Can you believe we’re already a few weeks into the school year? September is flying by and fall is in the air.
Getting Back to the Routine
After a summer with a more relaxed schedule, making the transition to a schedule can be tricky. Sticking to a schedule and being on time is one thing, but keeping the rest of your life running smoothly in the background is another entirely.
Gratefully, our community is well-versed in the challenges that parents face with these types of transitions. So, we crowd-sourced some of their most helpful ideas—their “Back to School Hacks”—to help keep life simple amidst the busy-ness a new school year can bring.
We have separated this list into five separate areas where you can simplify your routines: the morning rush, clothes, food and packing lunches, keeping tidy, and other ways to keep overall stress levels down.
5 Areas to Simplify Your Routine
1. The Morning Rush
Getting kiddos out the door in the morning can be one of the busiest parts of the day! Even in stressful moments, remember to hold your calm as a parent. Mornings can set the mood for the rest of the day, and we want our children to leave our home feeling capable and happy.
Here are some ways to prevent morning mania:
- Find other parents to carpool with
- Bathe kids at night and dress them to sleep in clean clothes for the next day
- Ease back into a normal sleep routine before school actually starts, not the night before (this can be applied to both summer and long breaks within the school year)
- Get things ready the night before
- Set an alarm for 5 minutes before you need to leave with the song “The Final Countdown”
- Leave clothes out the night before
- Wake up before your kids
- Keep socks and shoes by the door you leave from
- Have a drawer in the kitchen with hair supplies and toothbrushes/toothpaste
2. Clothes
Have outfit choices ever slowed you down in the morning? We’ve all been there! If kiddos have too many clothing options, they can feel overwhelmed by choices as well. Throw a parent’s opinion into the mix, and it’s a recipe for friction.
Here are some ideas to simplify choosing, caring for, and folding clothing in your home:
- Let kids dress themselves
- Have kids lay out their outfits the night before
- Use a capsule/small wardrobe both for you and your kids
- Use Tide Pods and a stool for teaching kids to do their own laundry starting at age 5
- Form laundry loads according to person, not color of clothing (unless something has never been washed before!)
- Have a laundry folding party with the whole family to make it fun!
- Don’t fold clothes – lay them in a flat stack and put them in the drawers
3. Food and Packing Lunches
If you feel like the pressure to pack lunches is never-ending, you’re not alone! Check out my post on Teach Your Child to Pack a Balanced Lunch (50+ Lunch Ideas for Kids) to help them become more independent when it comes to their food choices.
Along with lunch prep, here are some more ideas to simplify food prep and purchasing:
- Bulk bake breakfast for the week or month for fast breakfasts
- Prep dinner in the morning or afternoon instead of waiting until dinnertime
- Get a Beehive meals or some other type of meal subscription
- Double a recipe and freeze half for later
- Get favorite snacks auto-shipped from Thrive Market
- Cook a ton of chicken in the crockpot, shred it, then freeze it for later
- Make pb+j sandwiches in bulk and freeze – then kids can easily pull them out when packing their own lunches
- Keep all the lunch packing items together
- Use leftover dinners for lunch
- Have kiddos make their lunches the night before
4. Keeping Tidy
Even if kids are gone for a longer portion of the day, chances are that several areas in the house might look like an explosion went off once they get home. Here are some ways to keep these high-traffic areas under control, since more mess = more stress.
(*If you’d like to learn more about how the house can be cared for without much nagging or yelling, check out my post on Our Family Economy System.)
- Teach your kids the after school put away routine + practice it with them before
school starts - Keep rags and spray bottle at their level so they can clean up their own messes
- De-clutter your children’s toys so there are less non-essential items to be cleaned up in the first place.
- Assign 1-2 deep cleaning tasks a day instead of cleaning the whole house at once
- Do zone cleaning right before dinner or bed – breaks up the task of tidying!
- Use a Dyson stick vacuum
- Set a 20-minute cleaning timer, everyone works together and then we move on
- Get a disco ball for specific cleaning times like after dinner clean-up
- Have a folder for each child to put their special papers from school in
- Don’t stress about the mess! Remember that messes are a sign your family members are living their lives.
5. Being intentional.
These are miscellaneous suggestions that don’t fall into just one category, but are designed to help with keeping overall stress levels down.
- Don’t leave something for tomorrow that can be completed in 10 minutes or less
- Do all shopping including groceries on your phone
- Have a weekly family calendar meeting to plan meals, play dates, appointments, etc.
- Tidy up the breakfast area the night before—starting the day without clutter will help!
- Don’t overschedule your kids
- Be playful
Back to School Hacks Printable
The Back to School Hacks printable is a condensed version of all the ideas our community shared on Instagram. Download it and decide which ideas will help you simplify your routines around the house now that kids are in school!
If you want more help with transitioning into the school year, you’ll love these resources: