My kids, aged 10 and 14, are great students, and I’m thankful. Part and parcel with this, however, is that they’re terrible hoarders of school supplies. After complaining multiple times that I’d bought 188 glue sticks, 350 pairs of scissors and over 1,000 pencils and was STILL being pestered for more, I decided that we needed to centralize the system.
Instead of having them keep their school supplies in their rooms, such items now live in “Supply Central”, otherwise known as a shelf in our central hall closet. Each kid may each keep a small number of necessary items on their desks, of course, but everything else must live in Supply Central and they retrieve things from there as they need them.
Bonus: This year, as I prepared to do Back to School Supply shopping, all I had to do was go to my Supply Central, make a list of some necessary items for replenishment and off we go. Best part? I still had several pencils and glue sticks left from last year’s shopping. Magic!
PENELOPE TIP: Other than one binder, some paper and pens/pencils, do NOT go shopping for school supplies until AFTER the first day of school. My early preparation instincts fought against this for years, but I’ve finally come to realize it’s just not smart. Your kids will get lists of things their teachers want for their specific classes and you’re going to need to make a separate trip anyway. Why not save an errand and instead build that trip to Staples into your First Day of School afternoon schedule?
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This is a great idea. I am going to apply this concept to Christmas. I bought a bunch of things that I thought would be great for this Christmas at after sales last year. However, this year I am not so keen on my purchases. I don’t think I am going to preshop any more.
My husband is actually my family’s supply hoarder. He’s always losing scissors, pens and whatnot and depleting my supplies. Since we live in cramp quarters, I’lll need to find the right drawer/drawers for supply central. Thanks for the great ideas.
Thanks for the feedback!
@Kimberly: great idea to create a “Christmas Central” area. I’ve loosely had that going in our garage, but I think I’ll tighten it up this year. I’ve totally bought and re-bought items for the holdiays because I forget I had them. Happens with gift wrap, too. Thanks for leading me to think in that way!
@Gayle: I hadn’t thought about it, but I often find my tape, Sharpies, etc, in our garage, my husband’s domain! I guess he might be part of the issue, too.