End of School Tips for a Smooth Back-to-School Season

School’s out for summer 🎶🎤🎸 but before heading to the beach or camp, prepare for the fall now and your future self will thank you! The end of the school year is the best time to get ahead for the next one. You’re already in “school mode,” so ride that wave while everything is still fresh.

Too busy to read? Watch me with Malik Mingo on Great Day Louisiana here for the cliff notes.

Start Smart: Prep Now, Stress Less Later

Most people wait until late summer to start getting ready for school, but by then, schedules are packed, emotions run high, and stores are picked over. The end of the school year is actually a calmer, more organized time to do this. You're still in the school mindset, you know what worked for your family this year and what didn’t. It’s a perfect time to take stock of clothing, supplies, and routines while everything is fresh. By taking action now, you're avoiding last-minute stress, panic purchases, and that overwhelmed feeling that always creeps in around August.

The very first thing I recommend is to empty out the school backpack. Dump it completely; you’ll be surprised at what’s in there. Crumpled notes, half-used notebooks, snacks from who knows when. Once it’s emptied, go through everything: toss the trash, pull out any school supplies that can be reused, and wash the bag. Do the same with lunchboxes and water bottles. From there, you can move on to sorting through schoolwork and organizing uniforms. Think of this step as a reset. It’s the physical start to clearing the clutter and mental load of the school year.

Edit + Evaluate

Sort through schoolwork, check uniforms, and donate or pass along anything that won’t be needed next year. Schoolwork piles up fast! I like to think of it in three categories: toss, keep, and capture. Toss anything that doesn’t spark a memory like math drills, spelling tests, worksheets. Keep just a handful of meaningful items: maybe a story they wrote, a special art piece, or a great report card. For bulky or 3D art, take a photo and let the original go. You can store the keepers in a labeled accordion file, binder, or memory bin. You can even consider in investing in a service like Artkive to preserve and celebrate your child’s work as a keepsake. If you do this every year, you’ll create a sweet and manageable collection of their school journey without needing to dedicate a whole closet to it.

UNIFORMS + CLOTHING

This is the perfect time to do a try-on session. Go through uniforms, shoes, and everyday school clothes and have your child try everything on. If it doesn’t fit, donate it or pass it down now, not in August when everyone else is doing the same thing and donation centers are overwhelmed. For items that still fit but are worn or stained, make a note to replace them. Also, take inventory: How many uniforms are still in good shape? Do you need new shorts or socks? And don’t forget about shoes since kids’ feet grow so fast, and shoes are often the last-minute scramble. Now is the time to replace all of that.

Get the Essentials in Early

Avoid the late-summer rush. Place orders for new uniforms, shoes, supplies, and gear now while inventory is good and you still have mental space to plan.

A small step that can make a big difference later — label everything! I can’t stress this enough. Labeling now before things get hectic saves you from so many headaches down the road. Water bottles, lunch boxes, jackets, pencil cases, gym uniforms, even shoes! Use washable name labels or a permanent marker. When your child leaves something behind (which will happen), it’s far more likely to find its way back to you. And the best part is that you can knock this out while watching a movie or listening to a podcast. It’s low-effort now, and high-payoff later.

By tackling these simple steps now, you’re setting your future self up for a smoother, saner start to the school year. A little effort in June means less stress in August—and who doesn’t want that? So before you fully shift into summer mode, take some time to clear the clutter, prep what you can, and make space (physically and mentally) for a fresh start in the fall. Your organized future self (and your kids) will thank you.