You either love Back to School or you hate it. Either way, there’s just so much to remember and keep track of! This is how I have – finally! – figured out how to organize absolutely everything for back to school.
The back to school season is especially crazy! Don’t get me wrong, I love the thought of organizing, and getting back on a routine. But after a relaxing, fun-filled, and crazy summer – it can be a little tough to get back in the swing of things. And I find myself forgetting important things.
It’s no surprise that I love Trello to organize everything from my meal planning to my capsule wardrobe. But I also love that it really helps with specific projects and seasons.
Trello to the rescue again! I have one board for everything (and I mean everything!) that has to do with back to school and I’m going to walk you through it. Let’s look at each list separately:
IMPORTANT
This is mostly doctors appointments, paperwork to remember, things like summer reading lists and sports physicals. You know, those things that usually get the “oh crap!” response the night before its’ due…
SUPPLY LIST
As soon as that school supply list comes out, it goes here! If you have more than one child, I would add a different colored label for each so you can get everything you need for everyone at once.
TO DO
Anything I have to take action on that doesn’t go in another list goes here. For example: haircuts for the kids, print out signs from Pinterest for their “first day of school” pictures, go through fall clothes and see what fits. You can then copy cards from here to your master calendar or to-do list!
As you can see, Trello is an amazing project manager – but it’s so much more! If you’d like an Ultimate List of Trello Boards (101 of them to be exact!), you can grab that here. You can copy this Back to School board as well as a bunch of other sample boards too!
BACK TO SCHOOL GEAR
Here is where I jot down what new clothes and “stuff” I need to buy. New backpacks, sneakers, jackets, etc. I always make sure to do this AFTER I go through their current clothes and any larger sized clothes I have packed away. I try to shop early (at the beginning of the back-to-school season here) at good consignment stores and then again right before school starts to get some good sales.
SCHOOL LUNCHES
You could use this list three ways:
1 Take pictures of the school lunch menus and add them here for each child
2 Manually add the school lunches from the school calendar and label for each child. This one works well if you have kids that will buy lunch on some days, and bring lunch on other days.
3 Add easy lunch ideas if they bring lunch to school
Related: How to plan school lunches quickly with this simple trick
TRELLO BOARD pt2
HOW TO ORGANIZE EVERYTHING FOR BACK TO SCHOOL
EASY MEALS
First, you should link your main Meal Planning board here (if you want to copy my meal planning board and see my system you can read about it here. Then I highly recommend planning out two weeks of easy dinners (especially crock pot!) and noting them here. Maybe you make a special back to school dinner for each child, or throw a BTS dinner party? Put that here!
MASTER SHOPPING LIST
Once you’ve decided what needs to be purchased, you could move everything to this list or just add cards for each store you know you need to go to. I like to move everything to my Shopping board so when I do go shopping, everything I need is in one giant list.
ROUTINES
Make note of everything related to routines here, especially if it’s something new (for everyone or simply for one of your kids). Set a date to start the kids on their new bedtime about 2 weeks before school so they get used to it, get a large calendar for everyone’s schedules, or maybe you’re starting a new homework schedule. Flesh it all out here!
HOMEWORK STATION
I put this in here to create a portable homework station and what I would need for it. Most of it I have at home, but if I need to buy anything I’ll just move it to the Master Shopping list!
I’m really excited about this back to school Trello board – to finally be organized and have everything in one place when planning for back to school! Don’t forget to get this board free in the Ultimate List of Trello Boards for even more sample boards to copy! Download here 👇🏼
