7 Things to Prioritize Before School Starts

Today’s post is full of helpful tips and tricks to guide you through 7 things to prioritize before school starts.  If you don’t have kids or if your kids are older, this post will help you work through things you can prioritize before the Fall season arrives.  

It’s Time for a Reset

Have you guys looked at the calendar lately?  No playing, every time I see August is creeping up ever so slowly, I can hardly believe it.  

I don’t know about you, but we’ve gotten out of some of our routines since the summer began.  It’s definitely starting to affect how this household operates on a daily basis.  Especially, now that our schedules are starting to fill up with even more activities. 

The end of summer is a great time to do a “reset” of sorts for your personal routines and your family routines.  It’s a good idea to reevaluate what’s working well for you and what’s not working at all.  This will allow you to get back on track and address any changes before school starts.  The rush to usher in a new season will be here before we know it!

Here are 7 things to prioritize before school starts…

Meal Prep & Plan

Take one day each week to meal prep, plan and put together a grocery list for the week or month.  It doesn’t have to be anything super involved at all, but it definitely needs to be done. 

Keep it simple by displaying the menu in a highly visible place like your calendar, chalkboard, family command center or refrigerator. You’ll be more likely to use it on a regular basis. 

Making the meal plan visible for your entire family will help you stay on track. Especially during those times you’re running late and hear, “What’s for dinner?” as soon as you walk through the door.  It will also give your family a chance to pitch in and help if they know what to make in advance. 

You can read our how to guide on meal planning for the month here.  Keep in mind, we offer a weekly meal plan every Thursday on our From the Front Porch posts which is another easy way to plan.

Establish a DAILY Cleaning Routine Before School Starts

This one is critical in making sure you’re not spending your weekends cleaning the house or avoiding your home entirely because it looks like an episode of Hoarders.  A cleaning schedule can be as quick and easy or as involved and customized as you want it to be. 

Starting with a clean home is much easier to maintain than cleaning up items that have been hanging around for weeks or even months. Set yourself and your family up for success. Give your home a deep clean now so you can enjoy a peaceful transition to fall later.

If you’re new daily cleaning routines, this post will help guide you through it all and it has a free printable too. 

Declutter Your High Traffic Zones

High traffic zones are the areas of your home you use the most. For example: the kitchen, pantry, refrigerator, laundry room, bathrooms, closets and entry. 

These spaces get used multiple times a day, all day, every day in our home.  They’re also the places that can become easily cluttered if we aren’t diligent about making sure they’re organized and tidy before school starts. 

We have a few non-negotiable rules to help keep us on track that might work for your family too:

• Empty the dishes in the sink before you go to sleep.
• Put groceries away in their respective baskets, glass jars, or drawers as soon as you get home from the market.
• A load of laundry means wash, dry, fold, and put away. 
• Keep wet towels or clothes off the floor.
• Purses, backpacks, keys and shoes can be stored on hooks and in baskets.

I’m not saying we’re perfect because we aren’t.  We have messy house overwhelm just like everyone one else, especially while we take on big projects.  That said, our is to be keep a clean home first and foremost.  But our second goal, is to not be caught off guard if someone wants to come over last minute including service providers like cable, pest control, heat/air repair etc.

Establish a Simple Morning Routine Before School Starts

No playing, I used to wake up and run around the house like a crazy lady in the mornings.  I would be pulling things out of my closet, cramming shoes in my gym bag, then grabbing a power bar and coffee at the last minute. All while, yelling and running out the front door. 

I was basically a tornado every morning.  By the time I got to work at 8:30 am, I would be exhausted.  Then I started being intentional about my morning routine and everything changed. 

The secret to a successful morning routine comes down to two basic principles:

1. You have to know your priorities.
2. You have to be consistent.

Morning routines don’t have to be complicated at all.  They just need to meet your needs.  By meeting your needs, I mean, what can you do each morning to help set yourself up for a successful day? You can read all about how to create a simple morning routine here. 

Establish a Nightly Routine Before School Starts

You saw this one coming, right? Just like having a solid morning routine sets your day up for success, a solid nightly routine helps you wind down the day properly.  It also sets you up for a good night’s sleep.

As with the morning routine, your nightly routine can be completely customized based on the amount of time and energy you have to dedicate to it. 

These are the secrets to a successful nightly routine: 

1. Prioritize which items or tasks you need to address or complete BEFORE you go to bed
2. Carve out time to do something JUST FOR YOU.
3. Being consistent with your nightly routine will allow your morning routine to run like a well-oiled machine.

Reevaluate Personal, Home, & Family Goals Before School Starts

Now is a great time to take stock about how you’re REALLY living with questions like:

• Is your house constantly messy?
• Are you a procrastinator?
• Do you have trouble keeping up with your kid’s schedule because it’s so packed?
• Are you reaching for your dreams and achieving your goals?
• Or are you waiting for the perfect time and the perfect plan to fall into perfect place before you get even started?

I totally get it. Sometimes, making changes big or small can seem SO overwhelming it’s easier to not make any changes at all.  And you could do that but why you would want to?

Take the time to decide what you’re willing to commit to from now until the end of the year before school starts. That way, when someone needs your time, money, energy, or resources you’ll be able to give them your best yes.

Your Well-Being

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve recently heard someone say, “I wish I would have….” (fill in the blank with listened to my intuition, made my health a priority, reigned in my spending, forgiven him/her, gone to the gym, lost weight, quit stressing, gotten things done).

I completely understand how it can feel almost selfish to truly take the time to care for and nurture what sets your soul on fire.  But I’m going to be honest with you friends, it’s an absolute necessity.

So often we put ourselves last on the list and we wind up feeling depleted, frustrated, exhausted and overwhelmed. Find a way to emphasize the things that really matter to you.

Things like:

• Learning to say no
• Adjusting your expectations
• Letting go of things that aren’t in line with your priorities
• Living out your goals
• Concentrating on your mental and physical health

Believe me, you are worth taking the time to pursue your goals and dreams!

Did we miss anything? What are you trying to prioritize before school starts?  Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo