Here are my best tips for organizing everything that gets returned home and preparing for the following school year in advance.
It’s Maycember, and the end of the school year is wrapping up. This means the kids have emptied their desks, and all the school things are returning home. The school calendar is one event after another. It’s why people call it Maycember, cause you are just as busy as you are during the holidays.
I am sharing my end-of-school-year organization routine. I declutter, clean, and store all my school supplies so everything is neat, sorted, and ready for next year. If you are ready to get organized, let’s jump in.
My organization of school supplies has undergone many variations. But this most recent setup is my favorite and the easiest.
Empty the book bag and sort
Each kid seems to bring home half-used school supplies. A million broken crayons and only half of the pencil sharpener made it home.
I start by emptying their book bags and sorting through all the supplies and gear, creating three piles.
- Reusable supplies
- Trash
- Items for play and creative time
I inspect all the folders. My favorite folders are the plastic ones from Walmart. They are the cheapest but last most of the year, can be fixed with a bit of tape, and come in all the colors we need.
Then I go through the notebooks. This is usually an indecisive category for me, but notebooks with only a couple of pages used and an exterior that is in good condition get tossed into the reuse for next year pile—as long as they have enough pages. Let’s be honest, they don’t use all the pages in elementary school.
Destroyed notebooks trashed/recycled.
Half-used notebooks: I keep a separate pile of these and use them for whatever, such as making grocery lists or keeping track of Yatzee scores. They are just in a cubby. I haven’t found the perfect way to organize them, but for now, it works.
Broken crayons go into a bin and are used when playing with friends, on art projects, and on crafting days.
Good pens, pencils, and markers get organized back into the cabinet. Loose-leaf paper goes into a sorting bin.
Anything else they may have will go into their proper storage area, like erasers or rulers.
Once sorted, I start to put everything away.
Pens and pencil organization
Currently, I am using clear storage bins labeled from the Target dollar spot to hold all our pens, pencils, markers, and lighters.
I have back-stock items inside my IKEA storage unit, such as brand-new dry-erase markers.
Glue stick organization and tape
Currently, I store all the glue sticks in a drawer inside a mesh bin to make them easy to grab, and regular tape sits next to it neatly stacked.
Small accessories and erasers
I use a clear compartment bin to store paper clips, erasers, binder clips, staples, thumbtacks, and other similar items.
Paper and plastic inserts
I have a three-tier paper sorter. The top holds loose-leaf paper, followed by computer paper or blank white paper and, lastly, plastic inserts.
All these are housed inside my IKEA cube system. I love IKEA, if you haven’t noticed, inside my other post.
Plastic Folders and File Folders
Our printer and other office items are housed on an IKEA shelving unit with cabinets on the bottom. On the second shelf, I have a metal file bin with hanging file folders that hold all the folders in color order, of course, and empty file folders in another hanging file folder.
Deep Clean Back-to-School Essentials
Bookbags
I’m a huge reuse-your-bookbag mom and am not into the new bookbag trend each year. I tend to look for quality bookbags that last.
I empty all the pockets, look for tears, and then use a stain treatment like the Dollar Tree stain stick or Messy Eaters. Then, I toss them in the wash on a delicate cycle.
This past year, I had to buy my son a new book bag, which was even more heavy-duty because he was carrying heavier gear.
Preparing for next year
Thankfully, my school district puts out school supplies for next year before the year ends. I will download the list and take inventory of what I have or need. Then, as the back-to-school stuff starts to go out in June, I will shop for what we need.
I prefer to shop for school supplies in the middle of summer so I don’t have to deal with the store mess.
And that’s it for my end-of-school-year organization routine! I hope this gave you some ideas and motivation to declutter your space and start summer feeling a little more organized. If you found this helpful, don’t forget to share it to Pinterest and heart it, if you haven’t already, and let me know in the comments how you like to wrap up your school year.