September is nearly here, and with it, the 2026/27 school year is beginning. It’s time to organise your family for academic success! Here are a few ideas to get you going.

New year, new planner

Many parents prefer to use academic year planners, rather than calendar year planners to keep their family life in order.

A shared calendar tells everyone where they should be and at what time, and it can be used to divide chores and issue reminders of repeating tasks.

Some families with older children find an electronic planner works best, but others do better with a paper planner, or even a hybrid system.

September can be a good time to switch if the family calendar system you started in January has let you down one too many times.

For more general advice about starting school, try ParentKind’s Be School Ready hub. Or Save The Children has some tips for parents of children who are anxious about going to school.

Archive old schoolbooks

At the end of summer, schoolbooks come home and, in many cases, they sit on the end of the kitchen table for six weeks. If you haven’t already, take a look through so you and your child can see how far they have come over the school year.

But after that… does anyone ever look at them again? Naturally, you need to hold on to material for multi-year courses like GCSEs and A-levels for revision later on. But most people don’t need to save all their children’s schoolwork every year. Of course there will be special bits of work, but you can always save those in a portfolio or take photos of them and keep a small archive. But there is no need to store all those books indefinitely.

Despite that, it can be hard to let go of your children’s schoolbooks immediately. It’s often easier to make the decision to dispose of schoolwork after a little time has passed. By boxing up last year’s exercise books and putting them into storage, you can keep them out of the way of your day-to-day life until you’re ready to sort through and recycle the ones you don’t want.

Declutter your hallway for easy mornings

A tidy hall will make your mornings so much easier because it will help everyone to locate their keys, bookbag, travel pass, phone, hockey stick, shoes, coat, umbrella etc.

Children (and adults too) are more likely to put things away if every item has its own space. And if most things have been put away, it should be easy to find stray items in the morning rush.

There are as many ways of organising an entryway as there are families – but if we could pick one universal rule, we would recommend decluttering. This means removing anything that should not be in the hall – for example, junk mail or items on their way to the tip or the charity shop. It’s also worth removing things that are out of season, like winter coats in summer, or sun hats in winter.

Need more detailed inspiration for a tidy hall? Here’s our post about decluttering your hall.

Store away hand-me-downs

Many families rely on a steady supply of hand-me-down school uniform to keep their children shod and dressed. Keeping clothing for future use in your children’s current wardrobe is a recipe for chaos.

For low-key and stress-free school mornings, put clothes not in current use out of sight until you need them.

Your storage unit is the perfect place to keep items of clothing while you wait for the next child to grow into it. Don’t forget to put a reminder in your calendar so you know to check out what you already have before buying new. These reminders and your storage inventory will be helpful when you shop for school supplies. It is so easy to forget what you already have if you haven’t seen it for a few months.

Learn more about storing summer clothing.

Save money on your self-storage insurance

If your new school year organising has caused you to put more items into your storage unit, now would be a good time to check that your self-storage insurance still meets your needs. Most storage companies make self-storage insurance of your personal property mandatory, and they may even encourage you to buy insurance from them. You can often get a good deal on self-storage insurance from specialists like Store and Insure, so get a quick quote today.

And from Store and Insure to all families with school age children, all good wishes for the 2026/27 academic year.