Easy Back-to-School Organizer

Here's a simple project for taking some of the back-to-school focus away from shopping, if only for a few precious moments!

Try helping your child make a set of hanger labels for each day of the week, to help with weekly wardrobe planning.  It's a great way to use recycled materials you have at home, such as cardstock or light cardboard from packaging.  Plan a simple design approximately five by five inches wide for the front, with the shorter back portion about three inches wide.  Draw or trace your main design, then lay the end of an index card along the top of the design and trace as needed, to make the back portion that will fold down.  Within this fold will need to be a slit approximately one inch wide for the hanger.  The folded label will rest over the clothes on each hanger.

We used hearts, one of the perennial favorite shapes at our house.  Any simple shape like a leaf, star, or even a square would work.  The project gives children the opportunity to trace and cut by themselves, then decorate with various basic materials such as crayons, markers, watercolors, glue, and glitter.  My daughter was proud to practice her lettering by writing the days of the week on each card by herself.  She drew some pictures of herself doing various weekly activities, plus we printed some small photos to correspond with certain days and glued those on.  Perhaps you want to trace and glue fabric scraps to cover the cardboard for a more finished look.  Or, you could design the tags as a real sewing project for older children who have developed that skill. 

I hope you are savoring time spent on simple projects like this one, showing children the rewards of making something with their own hands.  Whether you choose to make something elaborate or easy doesn't really matter.  It's about the process of creating something together, and about the satisfaction of accomplishment that you can't buy at the back-to-school department store sale.  May these little tags help your school mornings be more stress-free and organized, with less time quarreling over clothes.