Ways to Get Organized for the New School Year!

Hello ladies!

School is upon us!  Here in my home state, public school has already started actually, but when I was in homeschool high school, we didn't start until the day after Labor Day.  (so I figured I still have time for this post. 😊).  I wanted to share with you some ideas to help clean up and organize for the start of the new school year!!  So let's get right to it. First things first...

Clear out the junk.  Before you go on the beloved (or hated) back-to-school shopping spree (and if you're homeschooled, before your new books come in the mail,) clean your desk, shelves, and even bedroom of clutter, junk, and trash.  Stuff can really pile up during a busy school year so let's give this new year a fresh start!  (Bonus!!  If you don't have a desk and school at the dining room table, just make sure it's clear so you have room to breathe! 😉)

• Put away any school books and texts from last year that you don't need so you can clear your shelf for new materials.  
• Clear your desk off completely and give it a thorough dusting.  Only replace the basic items such as clock, organizers, pencil case, etc.  I often tend to accumulate knick-knacks throughout the year on my desk but in order to have a fresh start and make room for new ones, clear the ones you have and find a new home for them.  
• Sort through supplies.  Throw out short pencils, broken erasers, and empty out pencil sharpeners.  I also tend to have stray pieces of papers throughout my things, especially on my desk and in my pencil bag, so trash most of it and store important notes from last year with their corresponding texts or notebooks.  
• Sort through even your writing utensils.  Oftentimes, pens from my family's stash will make it to my pencil bag but I don't use them that often.  I just needed to grab them for a quick note or something.  Separate out all the pens you don't use or like and only keep your favorite pens and a red pen and/or pencil in your pencil case so you're not overwhelmed.
• Get some scratch paper.  Extra scratch paper is super helpful for math problems so you can keep your actual lesson or test papers neat and tidy.  If you already have an existing stash of scratch paper, sort through it and recycle any mostly used papers.  Clean scratch paper is super helpful to concentrate your thoughts.  I store mine in the inside pocket of my math binder.

Ok, so I think you get the decluttering picture.  If you have a lot of it, get rid of some of it.  You won't need it all and you can usually find some more around the house.  clean and condense so the space is organized and airy.  This will seriously help concentration.

Next, it's list time.  These are for serious productivity and organization!

• Make a list of supplies you need; new pencils, paper, notebooks, index cards, pens, highlighters, sticky tabs, tools, etc.
• Make a schedule that you'll follow for the school day.  If you're in public school, you probably already have this, but as a homeschooler, your day is pretty flexible.  Avoid distraction by making a detailed schedule and follow it to keep you accountable.  Don't forget to include weekly online classes!

For example:

6:30am-Rise

7:00am-Breakfast

8:00am-Math

9:30am-Latin

etc.

• Make sure you have at least the first week of your school's syllabus printed out.  If you're in MODG, you know the syllabus is a huge thing.  It can be distracting and time consuming to log onto the computer every time you need to look at the syllabus so print it out!  Find an empty binder and put your syllabus in that.  You can also put your daily schedule in the front pocket or something to keep it handy.  Now you'll have a binder where you can check off assignments and see what you need to do next super quickly!
• Bonus: make a list of things to do when you're not doing school.  Tasks, chores, hobbies, and extra curricular activities can have deadlines too!

Great!!  Now we've gotten ourselves organized  and have a pretty good idea of what we want to accomplish this school year!  Remember that list of needed supplies you made?  Well, let's take a look at that and check some things off of it!

• So you probably already have binders for some of your subjects such as math and maybe even your syllabus.  But let's start fresh and clean those out too.  Make sure you keep all important papers for your mom so she can store them in files if needed.  (I'm normally the file keeper of school papers in our family, so you might be doing that as well.)  Now that you have all your reusable binders cleared out, you can check those off of your supplies list and put them on your shelf!
  
  
  
• We already cleared out our pencil bags, but let's make sure we have enough supplies for this year.  Every 2 years or so, I normally get a new package of No. 2 pencils and some of my favorite pens.  (Those have varied through the years, but my most favorite are either these or something like this.)
• It's good to have at least 2 packages of college ruled loose leaf paper, especially if you use binders for your subjects.  Don't forget a package of graph paper as well!!  You'll definitely need that for Saxon Math!
• Index cards are imperative for Latin (especially Latina Christiana or Henle.)  Make sure you have a pretty good size package or at least enough to start off the year without running out right away.  Pack up your old cards from last year and be sure to make new ones again this year even if you've already made a card for that vocabulary word last year.  Making new vocabulary cards for every word helps memorization and retention.  An index card storage box is also helpful for keeping things neat and pretty.
• Now, you might want to conserve paper (and money) by using leftover notebooks from years past, but I would encourage you, if you can, to start each year with new notebooks.  It will be much easier to find assignments quickly and keep things nice and neat.  If you have notebooks that are barely used, rip out the used pages so it's almost like having a fresh notebook!  If you do have notebooks from previous years that are more than half way used, they are great for use outside of school work like writing fictional stories or doodling!

I hope you have found something helpful in this post as you get ready to go back to school!!  What do you do to get yourself ready for the new school year?  Any helpful hints you can share?  Please do so in the comments below!!  I pray Our Lord bless you and this new school year abundantly!

In Christ,

Sarah

PS.  So, you might be wondering, "Hey!  If Sarah's not in school right now, what is she doing that has to do with the content of this post?!"  Well, that's right, I'm not in high school anymore, and I'm not currently in college but I do tutor students and so I use many of the same supplies and organization.  So, if you'd like to see what I actually do to prepare for tutoring, comment below! Maybe I could even do a video?  (Yikes!!)

Blessings!! 💖

(All photos taken from Pinterest.)