It’s that time of year. I’m guessing you’re tired and so ready for summer to start! You may be counting down the days, but as those days draw nearer you realize it’s also time for the dreaded clean up, pack up, and organization tasks. Cue the dramatic music! But what if I told you that it doesn’t have to be stressful? In fact, it can actually be fun and help you destress even more during summer so you can truly enjoy your time off! When the next school year comes, you’ll be ready to walk back through those doors refreshed and ready for a new school. This post shares quick, easy end-of-year organization tips to help you get organized and head into summer ready to relax!
#1: Declutter, Clean, and Take Home
It’s only right that tip number one is the most daunting one so we can get this one out of the way first. Start with the space that’s turned into a dumping ground for everything you planned to ‘deal with later’. You’ll feel SO productive because the biggest task is done. This is a game changer for end of the year organization.
Take the time to declutter those spaces and PURGE items. This can be hard. I know I’m guilty of keeping those cute things that I *might* need one day. Just don’t. Make spots to donate, trash, and keep. Go through ALL the things and get rid of it if you haven’t looked at it all year, never opened it, or it didn’t work out. I promise your next year’s self will thank you! While you’re in there organizing and decluttering, it’s a great time to take inventory of your school supplies. What do you have a lot of? What do you need more of for next year? Is there something you use a lot of that needs to be added to the school supply list? This is a good time to get all those things in order so you can restock during all those back to school sales!
I like to create piles of items to take home and clean over the summer. It’s best to freshen up the things that have been well-loved! We’re talking about reading stuffies, scissors, whisper phones, all those other items that are heavily used. They deserve a fresh start too!
Once you have everything you’re going to keep in the classroom, it’s time to reorganize them so that when the next school year comes, you’re ready to start fresh with an easy to navigate space. I’ve linked in some of my favorite organizing tools in the next section to help make those spaces super inviting!
End of the Year Organization Tip#2: Use Checklists When Packing
After all the decluttering and organizing, there are always going to be things you have to take home. Check out some great pack up tips HERE to make that process even easier on YOU! I love using checklists during this part of the process because it helps me not have to work my brain so hard to remember every single thing. This FREE checklist can help you get ALL the things done!
#3: Involve Your Students
Involving students in cleaning and organizing can lighten your load significantly—and they actually LOVE helping with this process! However, it’s crucial to be mindful about what you take down and when. Starting too early can signal to students that learning is over or cause anxiety for those not excited about summer break. Instead, begin with areas they rarely use, like cabinets or closets, and wait to tackle visible spaces until later.
So, what can kids do? A lot! Let them clean and organize center bins, return materials to proper bags, or even tackle old dry-erase stains. Students can sort through school supplies, tossing broken crayons and dried markers, and help reorganize a messy classroom library. Check out more library organization tips HERE! Giving students simple tasks can transform this hectic time into a manageable one.
Want to make it more fun? Turn tasks into games! A favorite is turning word wall cleanup into a scavenger hunt. After removing the words, break into teams and call out a word for students to find. It’s engaging, gets words back in order for next year, and sneaks in a bit of learning too! With creative and collaborative strategies, your end-of-year organization can be a breeze.
End of the Year Organization Tip #4: Use Organization Hacks
So now that you’ve decluttered, donated stuff you don’t need, and basically made a mess of the entire room, you feel good right? Let’s dive into some great organization hacks to fully optimize those spaces for next year!
- Take pictures of all the things you loved about your classroom setup this year. Maybe it was how the desks are organized, the library is set up, and/or special wall displays. Use these pictures next year to make walking into your space a breeze because you are ready to set things up and know exactly how you like it!
- Optimize closet space and cabinets to ensure their functionality. Organize and bulletin borders with binder clips inside a door.
- Have so many displays that won’t work? I love THIS storage bag to keep them all organized and out of the way.
- Take your bulletin board display organization to the next level with this hack. Store letters for each display in ziploc bags to make it easy to pull, set up and go. No more fumbling trying to find the right letters or pieces to go together!! Talk about saving YOU time! This is such a great end of the year organization tip.
- Anchor chart hack loading! If you’re the type of person that loves to reuse anchor charts, you have to have a way to store them. Clip hangers to the rescue! You can add some command hooks in a space that works for you and store all your anchor charts with THESE hangers. They become super accessible and easy to pull for each unit!
If you’ve never reused an anchor chart, I’d HIGHLY recommend you check it out. I love using traceable anchor charts where the outline can be created before you laminate them to be able to reuse with your students year after year.
- After deep cleaning your supplies and manipulatives, organize and label them in clear plastic bins. Find them at Target, Walmart, or the Dollar Tree. Using the same type bins makes them easy to stack and store so they’re always accessible. I like to label ALL the things with THESE labels. Not only is it easy to access, but students can also easily find and get what they need too!
School Supply Label Growing Bundle
- Organize your centers by unit and store them in these 12×12 Storage Scrapbook Cases from Michael’s. They are PERFECT for storing everything you need and are super secure and easy to pull out to get what you need. Label them with THESE labels so that you can see what’s in them no matter how they’re stored. Take it to the next level and use ziploc bags and EOOUT Plastic Envelopes inside the bins to organize differentiated materials within the unit. HUGE game changer for end of the year organization.
Want to delve deeper in all things center organization? Check out THIS post!
#5: Prep for the Next Year
Last tip, but certainly not least, help make next year even easier by getting those beginning of the year essentials ready! It might sound crazy, but I PROMISE this will set you up for a relaxing summer and have you walking through those doors refreshed and ready to tackle the new school year, already semi-prepped!
There’s a few ways I like to do this. Get ALL your Meet the Teacher stuff out of the way and ready to go. These things don’t change much year to year so I like to keep a bin of all the things including copies of our stations and student gifts. By the time August rolls around, you’ll have everything prepped and ready to go!
Another thing that makes me feel super prepared for next year is getting first week plans and copies DONE! You’ll thank yourself so much later because you won’t have to think about it all summer and you’ll have so much more time setting up your room next year. Check out these first week essentials HERE and of course the back to school survival kit HERE!
First Week of School Kit MEGA Bundle
I really hope you enjoyed learning some super helpful end of the year organization tips to get and stay organized for each year! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the End of the Year Checklist FREEBIE! You will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.
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