School is a roller coaster! There’ll be highs and lows and everything in between but you can empower your kids to take ownership of their gear and organise their school supplies. And they’ll love these top school hacks, which will help make term days feel like a breeze.

1. Make a Smarter School Bag with DIY Compartments

DIY pencil pouches

More often than not, school backpacks are bursting at the seams with a disarray of books, lunch boxes, water bottles, uniform bits and bobs, pencil cases, tech gadgets and more. Help your kids create a system to organise all their odds and ends into user-friendly compartments. Choose compact pencil pouches in a range of sizes and let them label them with washi tape and a paint pen.

What You’ll Need

We Also Used

2. Add a Personal Touch to School Backpacks

DIY school bag charms

Crafty bag charms give standard school bags personality as well as encouraging creativity in growing minds. If your child is keen to customise and express themselves, creating DIY charms using art and craft supplies is the perfect school holiday activity. Stringing pom poms onto shoelaces or twine adds sparkle and fun. Or use air-drying clay to make bead charms. They can paint or colour in their homemade shapes with markers before adding some ribbon or twine.

What You’ll Need

3. Smarten up Homework Time

DIY coloured in clock

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by homework. There can be lots of it and it’s likely the approach has changed since you were doing it. Still, you can help them organise their afternoon and evening into more manageable chunks by colouring in their clock with whiteboard markers. Make the sessions bite-sized and remember to include break times to keep their motivation up.

What You’ll Need

4. Colour Code School Books for Each Class

Coloured school folders and books

When kids are constantly rifling through their school bag and pulling out loads of readers, notepads and more, a visual organisation system is sure to save them time. That way, instead of heaving out every exercise book that’s there, they can reach straight for the one they need. Give each class a hue and extend the colour coding to desk supplies. It’s a simple life hack for school students that will also help them streamline their early-morning bag-packing routine. Don’t forget to let them personalise books and folders with stickers, washi tape, and even fun googly eyes.

What You’ll Need

5. Make Lunch Time More Enticing with a DIY Lunch Box

Top school hack: personalise kids lunch boxes

Instead of spending oodles on fancy, patterned lunch boxes, choose something simple and let them create their own design. Any kind of permanent marker works well, and chalkier versions will really stand out. When it comes to the inside, labelling each compartment will mean they can start packing their own school lunches.

What You’ll Need

We Also Packed

6. Keep Drawers Shipshape

A clean and tidy drawer goes a long way towards having an organised mind – just ask Marie Kondo! These drawer dividers will make sorting stationery a breeze. Use Posca pens to label the compartments — and to add a bit of personalised style.

Labelled drawer dividers

What You’ll Need

7. Prep for an Emergency

School bag emergency kit

Give children (and yourself) peace of mind by sitting down to create an Emergency Kit for the bottom of their school bag. Having a supply on hand of little things like hair elastics, safety pins, extra sunscreen and bandaids will mean kids feel secure knowing they have the basics on hand. One of the easiest school hacks, it also means they won’t need to ask a teacher if they hit a snag during the day.

What You’ll Need

What We Put Inside

8. Maintain Motivation All Year Long

Kids craft project: lunch box notes

There is something special about finding a thoughtful note hidden away in a book, bag or even a lunch box. Start a tradition of creating motivational notes for your child to find. They might like to take part themselves and write notes for friends and family. Use pens and paper for handwritten jottings, or get on the laptop to create a special design. You can contact the notes (or even have them laminated in store) so they’ll be safe to hide underneath kids’ snacks or in their shoes.

What You’ll Need

We Also Used

9. Sort Storage by Theme

Kids room organisation: storage cube

All you have to do is take a look in your car boot to know just how much stuff little school-goers accumulate. Adding a small block of cube storage to their room gives children a spot to put their important bits and bobs for school, like their tech gadgets, extra textbooks and more. It’s a smart idea to label each compartment, so it’s a cinch for them to remember where everything goes.

‍Hot Tip: Break the cube into themes, like tech, fun, books and equipment, to make afternoon unloading easier and morning packing less fraught.

What You’ll Need

What We Put Inside

10. Organise Every Day with a Wall Calendar

DIY whiteboard post it sticky note calendar wall

If you or your child are very visual, a big wall calendar can help you both stay on track. Oversized whiteboards double as a perfect home for a sticky note DIY calendar that they can replace and move around each month. It’s also a place where they can scribble notes with a whiteboard marker. The best part is, they can make it their own, erase it and do it all over again, sparking creativity.

‍Hot Tip: Use washi tape to add lines on your whiteboard. It’s incredibly low-stick, making it easy to remove.

What You’ll Need