What are your hacks for being an organized parent during the school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've mentioned this before, but with the onslaught of birthday parties for DD's 16 classmates, at the beginning of the year I take DD to Five Below and we pick out about 20 gifts that range from gender specific to gender neutral. We then go to Dollar Tree and buy 20 birthday cards at 2/$1, a few packs of tissue paper, and gift bags. We keep everything in a bin/tote in the closet. When a birthday party comes up, I send DD to the "gift bin" to pick out a gift for her friend, grab a card to sign, and we're good to go.
The whole year costs me about $125 for all of the kids and I save TONS of time shopping.

You don’t use amazon prime? I am lazy and do all shopping online during lunch...

[Anonymous]

Also, not just parenting, but I keep a Gift document in the notes on my phone, and any time someone mentions something that might be a good gift, something they need, etc., I type it in.

Favorite restaurants or something they've wanted to try, something they wish they had, something they have genuinely complimented, etc. all get written down.

[Anonymous]

I have a good one, which was passed on to me by a friend from a school listserv, and I used it this year.

For Back To School Night, print out your info - student name, parent names, emails, phone numbers - on a label sheet. When you go to each classroom and are asked to sign up, you can just peel and affix your info on the sign-up sheet.

[Anonymous]

So far I've had a photographic memory...I'm slipping a bit. I keep everything in notes on my phone with simple title. Since there's a search option, key words pull up the note when I forget the title I assigned. But thanks for reminding me that I need to schedule a dentist appt for DS!

Anyone know how to back up notes? I'm screwed if lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, not just parenting, but I keep a Gift document in the notes on my phone, and any time someone mentions something that might be a good gift, something they need, etc., I type it in.

Favorite restaurants or something they've wanted to try, something they wish they had, something they have genuinely complimented, etc. all get written down.

This is a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've mentioned this before, but with the onslaught of birthday parties for DD's 16 classmates, at the beginning of the year I take DD to Five Below and we pick out about 20 gifts that range from gender specific to gender neutral. We then go to Dollar Tree and buy 20 birthday cards at 2/$1, a few packs of tissue paper, and gift bags. We keep everything in a bin/tote in the closet. When a birthday party comes up, I send DD to the "gift bin" to pick out a gift for her friend, grab a card to sign, and we're good to go.
The whole year costs me about $125 for all of the kids and I save TONS of time shopping.

I'm doing this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've mentioned this before, but with the onslaught of birthday parties for DD's 16 classmates, at the beginning of the year I take DD to Five Below and we pick out about 20 gifts that range from gender specific to gender neutral. We then go to Dollar Tree and buy 20 birthday cards at 2/$1, a few packs of tissue paper, and gift bags. We keep everything in a bin/tote in the closet. When a birthday party comes up, I send DD to the "gift bin" to pick out a gift for her friend, grab a card to sign, and we're good to go.
The whole year costs me about $125 for all of the kids and I save TONS of time shopping.

I'm doing this!

+ 1

My DD is also into exchanging Christmas gifts with her friends in class. This will work well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So far I've had a photographic memory...I'm slipping a bit. I keep everything in notes on my phone with simple title. Since there's a search option, key words pull up the note when I forget the title I assigned. But thanks for reminding me that I need to schedule a dentist appt for DS!

Anyone know how to back up notes? I'm screwed if lost.

Hmmm...can you dig around and see if there is a "share" option? Send yourself an email with this.

[Anonymous]

I have multiple google calendars that I share with my family.

School calendar, EC, social calendar (catch all), medical, birthdays & anniversaries, summer activity etc. We can see all of these calendars at one time if we enable them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've mentioned this before, but with the onslaught of birthday parties for DD's 16 classmates, at the beginning of the year I take DD to Five Below and we pick out about 20 gifts that range from gender specific to gender neutral. We then go to Dollar Tree and buy 20 birthday cards at 2/$1, a few packs of tissue paper, and gift bags. We keep everything in a bin/tote in the closet. When a birthday party comes up, I send DD to the "gift bin" to pick out a gift for her friend, grab a card to sign, and we're good to go.
The whole year costs me about $125 for all of the kids and I save TONS of time shopping.

You don’t use amazon prime? I am lazy and do all shopping online during lunch...

It's less expensive this way, and DD(6) is able to pick out things that she and her friends like. I use prime for everything else.

[Anonymous]

I’m probably not the best person to take advice from because I am definitely disorganized with 2 kids.
One thing I am trying is I got 3 hanging shoe racks and I’ll put one in each kids closet and my closet and I want to spend 30 min on Sunday putting outfits out for each weekday.

So for soccer and swim, I’ll put those there with their school outfit and pajamas. For myself, I’ll get my workout clothes ready or iron or select an outfit if I have a dinner or something because I find myself always stressed last minute what to wear or what needs ironing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are good!

PP - I'm a working mom of three, and these are some things that have helped me.

Scheduling medical/dental/ortho appointments on days off (with multiple kids together) makes life so much easier.

I immediately scan or photograph important things, like completed forms, invitations, permission slips, or anything else likely to get misplaced. I keep them on my Google drive so that I can access them anywhere. I also have pictures of the front and back of our insurance cards on my phone - these always seem to be needed for permission slips and sports waivers.

When my kids were little, I kept a huge box of plastic spoons and another of forks in the house. As soon as a Signup Genius notification came through, I signed up for spoons or forks. They are easy for the kids to carry to school or take on the bus (i.e. don't get stuck in the carpool line because you signed up for a case of water). You can always go back and add something else later if you have time.

Each kid now has one of those three or four shelf storage towers for their uniforms. One shelf for jerseys, shorts, socks, etc. Uniforms, INCLUDING SOCKS, go immediately from bag or bathroom into the wash machine and once washed and dried, go immediately into the storage tower.

All of these were life savers for me when my kids were littler. I also keep the persmission to carry/self administer medication form on my phone. Most doctor’s offices will print it for me and then the meds can go to school without me needing to make another trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So far I've had a photographic memory...I'm slipping a bit. I keep everything in notes on my phone with simple title. Since there's a search option, key words pull up the note when I forget the title I assigned. But thanks for reminding me that I need to schedule a dentist appt for DS!

Anyone know how to back up notes? I'm screwed if lost.

It's in the iCloud. mine cross devices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have the best hack ever, you guys! I HAVE A CALENDAR!!!

+1 FTW. Anything that needs to be tracked or I need a reminder for goes on my ph. calender, along with weekly or yearly recurrences if required. No other system beyond that and this has worked for 2 kids over multiple years.

[Anonymous]

I setup all notifications on my cell phone. For example - passport needs to be renewed end of October, will be a notification that will come to me a month and a week before.

However, school related stuff like pay for yearbook, class pictures, exams, field trips, class parties, school donations, PTAs etc. I prefer to do it online. I can do it as soon as I get the notification or end of week.