Back to School Organizing Tips for a Low Stress School Year

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Last Updated on November 15, 2019 by Diane Hoffmaster

My teens go back to school in 2 weeks and I am definitely NOT ready. I have no school supplies purchased yet and exactly ONE pair of school approved shorts for my daughter. I am determined to be more on top of things this year and have started to look for more back to school organizing tips to keep me on track. You think it's tough keeping young kids organized? Try doing it with teenagers! Between school, work, sports, extra online classes, driver's ed, and SAT classes, we are stretched pretty thin this year. I thought I would share a few of these back to school organizing tips from ModularClosets.com to help you get a handle on the new school year.

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Table of Contents

Easy Back to School Organizing Tips

They say a messy desk is a sign of a messy mind. Being disorganized is the first step to developing bad study habits. Modular Closet’s home organization expert, Marty Basher, provides these awesome tips to help anyone rescue their organizational needs in a flash!

Learn to Tackle Clutter

If you don’t need that textbook from two years ago, get rid of it. Either store it away, sell it or give it to the thrift store! Old notebooks and papers could be useful, but they need to be filed and stored in storage boxes. Avoiding too much ‘stuff’ in your study area ensures less distraction and more study action! Of course, with teens, I try to encourage them to declutter their own stuff. If I could get my kids to listen, that would solve a lot of my problems!

Everything needs a home

Don’t create piles. Make sure every item you bring to your study space has a ‘home’. It doesn’t take long for piles to get unruly. When that happens, finding what you need, when you need it, ends up taking longer and longer. That’s a distraction that nobody needs! My kids have always done their homework in the kitchen so kitchen organizing is a big thing for me. There have been a few incidences of paperwork getting lost on counters because they got stuck under a pile of bills.

Invest in an Organizer

Use an organizer to keep track of your time and assignments. Last minute cramming or writing never generates the best results. If you don’t have all your work organized on paper (or electronically), it will be impossible to stay on top of what is due and when.

Try a Colored File Folder

It’s easier to keep all your papers and notes organized with a rolling file cart. Use colored file folders. Choose a different color for every subject so that you can see quickly and easily what you’re trying to find. If you decide that you need to move your study area, you can roll your files along with you!

Want to have a low stress school year? Here are a few back to school organizing tips to help tame clutter and organize your life!

Keep Distractions to a Minimum

No TV, plug your phone in another room and put it on silent mode when you’re studying. It’s too easy to convince yourself that you need a study break that involves streaming your favorite TV show online!

Go Verticle

If you have a small desk, a wall organizer for essentials like pens, pencils, and notebooks is a great idea: it keeps everything handy, but off the limited flat space that you need for your computer and books. Plastic containers on your shelves are also great ways to keep your extras—pens, pencils and so on—handy but put away.

Use a Magnetic Board

To keep certain important reminders and papers in your face and handy, use a magnetic board right over your desk. This way, anything that you need to have at the ready is right there for the taking.

Install Extra Shelving

Extra shelving is ALWAYS a good idea and can help you keep your books, magazines and other materials organized and tidy but still accessible and at the ready. Get some magazine holder boxes for the extra papers and periodicals that you want to keep and use the same color coding system as you did with your files. Presto!

Don't Forget the Closet!

Organizing your stuff isn’t just about desks and pens. You also need to keep on top of your laundry, your bags, accessories and more. A well designed, easy to install DIY closet system is just the ticket to make sure that all your stuff has a home and that you can find each item, quickly and easily.

Marty Basher is the home organization expert for ModularClosets.com. Modular Closets are high quality and easy to design closet systems that you can order, assemble and install yourself, in no time at all. With Modular Closets, any space can become usable space, for storage and organizing!

Have any other back to school organizing tips to share?

Need some closet organizing tips? Check out this post!

Best Closet Organizing Ideas to Keep Your Wardrobe Neat

Diane Hoffmaster

Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy. She has two college aged kids, one husband and more pets than she will admit to. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire but left her career in science to become a stay at home mom. Years of playing with LEGO and coloring with crayons had her craving a more grown up purpose to her life and she began blogging and freelance writing full time. You can learn more about her HERE.

Comments

Lois Christensen

July 26, 2017 at 9:47 am

These are such great ideas to use for back-to-school! I'm going to share them with my son, who is now in college. I'm sure he could use all the help with keeping his dorm room organized.

Hali

July 26, 2017 at 3:00 pm

Thank you for your tips, I am constantly struggling getting things in order since my youngest likes to touch everything lol

- Diane
  
  July 27, 2017 at 9:25 am
  
  And of course, touching usually means MOVING it to somewhere you can't find it!
  
Tatanisha Worthey

July 26, 2017 at 5:41 pm

Thank you! I need to do this BEFORE school starts. I'm with you on-- everything needs a home or we get rid of it! I plan to do a purge before school starts in a few weeks~! Eek!

- Diane
  
  July 27, 2017 at 9:25 am
  
  I cant believe mine start back in 2 weeks...I have so much to do!
  
Audrey McClelland

July 27, 2017 at 7:50 am

I adore this! I have five kids, so I know with painful experience that if you're not organized, school mornings are an exercise in trying not to murder one of your beloved kids. LOL