Hacks To Prep Your Home for Back-to-School

Someone should declare ‘Back-to-School’ a season.

After a summer of fun and frolic, everyone thinks of September as back down to business, whether it’s back to the gym or art class.

For families, ‘back-to-school’ is a really busy time. And making sure your home is physically well organized can make a difference.

Realtors love houses and we are always looking other homes, magazines and online for new tips and ideas that we can share with our clients.

Sometimes a minor improvement can make all the difference.

Our team of real estate agents, did some research and brainstorming on back-to-school and came up with these hacks – on getting your home ready for back-to-school.

We hope you find one or two useful.

Hack#1:

Go beyond the standard calendar – go for an entire wall

At the centre of every family is a calendar, where all the important and maybe not so important events and dates are noted.

Step back a moment, and think about expanding the family calendar to include a message board and enlarge it so that it covers an entire wall. Think of it, a message wall will not only help keep the family organized but provide a space for everyone to share what’s going on in their lives.

Consider dedicating an entire wall in a high traffic area. Cover it with magnetized panels, cork or peg board so that it can house not just the family calendar but important artwork, celebrations of homework awards, birthday invitations, school photos – and everything else that says this is a busy family.

This may also be the best place to create an individual file folder or shelf for each family member for the important papers, such as signed permission forms or lunch money.

Hack #2:

Create a physical space called the Homework Zone

As kids enter the higher academic years, providing a proper set-up in their bedroom makes sense. They need a dedicated quiet space away from the family din to study.

But in the early years, creating a Homework Zone, perhaps close to the kitchen, where kids gravitate anyway, allows you to supervise, pause for a question, practice for a spelling test, while getting on with family chores.

Stocking it with pens, pencils, magazine files, calculators, and loose paper will eliminate ‘search parties’ and help keep the kids focused. Adding pegboard to the walls will create extra storage for the not-so-often used things like paintbrushes, markers, glue and all the glitter stuff.

A homework zone will cut down on clutter in the house and make schoolwork easy to find – theoretically.

Hack #3:

Don’t have a mudroom? Build your own.

The glorious mudroom. If you can’t dedicate a separate room at the front or back of the house try carving some space in your home that can service as one. Even removing the doors from a closet will do the trick.

Provide individual spaces (cubbies if you will) for every family member. This is for knapsacks, jackets, sports and music equipment.

Adding bins, baskets, and lots of hooks will help keep things organized under the assumption that things will be put in their spot, if there is a place for it.

Hack #4:

Establish a dedicated lunch-packing station

Designate an area in your kitchen for all your lunch packing supplies. It can be a drawer, cabinet, or even a cart. Stock up on bags and containers, napkins, plastic silverware, condiment packets, wet wipes and maybe even a few pre-packaged snacks, including breakfast granola bars for those really busy mornings.

If you’re a family that uses containers consider assigning a different colour to each family member. It helps to keep things organized, accommodates for allergies or food preferences, and bonus for most parents, allows them to track who ate what for lunch.

And finally, give yourself some time to get into the swing of things. Organizing experts suggest that families need the entire month of September to ease into back to school – because after all – it’s not just school, it’s back to everything else as well, including regular mealtimes.

Strapped for ideas? Have you looked at Pinterest? It’s a wonderful social media platform full of great ideas and solutions or hacks that don’t require buckets of money.

Is your family going back-to-school? Are you looking for ideas on how to make your home structurally more organized?

Give me a call, I’m always very happy to help out.

Our team of real estate sales professionals is committed to finding you, your dream home. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell, the Karen Paul team is here to help with any questions.