In my many years of life experience, one of the things that I have learned is a key
to success is being prepared. So I'm going to help you get prepared and ready to go
back to school this week, whether it's you going back or your kids. All right. Let's
get to it. If you have any notes or paperwork, or projects from last year,
ditch it. You're likely not going to need it again, and if you need that information
for whatever reason you can always Google it. I used to keep all of my paperwork
from years and projects before, and I never touched it again. Then, when I moved
out of my mom's house, I had like years of schoolwork to go through. Totally not
worth keeping. As a recovered pen hoarder, I can advise you, test all of your pens,
pencils, pencil crayons, and highlighters. Ditch anything that's not working anymore.
Get yourself a set of whatever you need to have a good, successful school year, and
don't overdo the writing utensils. Take it from me. Get your school gear all ready to
go. So that means take your book bags or your lunch bags, get all of that
laundered, smelling fresh, looking clean, and then of course pack it so that you're
ready to go for the first day. I would totally rock this on the first day of
school. I mean, "Hello, Kitty." We all want to have funky shoes on the first day
of school. But the good kind of funky, not the bad kind of funky. So if you feel that
your sneakers or kicks are a little bit on the bad funky side, check out this video
to learn how to clean your sneakers and breathe new life into them so that you can
look amazing on your first day back. Since going back to school is in and of itself a
routine, it's important to establish routines around school, and we've got some
more ideas about this coming up. But the most important one that I can think of at
least at staying clean and organized is the getting home from school routine,
because that's when mayhem can really break out. So, establish this routine a
couple of days before you actually go back to school. Or if you have little ones, do
a dry run with them. But basically, what you want to do is make getting home from
school the same event day in and day out. A great example of a getting home routine,
first things first, take off your shoes and put them in the proper area. Then,
take your lunch directly to the kitchen. Empty out containers. Put those in the
dishwasher. Throw any garbage away. Then, you want to empty your school bag and get
any pertinent notes or paperwork, or homework out and then put your bag where
it belongs. Now, all of that will take 90 seconds, and the reward? Hello,
after-school snack. Unless you thrive in organized chaos and I know some of us do,
the majority of us do really well with an organized work space. So that means you've
got to clean that desk and make sure it's nice and ready for the school year. Good
news, I already have a video on that topic. It is from an older back to school
series that we did, and I think you should check it out. It's simple, it's quick, and
it's going to make all the difference. Going back to school is an exceptional
time to go through all of your clothing and pick out the things that you just
don't need anymore. So what this means is picking out anything that's too old, too
dirty, too holey, and not the good kind of holy, the other kind of holey, and stuff
that you're just not going to wear anymore. So, depending on the situation of
the garment, you're either going to throw it away or donate it. Then, you'll have a
good, succinct shopping list and you know exactly what to pick up when you're out
shopping. Well, it's been a year or two since I've been in school. But I'm pretty
sure it's a lot easier to go paperless today than it was back when I was going to
school. So if you can reduce the amount of paper that you're bringing into your home
and taking with you in your school bag, that's a good thing. So figure out if
there are apps that you can download, or if your school provides some sort of
resource for you to go paperless, or if you have some sort of laptop or tablet you
can bring along with you. I have a whole video on how to go paperless. We did it
during our spring cleaning series. Why don't you check it out and see if it
sparks any ideas for you in terms of how you can go paperless this school year.
Now, for the older kids, I have a suggestion that I wouldn't say is the
coolest back to school suggestion, but it is a functional one. Why do you keep a
little, teeny, tiny bottle of dish soap in your locker? For good reason. It's a
perfect stain pre-treater. So, if you happen to drop something unfortunate on
your favorite garment in the middle of lunch and you don't want to look like a
crazy person with a big old stain on their shirt in your fourth period class, run to
your locker, get that little bottle of dish soap, clean that stain, and you'll be
pre-treated and good to go. There's no better way to get yourself in the right
head space for going back to school and for being the most prepared to get all of
your work done as quickly as possible, than getting your room nice and clean.
Don't you worry. I have a video on that, and there it is. So give your room the
good old once-over, get it all ready for your new school year ahead, and I promise
you'll be so much more prepared, relaxed, and ready for success. So that's how you
can stay clean, organized, and prepared for an awesome school year. Remember, one
of my keys to success is to be prepared. So keep these tips in mind and you're
going to be in great shape for this year. Let me know if you have any back to school
cleaning, organizing, or routine questions in the comments down below. We might get
another video up for you. Who knows? We'll see. You can follow me on Instagram. I'm
@MelissaMaker. The camera guy is @TheChadReynolds. We are all
@CleanMySpace. Show us your back to school gear or prep, or whatever it is that
you're doing for back to school. There's a button down there that lets me know you
care. So click it if you liked this video, and click this button right here to
subscribe and begin your journey to a cleaner life. Thanks so much for watching,
and we'll see you next time. Well, it is one of my favorite times of the week where
it's the end of the video and I get to throw you to some other videos I think
you're going to love. This week, I'm throwing you to three videos. They are our
back to school series that we filmed a couple of years ago, spanning a variety of
back to school cleaning topics from cleaning and organizing your desk, to
getting out stains and some cool locker ideas. So be sure to check them out there.
Over there you can click links down below. You can tap on these if you're watching on
your mobile device. You can also check out our website, which is CleanMySpace.com.
We've got the link and the whole business over there. There's lots of cool stuff up
on our website. Be sure to check it out. Thanks, guys. Happy back to school, and
we'll see you soon.