Preparing Your Home for the School Year
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The school season can be absolute insanity for some families. It’s an exciting fresh start to the year and kids are usually eager to get back, see their friends, start up school activities, and get back into the routine! But it can also be tough at home. Papers get sprawled everywhere, jackets, shoes, backpacks, notebooks, laptops, and charging chords end up all over the house, and it can begin to feel like your home is caught up in a permanent tornado. So how do you deal with it all, and what can you do to prepare your home for the upcoming school year?
Here are some tips!
Organize Your Entry Way
People often get so focused on vacuuming, cleaning the living room, and keeping bedrooms clean that they forget just how quickly the entry way can get out of control.
The entry way really is your avenue to efficiently get in and out of the house. If it’s not kept clean and organized, you’re kids will be late to the bus looking for their missing shoes and backpacks, and your keys will inevitably grow legs and burry themselves under boxes and papers. It’s a mess. It’s a headache. And it needs to be dealt with.
Come up with an organization system and make rules for your kids. Where do their shoes go? Where do their jackets go? Where do their backpacks go? Install additional shelves in your coat closet if necessary. Come up with a system and stick to it – as soon as you let it go, the entry way becomes congested and getting out the door is drastically more difficult.
Come Up with a Food Organization System
Kids need to bring lunches and snacks to school, and dinner prep needs to be quick if you want your house to run smoothly. Come up with a food organization system!
If you need to, rework the layout of your cabinets and pantry. It might take a few hours one evening, but getting everything in a neat and organized area can cut off dozens of hours of food prep in the long-run. Maybe you put the kids’ school food prep stuff on one shelf in the pantry, snacks go in another area, etc.
Create Visual Chore Checklists
It’s easy to hap-hazardously throw chore requests at your kids, but it’s not effective when attempting to keep your home in good shape. Create and print out chore checklists and have them mounted on a cabinet, fridge, or wall where everyone knows what needs to be done on what days by who.
You can create rewards based on what gets completed and how committed they’ve been over time. Weekly allowances, video game time, hanging with friends, and even fun family activities like bowling, hiking, or going to movies can all be great incentives to add into the mix!
Recognized as one of the leading custom home builders in Dallas TX, Tony McClung is an architectural designer working to beautify custom luxury homes in Highland Park, and North Dallas area. He helps families design, build or renovate the custom home of their dreams. Visit their website to learn more.