Back to School prep is a busy time for the whole family, whether your child is starting kindergarten or you’re a pro with multiple children in different school stages. You’re juggling schedules, emotions – and a supplies list as long as your arm. To help ease the overwhelm, we asked stylist and creator Alexis Teasdale, who is mum to sons Teddy, 11, and Gabe, nine, and daughter Andie, six, for her best tips on staying organised at the start of a new school year. 

“Back to School time is so exciting to me because I’m a stationery lover!,” she says. “Contacting books using wrapping paper and stickers brings back that ’90s nostalgia for a millennial mum like me. It’s the same for my kids; we love getting fresh exercise books and pens, and the excitement of getting it all together. I start getting organised early. As soon as I see Back to School on an ad or a billboard, I write down dates on my monthly desk planner for when we’ll get uniforms and when we will do the school list shop, so the whole family is across it.”

Alexis gets everyone in her house involved so it’s not just down to one person to remember everything. “You don’t need to be Mary Poppins! If you’ve got a partner, you could split the tasks up by child, or one person tackles the uniform shop and another tackles the stationery.” The kids can also help; Alexis gets hers to go through what’s already in the house for their school supplies list. “They get their bags out, see if they need a new bag or lunch box and drink bottle, and then we work out who needs what and write it all down on the planner.” 

Wherever you’re at with your prep, here’s our guide to acing your Back to School routine.

Alexis and her three children, Andie, Gabe and Teddy standing close together, arms around each other, in a cosy living room with framed art and decor on the wall.
Alexis and her three children, Andie, Gabe and Teddy. 

The Challenge: “I Have Three Kids to Buy for and I’ve Left Shopping for Supplies to the Last Minute”

The Fix: “If you have left Back to School supplies shopping to the last minute, firstly, don’t panic! Officeworks is a one-stop shop where you can get everything from stationery to lunch boxes to tech, which helps ease the stress,” says Alexis. Officeworks stores across the country open early and close late, making it easy to shop their wide range of school essentials when it works for you.

If you’d prefer to tick off your school shopping list online, you can take advantage of Officeworks’ free Click & Collect service. Once you’ve got all your Back to School essentials in your cart, all you have to do is select Click & Collect from your preferred store during checkout. When your order is ready for collection, you’ll receive an email and SMS to let you know to pop in and pick it up when you’re ready. Sorted!

SEE ALSO: Back to School Backpack Essentials

Alexis labelling lunch boxes and water bottles at a home desk, surrounded by labels, markers, scissors and a label maker.‍

The Challenge: “I Need to Label Everything for My Kids, Fast.”

The Fix: You can order personalised labels for your kids’ belongings online with Officeworks Print + Create in just a few clicks. You can make them as fancy or as simple as you like. Think about labels for everything from books to clothes and lunch items like food containers and drink bottles.

“With three kids in school, I know the power of labelling! It’s worth the time upfront to save you the cost of losing items and having to replace them,” says Alexis. She uses a variety of labels, including plain white labels with her kids’ names written on with a black Sharpie for inexpensive items like drink bottles and iron-on labels for uniforms. “If you have multiple kids at the same school, a great tip is to just put their surname and phone number on their uniform labels – it means you don’t have to re-label when someone wears hand-me-downs.”  

SEE ALSO: Clever Ways to Make Kids’ Name Labels for School

The Challenge: “I Need to Get My High-Schooler a Laptop for the First Time. How Do I Choose?”

The Fix: Most schools have school tech guidelines, so it’s important to check these before you make a purchase. Your high school may recommend a particular brand or model, or even provide specifications as to desired screen size, software compatibility and operating systems.

We asked Geeks2U technician Harvey for the key things to consider when looking for a school laptop:

  • A device with at least an Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5 processor – the central processing unit responsible for running your device.
  • 8GB RAM (random access memory) so it can efficiently multitask between apps and programs.
  • A 256GB SSD (solid state drive), which indicates how much you can locally store on your device.

He says all of this will run schoolwork and multiple apps smoothly for years, adding that  good battery life, a durable build and modern connectivity like USB-C and Wi-Fi 6 help futureproof the laptop, so it doesn’t need replacing too soon.

SEE ALSO: The Best School Tech, from Primary To High School

Andie holding a black felt memo letter board reading ‘FIRST DAY 2026 – ANDIE YEAR 1’ in a backyard garden.

The Challenge: “How Can I Make The First Day Of School Feel Special (And Less Crazy) For My Child?”

The Fix: Planning some family rituals and routines to create excitement and mark the beginning of Back to School time can really help, says Alexis. “A week before school starts, the kids love getting a new key ring for their school bag. My daughter loves to decorate her bags with ribbons and badges. Then the day before school starts, I take my kids to the supermarket to pick their favourite lunch box snacks. For the first week of school, they get all the things that they like in their lunch boxes; the rest of the term, I'm more in control of what goes in. The night before the first day back is about prepping those lunch boxes and laying out their uniforms, socks and shoes and they will help me with all that.”

Every new school year Alexis also gets her children to pick out all the letters for their names, new class name and school year and stick them on a memo board. “I put this on the breakfast table in the morning and we have pancakes for breakfast. Then I get them to hold the board for their first day back photos, and off they go!” You can also use a My First Day board, which is reusable each year and is a cute way to track their progress.  

Alexis using a handheld label maker to name labels for school lunch boxes and water bottles at a home desk, with plain white and markers nearby.

The Challenge: “My Family Starts the Term Well but We Get Disorganised As It Goes On. How Can I Set Up Good Systems at Home?”

The Fix: The dining room table can easily become a jumble of merit awards, party invites and school projects if you don’t have a good system to organise everything. With an 11-year-old, nine-year-old and a six-year-old, Alexis has had lots of time to perfect her family’s term time routines. Here’s how she does it:

  • Use magnetic clips on your fridge. “These are brilliant for displaying award certificates so you can make a fuss of your kids’ achievements and the art they bring home, and for displaying school excursion forms that need a signature from both parents. I have seven of them on my fridge,” says Alexis, who adds that they’re also great for party invitations. “Invites go straight on the fridge and I also take a photo of the invite with my phone, as otherwise, it’s a guarantee you’ll be driving to the party and you’ve left the address on the fridge.” 
  • Have a school lunch box system that the kids contribute to. “My rule of thumb is that my kids know they need to take their lunch boxes out of their bags after school and chuck them on the kitchen bench. I make sure that I don’t go to bed unless the lunch boxes are emptied and clean, and they’ve got all the dry items in. Then in the morning, I only need to add the refrigerated stuff like yoghurts, sandwiches and fresh fruit.”
  • Invest in clear document folders or document wallets to file old school photos and paperwork. “I keep folders in a cupboard and just put old forms, certificates and artwork in once those magnets start sliding down the fridge because they’re holding too much. Every couple of months I will go through the folders, recycle about 50 per cent of it and then keep the rest, and write the school year in it so I can refer back to it if needed.” Alexis also loves to create photo books at the end of each year of her kids’ artwork.   
  • Make a homework organisation station. “I keep this in the kitchen near where the kids do their homework and we use it for everything from school projects to wrapping presents for parties. This caddy is stocked with scissors, sticky tape, glue sticks, pens and pencils.”  
  • Use a steamer to save time on ironing. “I find a steamer so handy in the mornings; school shirts don’t need to be pristine, but this is great for quickly getting wrinkles out.” 

SEE ALSO: 3 Organisation Hacks to Streamline Your Day

Teddy, Andie and Gabe standing close together with arms around each other indoors, next to a white door and framed art on the wall.‍

What to Try