IKEA would like to hear your tips for making the weekday school routine as stress-free as possible

[AbbiCMumsnet]

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Getting your kids out of the door for the morning school run is not for the faint hearted. It’s a task that hardly ever goes to plan, with the potential for things to go wrong always lurking around the corner. With this in mind, IKEA would love to know hear your advice on how you make the weekday school routine as stress-free as possible, and any hacks you might have to make your life easier.

Here’s what IKEA have to say:
“A key way to keeping morning madness to a minimum is involving everyone in the home. When your home is set up so that your little ones don’t need constant help, everyone’s a winner. Put dinnerware and food in places your children can easily reach so they can set the table while you focus on making breakfast. A light step stool can help in the kitchen and bathroom.
In the bedroom, our STUVA range is designed from the ground up ensuring interiors are all easily reachable by little hands, with most parts being adjustable, meaning the furniture can grow your child. But one of the best places to keep well organised is the hallway. A bench with hidden storage will work wonders, just pop their bags inside and add a coat rack at their height nearby to give them a one stop shop before leaving each morning.”

Have you established an efficient system to get your kids out of the door on time? How do you deal with unexpected obstacles that get in your path when trying to leave? Do you prepare meticulously the night before, or do you wing it in the morning and hope for the best - maybe the latter works best for you!

All who share their tips on avoiding the stress of the weekday school run will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win £300 in IKEA vouchers.
Thanks and good luck

MNHQ
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Lunches and water bottles are made up the night before. Bags packed the day before too to include homework/reading books etc.

Uniform is hung on a clothing tree in their bedrooms and school shoes have their own section in the shoe cupboard.

No TV in the mornings, but they can play as long as they are dressed, breakfasted and have brushed their teeth.

Next term I am planning to give DD1 5 kit bags, each with a full uniform. Then she can just pick one everyday, and we can wash and prep it all at the weekend.

Storage is a big part of it. Our DC are at secondary school but with special needs they need a little more help. Have enough uniform washed and put away by Sunday night to last the whole week. Shoes live on a rack in the hall and there is a little shelf for keys, locker cards etc.

Best of all get out to work early and DH (who takes no messing) sorts them out.

Probably the same as everyone else, night before organisation! Sandwiches in fridge, bags are on their hooks with locker keys next to them. Shoes next to that. They’re responsible for filling their water bottles in the morning. Any paperwork due back to school is left by the door they exit!

Our boys are now tall enough to reach the sink so in the mornings they can easily reach the little shelf where their toothbrushes and toothpaste are kept.

We also have a small washing basket in the bathroom so the boys can pop their dirty underwear/pyjamas in it before they grab their clean clothes for the day - saves me checking their room for crumpled clothes!

We have a hanging wardrobe sectional that lives on the back of the living room door in which the outfits for each child are put in every evening.
Shoes live in the wall mounted shoe box, still find myself asking “have you looked again?”.

All packed lunches are made the night before (it’s a good thing the ikea teaspoons are such a good price as they rarely come home from nursery and school!

There’s what I call a ‘homework’ cubby in the lounge where their workbooks are kept, easy for the boys to find and put in their bags for school. All school bags stay on the pegs in the hall so I’m not pulling my hair out at 8am! Same goes for after school activities bags.

We’ve got those plastic cereal storage boxes to hold the several types of cereal, the boys use those colourful plastic ikea cups to scoop out what they need. Stops them shouting for me when I’m having a quick shower!

I feel like I was more organised when they were in primary as I was more in control. Now, my part is getting all the uniforms ready for the week ahead on Sunday afternoon. I don’t want to deal with any of that during the working week! The rest I leave to the kids now - I don’t pack their bags or remind them when they have PE - that’s the school’s role now - and what a relief it is too!!!

We have a small whiteboard near the front door where each day's activities are listed. The top half of the board lists what each DC need to do - teeth, hair, collect lunchbox etc
We always have bags packed and ready the night before near front door. I also make my son's packed lunch the night before. Really pleased that when he starts secondary school in September that's a thing of the past.

I used to wonder how people get their children out the door every single day when you have toddlers who take their time! However I paid more attention to the way they do things and this can change from month to month or even day to day and this is where one can get frantic.
I'm not a mum who fully follows Montessori or other ways of living and learning. I'm very much child led and these concepts many a time do fall in. It is funny that IKEA has products which help.
For example, I'm more than happy to let my children take their own breakfast out. It's the mess that causes delay. We switched our kitchen cabinet organisation around so now the lower cabinet has the childrens cereal and they can also reach the bananas however I've seen many parents follow a IKEA hack to make a custom stool so they can't fall off, to reach higher spaces.
If the milk bottle is quite full, I will get a cup and pour the milk in there and they will then use that to pour into their cereal as they like doing things themselves (my children are on the younger side). If the bottle is almost finished, they get to be like adults and pour!
A tissue box or wipes are kept nearby incase of spillages but we use a tray to minimise the spread of cereal and milk!
There are days where they just want you to do everything. That is okay. Just roll with it.

Coats etc are all within reach. We have a storage box for hats, gloves, sunglasses etc due to space. IKEA sells colourful coat hangers which children love as it's for them. As you can see I do live in IKEA but it is quite close to my home.

Snacks etc are prepared the night before. We try to stay away from too many snacks in the summer (you know the lovely organic ones) and replace them with more fruit for the water content. They are quite happy with that.

Something my husband does is a competition. Who is going to win in getting ready? Some days it works. Other days it causes a meltdown. I prefer not to use this method at all (haha) as I can't deal with the extra delay on the meltdown days. Everyone wants to win! Whereas he will just scoop them up and take them. We have different methods but they work for our own selves.

We did have a bench with storage drawers which we loved but we sent it off to another home a year later as we just wanted the space to feel more open and airy hence replacing drawers with a storage box. It has a nice pattern so looks good.

There are only a very few amount of days where the youngest will get ready really quickly but to make it easier on him we do focus on him more as he needs the help. He will probably grow out of it like his older siblings but when you pay attention where it's due, the rest will fall in place.

Don’t allow changes to the routine without good reason or things inevitably get forgotten/missed out/left behind.

We have to be up and out early on weekdays.
I find that making sure we get up at the same time helps; if we are due a later start for whatever reason e.g half an hour later than usual, we still get up at 6.10 as otherwise it all goes to pot!

DD knows the routine which helps immensely, although sometimes she ‘forgets’ 🤔

Collaboration is key.. together we manage to get out on time....mostly!

I leave for work before everyone else is up, so I lay out uniforms and prepare breakfast. I leave everyone a little note whether it be 'have a good day' or something more specific. The kids love to get up and see what note I've left them and usually get DP to send me a little video. Screens are banned on a morning and when I am around we talk about the day ahead and get motivated!

Stick to a routine.
Bags packed the night before.
I wake them up ask what they want for breakfast and make it and any packed lunches while they get dressed.
They come down to eat it, then clean their teeth and brush their hair.
Shoes on and out the door.

The trick is to get bags ready the night before and double check if anything else is needed that day, like swimming or sports kit, mufti etc. You still get the occasional, 'Oh I have to bring in an Egyptian costume today. It's my assembly this morning,' as you're heading out the door but usually it works.

everything prepared the night before.

making sure the kids go to bed at a reasonable time so they are up bright and early the next day, much easier to prepare happy kids.

FWIW, we have IKEA valet stands in their rooms that uniform goes on for the week, with all clean shirts and spare trousers, so there's no scrabbling to find stuff. And IKEA shoe racks in the cupboard under the stairs so shoes are easy to find.

Have you established an efficient system to get your kids out of the door on time?

I would not say system as such - just a routine, getting up at the same time, lunchboxes made the night before and kept in the fridge, children's television on, breakfast at the table and out of the house for 8:40

How do you deal with unexpected obstacles that get in your path when trying to leave?

We get up in plenty of time for any obstacle to be dealt with (even when we realised DS2 had 'lost' his school shoes, I was able to call into the supermarket to buy a new pair `(he was due for a change anyway) It was a little stressful, but as I leave plenty of time we were able to get to school before registration.

Do you prepare meticulously the night before, or do you wing it in the morning and hope for the best - maybe the latter works best for you!

If I don't prepare - it goes through my mind at night - I need a military style operation to get all of us out of the door to get to work/school/nursery on time.

As a mum of 3 organisation and routine is key!
Everything is packed and prepped the night before ready to go in the morning.
We get up at the same time everyday and the kids know the routine themselves as we have followed it for so long ; it makes everything a lot easier!
I'm pretty certain without it we wouldn't make it out the door until lunchtime

We have low hanging (losjon!) hooks for the kids' bookbags, coats, hats etc so they can get their own while I'm sorting myself out. They have a trofast box each where their shoes are kept so there's no wasted time hunting through random pairs to find the ones they need. Clothes are laid out the night before.

I write DD's school lunch menu on a whiteboard in the kitchen each week so I can easily see which days she needs packed lunch. I also set an alarm on my phone for 8.20 so I know if we aren't already upstairs brushing teeth we need to get a wiggle on!

Organisation is the key for me, although sometimes we still end up being the last ones in the classroom! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think routine is key. Also encouraging independence in the DC relatively early. Clothes laid out first. Then breakfast cereals are laid out already so all they need to do is pop downstairs and get two jugs out of the fridge ; orange juice and milk. I'm usually down by this point but working nights makes things very tricky!

Your ikea whiteboard has revolutionised how we make our shopping list!

We have two boxes of things in the hallway. One for kids one for grown ups with keys, suncream, wallets etc in. Makes things much faster. Also our phones are supposed to go in here at night!

Preparation is key. The evening before dd has her clothes left ready on a chair in her room. In the winter it’s on the radiator so it’s warm to get into. Her bag is ready and filled. Her water bottle is left on the kitchen worktop to remind us to fill it fresh in the morning. Her bowl and spoon for cereal is out on the table ready for breakfast. Often I’ll do her hair whilst she eats! Coats and shoes always by the front door. Alarm clock obv is a must to wake up! All forms and paperwork for school done the evening before. School diary copied into home diary every term so I don’t forget own clothes/charity etc days requiring extra or different things to usual. Anything different to normal eg jeans for genes day, is set up on the Sunday ready for whatever day during the week so it’s planned and to hand in case we forget during the week.

This time I have a newborn to add to the mix and not sure how I’ll manage to leave home at 7:40 on time with the chances of him needing feeding/doing 2 explosive poos in a row etc!

Preparation the night before, everything’s got a place and admin is dealt with immediately.

Oh, just to add. If something is required to go to school in the morning different from usual (so we aren’t in the habit of it going every day eg swimming kit once a week) that isn’t possible to leave by the school bag ready for the morning then I always leave a note on top of the bag in big felt pen with what we need to remember so it doesn’t get forgotten. I do that with myself too to remember things! I guess the modern way would be to use a phone reminder or alarm but I’m old fashioned!

We also have a whiteboard up in the kitchen and at the start of the week I write things for dd or I to remember on each day

My family calendar is a necessity - I have all the homework deadlines, before and after school clubs - for early drop offs and late pick ups from school. We all look the night before, and we know what we are doing the next day.
My school has a thumbprint parentpay service for school meals - with alerts for low balances - so no packed lunches for me.
Finally I have 5 sets of school uniform (from the supermarket) so I don't have to wash every night.

We get everything ready the night before, with bags packed and shoes by the door. I also buy enough uniform so if it’s a busy week, I can just do all the washing at the weekend.

Bags packed the night before
Keeping things in their place (although this is aspirational rather than reality in our house)
Uniform laid out ready for morning.
And then of course my system of alarms set in the phone, breakfast and five minutes before departure the bell rings...saves me shouting at the children!