Organizing for a happier back to school

Isn't it amazing how Labour Day signals the approach of an endless barrage of paper that will last 9 1/2 months?   I have two kids in school and both came rushing in the door last Tuesday with a backpack full of "stuff".  I immediately took the piles to the recycling bin to read and discard, muttering ... 'there has got to be a better communication system with our school!'  (seriously, couldn't these be emailed?!)

Aside from the trees this system kills each and every day, which is reason enough to boycott the whole thing, frankly, is the fact that at least 25% of the details consistently don't make it through because of lost pages.  I can't count the number of missed dates, forgotten supplies or field trip forms, overdue library books and more that we've forged together these last 5 years.   I realize, on the last day of school when I force them to empty the backpacks completely on the floor, that half the notes were smashed up in the bottom, lost in and endless abyss of other "garbage"! 

So this year, as I looked at the fresh pulp mountain, I realized I was in desperate need of an organizational system and FAST!  I determined there was NO WAY I was going to fall into the same tear-stained arguments and lost homework frenzy that taunted us every day last year.  No more notes home from the school library demanding my child return the book that is now 5 weeks overdue which is literally nowhere to be found!

I decided it was time to create a centrally located after school 'Dump Station' where the kids could unload their crap at the end of each day so that we could actually find it again.   Ideally, it was going to suit the dual purpose of making me a better homework and agenda checker too (I'm soooooo bad at it - I almost never remember!).  

My vision was to build a brand new shelf/bench/hook combo out of MDF or scrap wood and who knows.......maybe I still will someday.

But, given the budget restrictions right now, I had to get creative.  Bailey has this great bench on castors that has three cubby holes.  Okay, so it's short and really preschool with the Winnie the Pooh imagery, but, you have to improvise!

We found some plastic buckets that will fit into the cubby holes.  Plastic is important - liquid and goo seem to find their way into the strangest places around here.  We decided these would be the "dump" part of the station.  The kids' job at the end of each school day is first to dump all the papers they got at school in the bucket, along with their agenda and then it's up to me to check and read them. 

We attached hooks to the back of the bench to hold their backpacks to reduce the clutter at the closet where they usually dump them!  There's a third cubby where library or other loaned books will be stored when we're not reading them.

All in all, we've been using it for a week now and it's working pretty well.  I've actually set a record for checking agendas 4 days in a row!  (woohoo!)  A little creative thinking has really helped improve the whole situation for us and we're getting along sooooo much better because of it!

When I find a free hour on the weekend, I'm going to paint it up with the kids and make it pretty for my hallway.  I didn't want to paint it until we knew it would work well enough for our immediate needs and it seems to for now.  Once it's all done, I'll be sure to add a picture!  We may try to complete our mosaic shoe mat too!  That's another blog for another day, though.

Until next time:  Inspire...imagine....invent!