185 | Hacks to Streamline at Home this School Year

Coming up with an intentional plan for how you want specific times in your day to run and to feel is truly essential when you’re trying to streamline and simplify the tasks and the chores. And everything you have to do throughout the day. The thing is that it takes to run a household and manage a family. You have to be intentional about that plan. There are tangible things that you can do in your home that work with this type of a plan. Essentially when you combine these ideas, you’re coming up with your systems.

That are going to take your routines up a notch without much effort at all.

 Welcome to day two of the podcast episodes where Sarah from the Peace and Productivity Podcast, and I share all kinds of tips and tricks and strategies to get you in a place where you can feel less stressed out and to really help simplify your homes [00:02:00] This school year, yesterday was the first episode, and.

We kicked it off talking about routines, mostly morning, afternoon, and evening routines. And we know if you’ve been a long time listener of the Intentional Edit Podcast, you know that I love routines and I use them to streamline pretty much everything in the home. If you haven’t listened to the episode from yesterday, Make sure you check that out at the Peace and Productivity Podcast.

We talked over there yesterday. We’re here today and we’ll be back over there for another episode tomorrow. today we’re going to further the discussion that we started yesterday with some tangible things that you can do during the routines that we talked about on the episode yesterday, and really get those prepared for what is to come with this back to school season.

I know when. I think about back to school or when you think about the school year in general, one thing that comes up is homework. And homework is just kind of a term that you think school and homework go together, and it’s often a source of struggle or a source of stress. It can be a time and usually the afternoon, the afterschool hours.

That is not fun. I know we briefly touched on. The afternoon yesterday. how do your kids feel about homework? That’s so funny. apparently at our school they don’t give homework. comparatively like so, which is, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about how I feel about that.

’cause I, part of me. It’s nice for them to have the afternoon. Right. And a little more, and the interesting thing is, I will say they’re, they’re right downstairs, so I’m like gonna be quiet. But like I have two very different kids when it comes to that. Right. One really, really, I. Thrives on structure and almost to the point where like overscheduling that’s better.

Like to just have her time accounted for that is, that works. So in [00:04:00] that vein, right, when it comes to homework, I do have my son’s going into middle school, so he will be, I feel like this is gonna be, honestly, this is gonna be our first really foray into it. So I feel like I’m gonna learn from you.

I’m gonna learn from other people figuring out, at least the way that I approach these things. And I think we talked a lot about it yesterday too, of just the customizable and when it comes to this, specifically knowing their personalities. And he’s already talked about, he’s excited about it actually.

If, uh, how he feels about it, he’s ready to take on the challenge and he’s already kind of planned out. He said his friends and hi, they already talked about it. They are going to come home and do homework and then go play. That was what he told me.

So I was like, okay, let’s see how long that lasts. Like we’ll see that. So this is where we’re at. We’re literally like at the very beginning stages. Okay. What does that look like for you guys? Yeah, one thing that you said that really stuck out, uh, to me as a former teacher, I’ve taught both elementary and high school, so I definitely have opinions on homework, and there are studies that support both a need for homework and.

Why it’s better to not have homework. Yeah, so of, of course I’m never a fan of any type of like busy work type of scenario, right? But homework obviously does look different. It could be five, 10 minutes a day. And even if you don’t have something that is required in terms of an actual paper that you are completing and having to return or a computer assignment, there still should be.

Some type of reading happening. Mm-hmm. In each night, especially for the younger ones, so that even like nightly reading would be considered homework. It doesn’t have to be an official like pencil to paper type of activity, but one thing you brought up is your kids approach the structure and the idea of homework in a different way.

that is a true reality check type of thing. Yeah. Because we can’t. Come up with a solution that is one size fits all. Again, we [00:06:00] talked about yesterday with our routines, and so we’re going back to that. But depending on your child, their abilities, their personality, and even the attitude that they have towards schoolwork in general, that will determine how you handle the homework time or the lack of homework time.

Or maybe if they’re trying to catch up on a skill or something, you supplementing. Materials or activities that need to happen to catch them up, or maybe they’re not getting what they need at school and so you have to supplement by getting, moving further ahead on the like other end. meltdowns are common in this afternoon time when we are talking about homework and projects and getting all of this stuff done, and that could just even be a nightly reading.

There are a lot of kids that dread that daily reading time. I. Whatever this looks like in your house. The one thing I would suggest to make this part of the afternoon be as smooth as possible is to gather all of the supplies that you might need, and that could be paper, pencils, highlighter, ruler note cards, erasers.

Anything that is age appropriate for the classes and the work that your kids might need to have, bring those all to one location. That might be crayons for really young kids. Or you might need a special tool for upper level math that you need to have at home for older kids. Get all of these supplies in one place and pick a spot in your home where all of these supplies can live.

It’s their storage location. And this could be a drawer or a container that is movable. It could be a little caddy where everything is sticking out of it. And you can take it, they can take it from room to room or to the dining room table or the kitchen island, wherever they’re doing the homework. make this something that.

Removes the excuse of not having something, and it removes one of the reasons that there can be a meltdown or frustration. all of a sudden you’re set up for one [00:08:00] more step to having a successful homework or after school work or project or reading time. Yeah. And then to take that even one step further, and I think I mentioned this last year when we talked about this, if your kids are on the go and have to do homework on the go, get a little zipper pouch or a big zipper pouch that would fit in a three ring binder and fill that with The basic supplies, not as many as you’ll have at home, but the basic things like pencil, eraser, highlighter, things that they will need to be successful on the go. You can even have that attached to a clipboard and have that in the car. So they have a way to get the homework done as easily as possible without having these other obstacles because they don’t have the proper supplies.

Mm-hmm. I love that. You just literally light bulb went off. You’re helping me because I just was thinking we have, as far as those supplies go, and getting everything, you know, in one place where they can live. right now my daughter’s bracelet and making kit and like art supplies are on there.

And so this sparked an idea of this idea too, if you can repurpose. For the season, for the school, back to school season. Right. I can repurpose those can live somewhere else. And this can be because it’s the perfect thing for it. It’s like a three-tiered movable caddy. And again, the thing or the container really isn’t the point.

It’s really that they’re gonna use it and that you’re gonna remember, you know, that it’s all there to together like you’re saying. I’m just thinking of just getting creative with the things that you do have and the space that you do have. Right. Because we all, and like you said in the situation, are we in the car?

for us? The majority of the time it will be at home. Right. So I can have it live there. And then the other thing that I was thinking is, you were talking is. The idea of, like you said, it can be, it can be a very emotional time, especially if it’s new and if it’s a lot, if they’re learning different things, just for so many different reasons.

Right. But I was thinking for me then, [00:10:00] even as we’re building out our kids’ routines and the systems for them, of course it’s so important to pay attention to our routines and our rhythms, and especially for me, For my afternoon rhythm to really be, for me, right? Working from home, owning my own business.

Ideally, I’m wrapping up my work so I’m not distracted, so that when they come home, and this is just for me, what works for us, right? That when they come home, I can be present and, and fully present is my ideal, right? It doesn’t always happen. It’s like, but fully present for these times to be able to help them, to be able to set them up.

And of course the beauty of that, the routine is that, and having the stations and all that. Depending on how independent they are, they can just do the thing, but I wanna be available. Right? I wanna be available for that. So I just wanted to add that 2 cents. I feel like that’s something that sometimes in the afternoons if I didn’t get my movement in, if I did, had to like, I’m tired, I’m over it already and they’re home.

So just thinking ahead to be prepared for that, I think is helpful. For sure. And you, you brought up a good point where they might not need your help with the actual assignment that they’re working on or a school project that they’re working on, but just the fact that you are there and available Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Is great. You can be in the kitchen, you know, a few feet away from the table where they’re working, chopping up vegetables for dinner. But if something is needed, then you can easily step in to help. that is a great point because, It could be another situation if you’re not prepared with the supplies and with these routines, you haven’t put these routines into effect at different points throughout the day.

You are going to be running around trying to play catch up, and all of a sudden they need a marker, and then you’re running to three different places because there might be a marker, but you can’t find one or it’s dried up. when we have these good routines in place, we eliminate those problems, not just for our kids, but the problems that we are solving and that we’re trying to figure out ourselves as well.

Yeah. Love it. [00:12:00] homework is one big thing that is, takes up a chunk of the afternoon often. something popped into my mind. Don’t forget bigger projects that happen throughout the year, like if you can grab a package of poster board or even save a shoebox from back to school shopping.

If you have the space now, if you don’t have the space and it’s just gonna be clutter. Don’t worry about that step, but if you do grab those things now so that when you find out there’s a project to do the night before, you’re not running out to the grocery store to try to find the poster board that you need, or asking the neighbors if they have a shoebox because you don’t have any in your house and they have a diorama or some type of a project that requires these things.

If your teacher at the beginning of the year, Lets, you know, certain supplies or certain projects that will be coming up. If you can gather those thing and have, and have a designated place for those, get those set aside in a place that’s outta the way. And then when that project.

Is a sign and you know that they have to work on it. You already have them. You’re not scrambling to go get it last minute. that’s the last thing on homework. I wanna switch gears and talk about some of the other things that we talked about with routines yesterday. When we think about.

the packing of the lunches, or you mentioned after breakfast they have to pack their backpacks and make sure that they’re ready to go out the door. where are those backpacks stored? where do they keep those? Are they on the floor? Do they live on the kitchen table is the folder and everything, like all of the pencil pouches and all of those things?

Are they Falling out all over the place, or is there a designated spot for that? So if you don’t have a designated spot for these things, and this could go for your own purse or work bag, diaper bag, keys, wallet, any of these things that come in in the hou out of the house on a regular basis, take the time at the beginning of the school year and.

Buy a basket for the shoes. If you take shoes off when you walk through the door, or a hook to put them [00:14:00] on the wall or a shelf where you want the backpacks to go in a mudroom area or garage, or any place that you want to be. The designated place where the backpacks live, when they’re not being used, and where the keys go when you’re not having them in the car with you or where, your bag that you use.

Instead of bringing that into the kitchen or bringing it into your bedroom, where can it go so that it’s easy to get and you’re not always looking for these things or forgetting one of the pieces that needs to leave the house with you? Buy the hooks, buy the baskets, or put the hook on the wall or these things and get them installed.

So as you start the routines that we talked about yesterday, you have the physical things set up so they can put the backpack up. Yeah. Or they can put the keys away or, and that goes for you too. Yeah. it’s so helpful and, and again, I think a lot of times we overthink these types of things because, or we have the tendency to, at least I do, and that it has to be, it, it just can literally be as simple as getting a hook for a backpack if you don’t want it to continually end up, right.

Just being clear on where, where you want them to live, and then getting just a very, like you said, just a very simple solution, I think is super helpful. Yes, for sure. as simple as possible. Yes, I know. I had a client with triplets that were pretty young they were remodeling their house, so they weren’t going to hang hooks on the wall or do anything.

They were in a, the middle of a big remodeling project. So one of the solutions that we came up with is to take painter’s tape and she. Put it on the floor for where the kids were supposed to put their shoes and it was long enough so that they could each have two pairs of shoes and it had their names on it.

And then she did painter’s tape someplace else for the backpack. And that was a temporary solution. I, you know, I don’t even know if it was two to three months that it was like that. Her feedback was [00:16:00] it actually worked, and why wouldn’t it work? She said to me, because they have spots at school where they have to go stand on the specific shape that is the specific color.

So it was like these were their spots and it was one little thing that you do intentionally. It takes a few minutes and then all of a sudden the shoes are not all over the living room. You’re not tripping over them in the hallway. Mm-hmm. Just something as simple as painters, save and a sharpie solved the problem.

Love that Until they could get the more permanent solution. Yeah, this is, I, that’s so, so good. And again, that’s a really good reminder. Obviously, you know, as a teacher that the kids just, they are capable of so much and so, and, and even at the young age, right, of just remembering like that’s how they operate really.

And preschool, kindergarten, right? Like this is your hook, this is your space. So just, I don’t know, sometimes I feel like at home or as mom, like I know I can almost forget that and think. You know that I have to figure it out or like do all the things. But no, and the other thing I wanted to say to that too, so for us, we have, we do have a mudroom, which is such a blessing.

and I know obviously everybody has a different setup, but for us, that’s where the backpacks go. That’s where the shoes go, right? And they come in, typically they’ll come in through the garage, through the mud room. that’s just pretty, a pretty clear cut solution for us.

And the, the thing there here that I’ll say as far as each season, so for the back to school season, I transfer things in and out. I basically reset the mudroom in the summer. We have our pool bag, we have our life vest, we have our flip flops, we have our summer stuff, right? We don’t have backpacks. We have like cinch sacks, like the things that they’ll just go and ride their bikes with.

so basically the setup there for me, Setting up those systems is transitioning the summer things out and then re looking at the mudroom to clear eyes and saying, okay, now it’s school [00:18:00] time. Where do their, where does the backpack go? The hooks are free. So now this can be her backpack, his ba, right?

So just re-imagining the same space, just kind of like with the caddy that in it can be for different purposes, different seasons. So you gave us the perfect real life example of what we talked about yesterday, where you make the, the routine work for you in that moment of time. So your summer mudroom looks different than your school year mudroom.

Yeah. And it doesn’t take a lot of effort or even a lot of time. You have to do a few things, move it out. It’s probably a great time to give it a good cleaning. And then it’s ready for the school year. Mm-hmm. And at the end of the year, you do the same thing, swap it out again, and get it ready for the months that occupy the summertime.

So you’re just, you have the same routine and the same practices, but you’re modifying it for the needs of those weeks or those months. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah, and some of these things we’re talking about it. This doesn’t have to be a big undertaking, like you don’t have to install shelves or buy a new piece of furniture.

Yeah. It might be as simple as putting a label on something or moving things in the pantry or refrigerator. So your lunchboxes have a place to go when they’re not in use or when the lunches are packed and they go to the refrigerator, they always go in a certain drawer or on a certain shelf, and that might just have a label on it that.

Says school lunch, and that means that no one puts anything else in that spot. You’re reserving that spot for those things, don’t overcomplicate it. When you’re trying to streamline everything at home, you’re trying to simplify to make life easier, and a simple label or something as simple as a hook or a little bowl to catch your keys or a shelf to put your shoes on that.

Was once full of clutter and you clean it off and now the shoes can go there or a little basket. These easy fixes really are the solution to a lot of the [00:20:00] frustration that happens and you use them to make it possible to do the different steps to all of the routines that we have throughout the day.

Yep. So thinking about backpacks and then the mudroom situation, it really makes me think of all the freaking papers that come in the backpack, the back to school papers, not just the back to school, the every day, just so many papers.

And that’s the thing that I know you get a lot, you hear a lot. I hear a lot. It’s, it can be a real struggle because we’re already between the male and just clutter in general. It’s just one more thing. And, and then there are things in those papers that some of them can be, you know, are not, we don’t need to see.

And then some of them are necessary. We need to sign something, we need to do something with them. So how do you tackle and approach papers? We can get into the details and be very specific about what to do with every individual paper, but I’m going to cover it kind of generally here. Don’t let the papers pile up.

Address the paper situation as soon as you get the mail, as soon as you pull the papers outta the backpacks, and again, depending on the age of your kids and what is developmentally appropriate for them, they will be removing the paper from the backpack. They might, if they’re younger, they might have a.

Folder where there’s a pocket and only the things in that pocket of the folder are to be checked by parents, and one side is to stay home, one side is to be returned to school. If they’re older, then they’re probably managing this on their own, and the teacher has not set up something specific so they will let you know in a different way.

I need this paper signed, or You have to fill this out, or the paper has a link that you have to go to, whatever that may be. Tackle these things as soon as you can. I like to have one spot, whether that’s a hanging file folder or a basket, or one place where the action item papers go and you can [00:22:00]address those.

And in the rare instance that it’s something that can’t be. Solved in that one moment. Then there could be a second spot, which is like the pending location and the pending location should never have more than a couple things in it. That’s not where coupons go or a bill to be paid goes, mm-hmm. Or anything like that.

These are things that truly are waiting on something else, so you cannot finish. You can’t follow through with all the steps. You’ve done what you can and you’re waiting for the next thing to happen. So two spots. I really like one, but if you are in a situation where you need to have that pending folder as well, that’s fine.

You might have a wire basket that has the two individual spots and it hangs on the wall specifically for papers. Maybe it is a desk drawer again. You create the routine and the system based on what your family needs and what space is available to you within your home. Mm-hmm. So if it needs to be on a wall, that’s great.

If you have extra drawer space, it can be in a drawer. If you have a desk built into your kitchen and you want to use that for, for one of the purposes of that desk. You know that’s a perfect location. Maybe you have a home office and it needs to go in that location, or maybe it’s part of your kitchen table and the homework routine, and you have something just hanging on the wall someplace.

But come up with a system to address the papers as soon as you can. I know when I talk about mail, The mail comes into your house, you walk over to your trash can. Hopefully you have a trash in a recycle, and you go through the mail and 80 to 90% of that mail never even needs to be looked at. It immediately goes into one of those two.

The trash or the recycle? Yes. Yes. I mean that’s, I feel like that’s, that’s the key right there, right? It is just not letting it pile up, which means having that intentionality of keeping up with it, which again, it’s like, it, it just comes back to the routines and the [00:24:00] habits, and it’s a combination in all of these things too.

It’s. A come our, a meeting of our kids’ rou routines and habits, and then what we do, you know, to meet their routines and habits. So I really, again, I, so I have a, an inbox and like an action box, like in my office, right? For my mail, my things, my papers that I’m working on. And then I have my own systems routines for like, Every week.

I check that. Well, I try to do that every week where that’s one of my, getting back into my weekly, which we’re gonna be talking about net tomorrow. We’re gonna be talking about too, getting into the weekly planning and prep, which again, ’cause we talked more about the daily yesterday. So I think really just.

Having including that as far as, like I mentioned, their afternoon routine is emptying their backpack and then in the morning it’s packing their backpack or in the evening. I think that’ll depend. We’ll figure that out. But that will include, and this is what I’m kind of real time thinking it out now, and I’ve heard.

I’ve tried the, I’m just, now I’m just spit balling too, to help anybody. This is kind of how you can figure things out, right? You can like, like let’s try it out. Let’s think it through. So we had a vertical like organizer where the last year, that’s what we did. And that. Did not really work for us because we did, things got lost.

Like it was kind of a deep, deeper, even the, you know, the shape of it that they would put like toys in it, they would put, it was big and it was deep and it was like not just the end papers and eventually it was, it became a dump zone, right? another. Catch all situation. So I’m thinking for this year of literally clearing off, we have like a little, a little space that’s next to the mud room where they have and our kids.

So they have Chromebooks that they need to [00:26:00] charge. That’s the other thing, right? Things that they need to charge and then bring back to school the next day. So if it’s basically creating this little station, just like we have the homework station, it’s like a packing your bag station, if you will. And, and maybe ideally, you know, even if the homework, if they all live together, that would be great.

But I’m thinking like an inbox where they can literally empty their backpack and put ’em all in there and then, As part of my weekly routine or really daily routine, it would be going through those and sorting and saying, okay, what do I need? What do I need to take action on? And then what can we save?

Right? Again, editing and saving those. And then the outbox could be, and I’m just, we’ll see if I’m gonna do those two things, but the outbox could be then, I signed the paper. Now when you’re packing your backpack, put that back in your backpack and in the folder type of situation. So that’s just something you’re inspiring me all over the place, but I’m thinking through these in real time with you guys.

Well, and that’s really the process is we have to figure out what’s not working. How do we solve this problem and how when we’re solving the problem, it’s putting it the solution into a routine at some point. So we accomplish what we need to accomplish. Yep. Exactly. In general, I think, think through the routine, what you’ll need, how do you make sure that you are setting up your home to be able to follow through with the routine so that you will be successful with it?

And those are the basic steps that you take. To implement the routines that we talked about yesterday with the morning, afternoon, and evening routines. And then tomorrow we’re getting into back on the Piece and Productivity podcast. We will get into the weekly routine and preparing for the week ahead so that you can be successful and all of these routines, the weekly routines work in conjunction with [00:28:00] the daily routines.

To really set you up for success. So thank you so much for listening and I hope that all of these tips that we are sharing are helping you calm the chaos this back to school year. And we will meet you over on the other podcast tomorrow for the next episode. Awesome.