PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Ahead of back-to-school time, experts say creating a school organization station in your home is one way you can best set your child up for success in the new year.
“What we say to start with is the location for this station and maybe you want to have it by an entryway where the kids may be dumping their stuff right now,” said Niran Bates with Portland-based Closets by Design. “It could be in a mud room, it could be in a laundry room, we can do little spaces in hallways. Another popular area is out in garages where everything’s kind of out of sight.”
To avoid cluttered entryways, Bates recommends getting hooks to hang up backpacks.
“Backpacks are challenging. What we recommend is to get some hooks to get those backpacks up off of the floor, off the kitchen table so they’re out of the way. The other advantage of hooks — obviously, we are in Oregon — the weather can get a little inclement at times and you can get all your hooks, and everything hung up there with the backpacks so that you’re all prepared when you’re ready to go out,” Bates said.
Closets By Design also suggests setting up a bench so kids have a place to take their shoes on and off and adding extra storage in the area to utilize the space.
Bates says it can help to “think upward” when thinking of storage solutions.
“Up above the hooks, you could put in cubbies and that’s where you can be storing your school supplies and whatever they’re going to need for their day,” Bates said.
