20 Creative Back-to-School Hacks to Get Your Year off to a Running Start

One of the hardest parts of heading back to school is getting a new schedule down pat. Each year brings its own rhythm with it, and it takes some practice before you get in the groove. To make the transition easier, spell out exactly what's expected of your child in the morning and when they come home with a routine chart. Knowing their responsibilities will help them take to their new routine faster.

Visual learners will love this analog clock. With it, they can color-code the time allotted for certain activities. (In this example, you'd have to explain that you're only looking to the "big hand" to see which activity time it is.) If the clock face doesn't take to marker, colored transparency sheets might be better. Timers help, too!

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While digital, shared calendars are still the best way to keep track of everyone's schedule, it's also helpful if the whole family can see the week's biggest events at a glance. You can quickly whip together a color-coded weekly schedule with index cards and some clothespins. That way, the whole family will stay on the same page.

You don't want permission slips, progress reports, or other messages between you and your child's teacher to enter the black hole of the bottom of the backpack. Choose a place for him to put anything you need to read or sign, and another for anything you need him to give to his teacher. This mom took a plastic envelope, punched a hole in it, and attached it to her kids' backpack with a carabiner so it wouldn't get lost.

Once you get that all-important note home, where do you put it? If you have an inbox or hanging file for each kid, they'll know exactly where to drop off those papers you need to see and sign. (And you won't be stuck looking for that sheet with important info about back-to-school night at the eleventh hour, either.)

Another good use for mini carabiners? Clipping together all of those notecards and flash cards. (Recipes, too, Mom! You can hang them on a hook.) Not only do they keep flash cards from being loose and getting lost, they make easy flipbooks for your kids to use as a study guide.

If you have the space and really want to go next-level, you can turn your mud room into a school command center. Have large bins for backpacks and shoes, and smaller ones for schedules or important papers, and everything will be organized the moment they step in the door.

If floor space is too limited for bins, go vertical and make your own cubbies for backpacks, jackets, and shoes. This designer made hers starting with IKEA's Billy bookcases.

If you have a young kid, chances are the school wants you to label her shoes anyway. But that also gives you the opportunity to help them learn which shoe goes on which foot. Cut her name label in half, and put the beginning of her name in the left shoe, and the end in her right. When she lines up her shoes to read her name correctly, she'll also figure out how to put them on!

If the goal is to move them on to making lunches on their own, make it easy for them with a pantry shelf dedicated to the non-perishable lunch ingredients. They just have to move down the line of labeled bins, picking out what they want for the day. Keep plastic bags on the shelf, so they can easily grab a handful of cereal or granola, too. (You can also take a shelf in the fridge and do the same thing.) Bonus: This system also works for after-school snacks.

RELATED: Your Kids Should Make Their Own Lunches Starting in Third Grade, This Doctor Says

This will help save you some time in the morning, when you're really feeling the crunch. If you designate a place to put the week's outfits, like this smart (and cute!) labeled hanging organizer, it'll be a lot easier to hand of the task of outfit planning to your child, since she'll know exactly where to put everything. (It's probably more fun for her than it is for you, anyway.)

Running out the door, it's easy to forget something important, like a lunch bag. Keep a list of important items posted on the back of the door so that kids can do one last check before they run for the bus. You might even want one for yourself, if you want to go beyond the typical phone/wallet/keys rundown.

If you keep shelling out money for fidget spinners because your child keeps losing them, make one of your own on the cheap. A school psychologist made this one by cutting up a pool noodle.

Walking around the house trying to gather pencils, glue, and tape is a surefire way to encourage procrastination. Keep everything together in a DIY supply organizer, and you've lost one big excuse to avoiding homework. A college-style shower caddy is also a good way to start this project.

While it's wise to keep the most-used essentials out within arm's reach, what about those lesser-used supplies? To keep them from becoming distracting clutter, you can use a roll-away cart. Wheel it out when you need the supplies, then tuck it away again when you're done.

Adding some chalkboard paper to the front of a notebook makes for a reusable space where your student can write her daily assignments. That way, she can easily consult it before packing up for the day, and she can make sure she's bringing home all of the books she needs for her homework.

RELATED: 15 Cute Notebooks Your Kids Need for Back-to-School

Water bottles are constantly being grabbed, used, washed — and lost — by everybody in the family (not just the students). Stow hydration within reach, and keep all the lids/straws/bottoms together, by storing them all in a hanging shoe organizer. It's best if you can keep this by the front door, so everyone can grab one on the way out.

For older kids, this is a good way to keep track of where he needs to be until he gets his schedule memorized. By taking a picture of his phone and making it the lock screen, he won't look lost — he'll just look like he's checking the time.

This student came up with a brilliant color-coded highlighter system. (This is even easier when you use Crayola's erasable highlighters.) Help your student set up a note-taking system, and then hand over the reins for implementation.

Don't be caught unaware by all the stuff you're going to want to save — it's hard to throw out those first drawings or the first grade-A paper. Plan ahead for a way to keep all of that good stuff neat, organized, and out of the way, or else it will take over your office. (In my house, we keep everything in an expandable accordion folder until the end of the year, and then we — and this is the hard part — choose only two things to save and put in a permanent file box.) This mom made her memory box with a clearly labeled pouch for each grade.