning the storage for the toys or sports equipment, they are more likely to store it properly if the organization of the items makes sense to them. 
• Model putting items away.  Have a consequence if the child doesn’t store their toys.  For example, they lose the privilege of using that piece of equipment for a period of time. 

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Organize School Memories

Children create lots of keepsakes.  Everything from papers and artwork completed at school to projects from extracurricular activities.   Obtain a file box for each child.  Create hanging folders for each school grade.  During the course of a year, allow the child to select items they want to keep in the file that is in the box.  At the end of the school year, have each child select 5 items to keep.  Use the same procedure each year.  As the box gets full, review what is in the folders from the earlier grades.  Your child may decide that some of the previous pieces can be “retired”.  Most importantly, do not buy a second box!  When the child has large projects that can’t be contained in the box, use alternative methods of keeping the memory.  For example, take a picture and put the picture in the file.  At the end of high school, your child will have all their school memories organized in one file box!  Starting this simple habit is a great way to show your children the value of keeping only items that have true value and not accumulating lots of “stuff”.  

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Additional information for organizing children