My Top 5 Back-To-School Survival Tips!

My Top 5 Back-To-School Survival Tips!

I'm not quite ready for summer to end but I feel the first day of school following close on my tail like the creepy guy in a horror flick. I'm trying to force my mind to embrace the inevitable so I thought I would start by writing it down here. There is a great series starting today called the Back To School Style Guide hosted by the wonderful Amber of the blog Restless Arrow. I'll be sharing more of my favorite organizing essentials on Wednesday! So if you're looking for some great back to school inspo head on over!

Here are my top 5 tips for surviving back to school:

1. Meal Planning  - Meal planning and prep is probably one of the most important things I do to keep us sane during the school year. I usually order our groceries from Walmart on Saturday then I pick them up on Sunday and prep the week's meals. This saves so much time and stress throughout the week with all of the homework and sports practices. You can read more about how we meal prep and our go-to recipes HERE.

2. School Lunches - Next up are those pesky school lunches. I make my son's lunches everyday so it's extremely helpful to have the right tools and a handful of school lunch options ready. HERE are some recipes that are in our weekly rotation.

3. Paper Storage - I know I'm preaching to the choir but how annoying are all of the papers that come through the door on any given school day? Not to mention the everyday household mail! We have a paper organizing system for little man's papers in place and I also use a family binder for all of our important papers and information.

4. Artwork Storage - I love my kid's artwork but there is SO much of it! Am I right? My favorite way to store artwork is with the Keepy app. We take pictures of his artwork that comes home and I can add notes, dates and even share it with family and friends! We keep a few pieces that I like to rotate in and out of frames but most of it goes on Keepy. My son loves this because he can scroll through and look at his work any time he wants! Win, win.

5. Homework Station - Finally, having a dedicated homework station is super important! We live in a relatively small house so space is definitely an issue. We used a folding table and hanging buckets from Ikea to create the perfect space in our playroom for homework.

{Photos by Laura Sumrak}

It's always tough to start a new school but wherever you are in your mindset or preparation I hope this posts gives you a little inspiration for making that transition a tad easier this year!

Cheers to a great week!