Decluttering Your Home for the New School Year


Monday August 13, 2018

The kids are back at school as you check out the living room. It’s come to a point where you have designated pathways around the mounds of things so you don’t step on anything.

It’s time to declutter your home while the house is empty. Grab the garbage bags, line up the storage containers or new boxes and get the Houston self storage unit ready.

Here are some fast tips to reorganize and reclaim your home again during the school year.

Prepare Before You Begin

Before you start your decluttering journey, go through each room and place items in three categories: toss, donate and store. In lieu of buying expensive storage bins for each of these categories, buy quality boxes of the right size. Small boxes are can hold books and paperwork, medium boxes are optimal for clothing, and large boxes are ideal for lightweight toys and bulkier items.

Pro Tip: Big Tex Self Storage sells quality boxes of all sizes at reasonable prices right in your neighborhood.

Donate Old Toys and Clothes

The summer months are rough on both toys and clothes. You are probably finding plastic broken pieces under tables and you have no idea what toy it might belong to, as stained clothing sits in the room’s corners. Items that are beyond salvageable should get tossed into the garbage (avoid pawning anything broken at the neighborhood yard sale).

If there are things that the kids don’t use or want anymore (but are still in good condition), place those items in the donate box.

But don’t forget about priceless childhood nostalgia as your children get older. Consider the toys and clothes they may want to save and reminisce over with their own families one day. Summer nostalgia can evoke wonderful childhood memories! Also, your older child may have toys and clothing which a younger child can use in the near future. All of these items can go into self storage until the time comes when they can begin using it. This tactic will help free up storage space in the house.

Give Unwanted Books to Libraries or Book Drops

Your kids may be big readers as they have books on audio, in an e-reader and in paperback format. For paperback books that kids no longer read, or may now have it as an e-reader version, you can see if your local library will take them. Libraries will hold book fairs to raise funds for their buildings.

If your local library has more than enough, call other organizations who may be interested in the reading material. Doctor’s offices and children’s hospitals may take the books so that their patients will have something to read in waiting rooms.

Store Seasonal Sports Equipment

Sports and vacation equipment are usually built to last. However, the items can be so big and bulky that the things will quickly clutter bedrooms, storage rooms, closets and garages. Consider storing these items in a self storage unit. Before placing the things into storage, clean the dirt and grime from the surface. Also, make sure to fix equipment, when applicable, so it will be ready when you put it to use again.

Ditch the Paperwork

If you have no more wall or refrigerator space for the masterpieces, it’s time to clean them out. Have your child decide which ones they really love and want to keep.

Another way to get artwork and papers down to a manageable level is to designate one or two boxes for artwork. Once the box is filled, the rest gets tossed out. When next year comes around, you can throw away the older papers and place in the newer artwork as their skills improve.

Clean Out the Pantry

It’s at this time when you’ll find kitchen shelves with half-filled bags of snacks and foods that the kids begged you to buy only to end up tasting once and then ignoring for the rest of the summer. Now is the perfect time to declutter the junk food from the pantry and switch out the chips for healthier items to pack in school lunches.

Organize the items based on the size of your children so that they can reach shelves within arm’s length. Place cereals in plastic containers to keep them fresh. Healthier items can also be placed on lower drawers and cabinet shelves to make it more enticing for the kids to grab something on the go when they are hungry.

Create a Dedicated Homework Station

Considered a dedicated workstation specifically for your children. If they do most of their homework in the kitchen, clear out a low cabinet on the center island or make room in a counter drawer where they can access paper, pencils and other school items. When they are working in the living room, place a basket under the coffee table or end tables where they can access all their schoolwork items.

Organize Bedrooms

Divide the space into storage zones where you have a place for the kid’s school clothing, everyday clothing and play clothes in separate locations. For example, you can keep all the school clothes or uniforms in the dresser by the door so they can get dressed quickly to catch the bus. Meanwhile, regular everyday clothes can be placed into the closet.

Also, take the opportunity to declutter the old, stained and dirty clothing that is no longer worn. Donate items that are still in good shape and use the other tattered clothes as cleaning rags.

Low storage containers that fit under the bed can hold extra items or they can be placed in a small toy box on the other side of the room.

Get Started

It can be hard to part with every item in the house after summer vacation. If there are items that will be passed down from older kids to the younger generation, or the items hold tons of summer memories for the family, consider Houston self storage options at Big Tex Storage. We can keep the items safe and available for whenever you need them.

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