Back to School Organization (& Giveaway!)
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It’s amazing how quickly the back to school season sneaks up on you. Once school starts, the pace quickens and it’s easy to miss important papers or get buried in backpacks, new schedules, and winter coats. With that in mind (and thanks to a box full of goodies from the Martha Stewart & Avery line at Staples), my brain started to think about how to organize ourselves this school year. Since we don’t have a mudroom or even a wide entryway, we desperately needed a spot for all our school year gear. We ended up carving out a portion of our living room for a Family Command Center filled to the brim with new-to-us organizational ideas. I’m thrilled with the ‘AFTER’, a family-command-center-slash-faux-mudroom where we can store all our shoes, jackets, backpacks, schedules, important papers, and even our artwork. Whew. All that in a 6 X 3 corner of our VERY DARK AND IMPOSSIBLE TO PHOTOGRAPH living room. 😉
Let’s back up a moment. As I mentioned, our front entryway is too narrow for even a small hall table. All the other outside doors lead directly into rooms, which means we have don’t have a handy mudroom like all those gorgeous, much coveted spaces I see all over the internet. However, a space to hang jackets, drop shoes and bookbags (which my kids call ‘pack packs’, I MELT!) is so important for a busy family– we were in desperate need of a spot where the kids could reach the hooks and quickly find what we need as we rush out the door. While nice, this set-up was not doing it for us:
Another problem was that we had an outdated shoe storage system. And by ‘shoe storage system’, I mean a basket where we all threw our shoes. It’s a constant riot of footwear that makes it difficult to put your hands on the pair of shoes you need when you need it.
Martha to the rescue. My Instagram friends were as excited as I was when this box arrived in the mail. In fact, there were so many great organizational items that I couldn’t contain them in one post! Part Two (10 Quick Tips for Organizing for Back To School) will be posted Tuesday. 😉 Wanna see what Christmas morning looks like in my dreams? BEHOLD:
Pretty soon, we were looking more like THIS:
{I warned you our living room is impossible to photograph, right? With no natural light, this is the best I could get for you guys. I tried, y’all.}
With all those Martha Stewart goodies, it was hard to go wrong. We converted an unused wall into our family command center with a bulletin board, dry erase schedule, and backpack hooks.
This trendy bulletin board is the perfect place to pin up permission slips and important reminders. I tacked up a Martha Stewart pouch as well, which holds dry erase markers.
Below that is a simple dry erase schedule. What makes these THE BOMB is that they are actually repositionable stickers. In fact, I had to move this one twice and you can’t even tell. It peels right off and reattaches where you need it. I’ve color coded it so each child knows what they on their docket each day– this is super important for my 5-year-old, who truly needs this type of reminder and structure. Keepin’ it real alert: this schedule is missing the three Dunkin’ Donut runs and doctor’s appointments and PT schedules we typically juggle. I only write what they can handle.
I like to keep things simple, so I didn’t label the backpack hooks with their names. The most important thing is that they are within easy reach of the kids so each morning they can check the schedule, grab their bags, and off they go.
The central axis of our ‘mudroom’ is a bench and coat hook unit. But it needed some fixing up to function properly.
BIG IMPORTANT NOTE: it’s fastened to the wall using straps that came with the furniture. Essential with kids in the house who’ll climb every surface.
We use the hooks for jackets and hats, and the storage bench for storing the adult’s shoes.
Quick story about these shoes. We walked into the store and my 3-year-old son told me they were pretty ‘just like mommy’. I bought them on the spot. #sucker
Above the hooks are tons of storage options from baskets to boxes to file holders.
Here’s a closeup of the baskets with each child’s initial: those hold hats, mittens, and more.
Above THAT are these gorgeous Martha Stewart shagreen storage boxes that store all those art masterpieces that come home every week. Isn’t the color amazing? Plus my $2 thrift store owl I got last week. #WHOOT
Magazine holders store recipes and other papers.
Plus, who can resist a few fun accessories?
None of those items came with those awesome metal labels. Here’s my little secret. They’re ADHESIVE METAL BOOKPLATE LABELS, yo. I’ve been searching for something like this for years. They are metal with adhesive backs, and they stick right on storage boxes, hutches, picture frames, wherever you decide to put them. I’M IN LOVE.
Okay, now on to the shoes. Remember that beat shoe basket? I replaced it with a mini-cubicle unit I found at Target (along with these baskets to go inside). I know my kids won’t have shoes that fit in here forever, but for now, I LURVE THEM. And I’m going to cherish those tiny feet while I can!
As for the numbers on the cubes, I used my trusty magnetic alphabet and number stamps (affiliate link) and regular ol’ black craft paint for a little extra somethin’ somethin’.
Though Mr. Roboto has other ideas for the boxes (if you’re a child of the 80s, you’ll be singing a certain song right now… Domo Arigato…):
Other cute details: these .99 (for two) geometric dip bowls from Target are the cutest ever. Perfect for random coins and such that we find all over the place. I’m itching to spraypaint it gold when I get a free minute.
The silhouette portraits I made a few years ago now make sense. Not that they didn’t before, but they kinda floated. They’re home now, owning the shoes. 😉
The basket did make a return, thanks to finding my cat scratching at the couch after I took her basket away. I brought it back and now it provides a perfect spot for throw pillows (like this sweet chevron floor pillow we adore!)(affiliate link)
I have a few more small things to add, most importantly a pendant light and perhaps a rug to differentiate the space. But that’s icing on the cake, because truly, we now finally have a fully functioning family command center that’s totally ready for back-to-school time. Backpacks, permission slips, and shoes? BRING IT ON.
Many thanks to Martha Stewart for the fantastic organizing supplies. I was not compensated monetarily for this post. You can find all the Martha Stewart and Avery products at Staples. And right now, YOU can WIN $50 to Staples for your own supplies and shopping spree!
Simply enter using the Rafflecopter below.
Back to school organization can be beautiful, fulfilling, and easy. I’m thrilled to finally have a mini-mudroom of our own for all our school supplies and cold weather gear. Hopefully some of these easy organizing ideas resonated with you– if so, I’d love if you entered the giveaway to win a $50 gift card to Stapes so you can buy everything you need for back to school organizing. Tomorrow, I’ll share 10 tips for taming the back-to-school paper monster with more ridiculously cool (and inexpensive) organization strategies and products. Have a tip to share? Leave it in the comments! As for this guy, he’s can’t wait to go back to school. Me? I’m not quite sure I’m ready.
{Linking up with: DIY Showoff | Serenity Now | Link Party Palooza |The Shabby Nest }