Back to school life organisation - share your tips, please

[LeopardPrintKnickers]

Every single August as the kids get ready to go back to school, I tell myself that THIS year, I'm going to be that super-organised mum who has PE kits ready the night before, fantastic and healthy packed lunches and never has to hunt for a clean school cardigan on the way out of the door. This usually lasts for a few days and then I'm back chasing my tail.

I'd love to know the secret of staying on top of everything. In my defence, I have three kids and I work more than full-time hours in a job that takes up a lot of headspace, but really, it's no excuse. While I'm incredibly busy, I'm also fundamentally lazy and I need to get into a proper routine so we're not running out of food, clean clothing or sending kids into school with the wrong books or bags.

So, in a bid to get organised, I'm thinking I'll start doing online grocery shopping on a Weds to be delivered on a Friday so I have food in the house. Get the kids involved in putting clothes away once they're washed and dried and only iron the things I HAVE to (rather than everything sitting in an ironing pile, ignored). I'm going to get the kids hooks for their rooms that I put PE kits and swimming kits on, and they grab on the right morning.

What else works for you?

Do you have enough school uniform, so that you can have five sets ready for the week, including pants and socks?

Do a wash load as soon as you have one, rather than leaving it all for the weekend. Hang everything up to minimise creasing and ironing.

Make a number of lists or put on the calendar, so that you don't have to think about meal planning, upcoming trips and activities etc any more than necessary.

Make sure the DCs know the school day routine, getting ready and out of the door and homework, dinner and after school activities in the evening. Good luck with that one!

Are you a single parent? If not, get their other parent to do half of all the things needed. And yes, routine is v good.

How old are your kids? Mine are 9&7 and now I have made being organised for school primarily their responsibility. I made a chart that shows what they need every day and they need to get it ready (eg library book, recorder) and they do this before they brush their teeth every night.

Our school solves the PE thing by getting the kids to wear PE kit all day on PE days which I think is genius and not sure why more schools don't do it.

Every letter / invitation that comes home from school: take a photo on your phone straight away, add to calendar.

Have a shared calendar with anyone else involved in looking after DC.

Big schedule on the fridge for who needs what each day, pick up times / clubs etc.

Drawer full of vaguely healthy snacks to grab if they need one / add to a packed lunch etc.

Definitely agree with buying enough uniform.

If your children are older than about 6, they should be capable of packing bags (put a list on the fridge/wherever is appropriate in your house about what they need to have in them), telling you that they don't have a clean cardigan (the night before or earlier, refuse to get into sorting things like this in the morning) and asking you to sign their reading record/important permission slip etc.

Plan out 5 packed lunches (or fewer depending on how much variety you want/how fussy your DC are). Buy ingredients for these every week. It will become second nature like buying milk.

Have a place where bags/coats/shoes etc live. If your DC leaves their bag somewhere else, then up to them to find it.

We have enough uniform for everyday but things get worn more than once whenever possible.

I keep a tub of packed lunch snacks/extras such as cereal bars, crisps, raisins, biscuits & juice cartons so that when they have sandwiches or crackers I can just put a couple of other bits in. That tub lives on top of the wall cupboards in the kitchen so no one takes things & I know what's still in there!

Swimming, football & dance bags are kept on hooks in the garage. They are re-packed as soon as the kit has been washed.

PE kit stays in school until half term.

Timetable of extra-curricular activies on the fridge.

Vague meal plan on the fridge.

Online shopping is good but I don't do this as I have time to shop & prefer bits & pieces from different shops.

I only iron essential things.

Dc are responsible for cleaning their own school shoes/football boots.

These are all great, thank you so much.

My youngest two are 7 and 8, so yes. I'll hand over a bit more responsibility to them to be ready the night before.

My husband is amazing and does a LOT, but I find while he's incredibly hands on, I still do all the thinking and planning.

Love the idea of a PE kit for all day, I may campaign for it at my kids' school!

Watching with interest, as I do the same every September!

My tip is more suited to secondary school when they need to supply their own pens etc., but I keep a supply of pens, pencils, rulers and so on because they get lost and broken so frequently and they get detention if they don't have all their supplies with them. I buy them in bulk on Amazon and just dole them out on request. Even at primary I keep some pencils and those handwriting pens available for when they have homework.

Also always have at least one spare tie where uniform demands. Nothing worse than turning the house upside down looking for a tie at 7am!

For me:

• hooks and shoe bench in the hallway. School backpack is emptied immediately when we get in and I deal with any letters straight away i.e trips added to iPhone calendar, consent forms filled in and money put straight back into the bag.

• Reading is done at the same time every night. After bath time, we read together in my bed - school book first and then I’ll read a chapter of whatever else we’re reading. I’ll fill in the homework diary and put it all back in his backpack before he goes to bed.

• School lunches except for days where he really doesn’t like any of the options, which will be a set day each week. I set an auto update on the school Squid account so it updates my account whenever the balance drops below £5.

• swimming kit is washed as soon as we get home and repacked that evening.

• Plenty of uniform (at least 5 of each) as he’ll generally leave a jumper or three at school at any time. Also have separate school underwear - plain white trunks and navy socks. Lots of this so we’re never hunting for socks in the morning.

• shoes off and in the shoe bench as soon as we get through the door. I’ve never had to find a shoe in the morning!

• several school coats for different weather i.e rain anorak, winter coat etc. Separate from his weekend coats which I keep ‘nice’. If he’s left a coat in school, there’s always a spare option.

• class WhatsApp group - despite all the above, generally letters don’t always make it home so it’s invaluable to have this for on the day reminders. Plus people share photos of all the events you can never make it to because of work!

I do the shopping delivery too, but found when food arrived on a Friday the stash was a bit low by mid week, I'd be out of bread by Tuesday -and sometimes the locusts managed to find and eat the treats over weekend, also weekend more likely to involve changed routines, so I moved delivery day to Sunday am, so I start the week off with full cupboards, and meal plan, I also do a lot of batch cooking for week ahead on Sunday, and if dinner is sorted then you may have more time in evenings to get set up for next day.

I think its a life skill for kids to be able to get themselves organised so agree with your suggestion they should be involved in getting clothes away, in my house they also are responsible for going to their room and bathroom and gathering dirty clothes from baskets and floor! and bringing to washing machine. They are also responsible for checking where school shoes and trainers are put.

They are also responsible for putting lunch boxes, water bottles etc for wash , supposedly when they get in from school, and this often goes awry they often forget to do this, so I also have lots of generic plastic containers ready to go in morning.

I agree with the as many uniforms as possible , my ds starts a new school so new uniform I got him a pack of three shirts and then picked up another 4 in a school second hand sale, so plan will be a fresh shirt (with one for emergencies ) ready to go folded with a pair of trousers, pants and socks on top ( also helps ensure the ds changes his). I just sit them in a pile on a shelf. So its only jumpers and ties that need keeping an eye on.

I trained kids to take of their jumper or cardie when they got home, before getting a snack. Means usually stays clean but if dirty went for wash then, as jumpers and cardies dried on rads . So it helps me to have some washed mid week.

Till now ds had a PE day , and wore the kit in that day so have to see what happens in new school, with dd I washed it at weekend with other items and dd packed it into bag ready to go on hook near front door as less likely to forget then. she also had some other stuff she had to bring for other days just put in a different coloured bag.

If you have 5 sets of uniform and a wide drawer make it a uniform drawer. Takes each days clothes including pants and socks and fold the legs of the trousers over them so you effectively have a little package of clothes for each day.
Follow the school on all its social media as there will often be posts about upcoming events.
Make one night a week shoe cleaning night and teach the kids to clean their own.

These are fabulous, thank you so much. I think five sets of uniform, including underwear, is ingenious and I'll do that. You are all extraordinarily organised and I'm in awe. Thank you for sharing

Check if school has an online calendar on their website. I was always needing to know dates of sports day etc so I could arrange time off work and in the last year of primary, I found they had an online calendar with all such events on - doh!

After swimming / football, kit gets dumped into untility room and once it's washed and dried goes right back into the bag with goggles or whatever else is needed. Bag stays in same place (in theory).

I go through the school dinner menu and decide what means kids will like and tie it in with what night is particularly busy. So their school always does a roast on Thursdays which is swim night so I know I can get away with giving them just a quick snack for tea as theybe had a good dinner in school.

Label everything. And recheck throughout the year.

Chart for the week with who does what when.

Agree with photographing notes and invitations.

your kids may be too old for this (and it's probably really obvious anyway) but someone told me this parenting tip which i found really helpful in general, which was to adjust your environment so they can do as much as possible for themselves. So- put everythign they need within their reach- eg cereal boxes/ bowls on a low shelf etc. Buy a cheap pitcher jug for the milk in the fridge so they can pour their own. Put stuff for school lunches in reach- so they can start to make their own. Put all swimming stuff/ PE kit etc in easy reach for them.

Also- clear out backpacks as soon as they come through the door- lunch stuff in dishwasher, forms to be filled out and signed and straight back in the bag, add dates straight to google calendar (and share with DH). Online shopping- we are abroad so not exactly sure how it works in the UK but we have most things on a repeat order thing so I can just click order again for all the basics (packed lunch stuff/ fridge staples etc) and only change the dinners.

Can't believe I'm giving anybody organisation tips though! I'm a total mess myself!

Great lists here

Mine is batch cooking at weekends
Use slow cooker for big quantities
Have meals ready to go within 20 mins for the evens when we all get in late

Veg box delivery and some online shopping saves me hours each week

Meal planning : a bit time consuming but worth it

Milk delivery

Bulk buy anything you can and store enough so you never running late out
All about saving time

I very rarely goto a supermarket

Make a poster for the wall with a picture of everything they need to do before school (ours has breakfast, drink of wAter, dressed, brushed hair, teeth brushed, lunchbox, shoes and socks, go). Then you can say “have you done everything on the chart?” Or “where are you up to on the chart?” instead of bagging them for each little step.

Mumsnet tip that’s served us well.

Nagging not bagging

I like the idea of the poster Kiwi - it would save me asking her every single time!