Back-to-school season and the start of the Jewish New Year is the perfect time to give your home an organizational “refresh”! I like to prepare by shifting areas in my home that have been targeted towards summer fun and vacation into functional, school prep, and storage areas.

The key to decreasing stress around this transition is to plan and communicate – plan how you will shift into the school year, and communicate with your family how they can help!

Here are my top three tips for creating healthy organization habits for the school year and to ensure your family has a SWEET New Year.

1. Create a Checklist: Creating healthy organization habits starts with making a plan. When creating a plan, I like to begin with writing down my thoughts and forming a to-do list. This helps me get all my wants and needs organized on paper and begin to pick out priority, must-complete items, and tasks. With the Jewish New Year quickly approaching, a focused list helps me avoid overwhelm.

Remember: You don’t have to do all these things at once! Part of planning is giving yourself enough time to thoughtfully complete each task.

2. Follow Daily Routines: Now is a great time to remind your kids about routines and reestablish any that have been forgotten. From bedtime routines to daily chores, completing the same tasks every day helps our children build confidence and learn life skills. Begin to reinforce any new routines slowly and in advance of any real need for transition to prepare your children (and yourself!) mentally and physically for the upcoming change.

Pro-tip: Struggling to organize and maintain routines? Try a visual tool or a chore chart to remind yourself and your kids what needs to be accomplished each day in order to stay organized during the week.

3. Create an Incoming and Outgoing Station: It is difficult to expect our children to stay organized if they don’t have a system set up where they can put their things. I like to create designated (labeled!) spots in our drop zone for each of their backpacks, lunch boxes, and school paperwork. Each day when we come in the door, we drop off all our things into this ‘incoming’ area – creating a healthy organization habit that keeps clutter contained and helps us easily find everything the next morning! An incoming area can also include spots for packages and mail. An outgoing area can contain items to be returned, paperwork to bring back to school, or grab bags for after-school activities.

This article was written by Abby Kahn, Founder + CEO of Abbsolutely Organized. A version of this article appeared on Abby’s blog. 

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