Transform Your School Run Routine In 4 Simple Steps!

We all know how stressful the school run can be, but taking a few small steps to prepare the night before and day off can make a huge difference. These are small changes that can easily fit into your routine to make mornings feel more seamless (most of the time!). 

Get uniforms out the night before

One of the biggest issues often faced in the mornings is not having the right uniform for the kids! A shirt missing here, trousers missing there, it can be really stressful trying to route around for clean clothes in the morning. So, instead, work with your kids to get clothes out the night before, hanging up uniforms ready to put on first thing. If any items are missing, you’ll still have the time to quickly wash and dry uniforms ready for the next day. Say goodbye to last minute panic! 

Have your kids help pack their bags

Once uniforms are sorted, it’s time to get the kids bags packed for the next day. Sit down with them and figure out what they need for the next day. This might be a PE kit, items for cooking class, homework or different forms. 

So, the easiest thing is to unpack the bag with kids when they get back from school, as if there is anything in there that needs sorting for the next day, like homework or forms, it can be done. Then, you can re-pack the bags and this will help to give the kids some accountability too when it comes to getting things sorted. Pop the bags by the front door, open ready for lunch to be added in the morning. 

Have a morning and evening checklist

When it comes to accountability, something else that works well is to have a morning checklist by the front door, then an evening checklist somewhere else. On the evening checklist, it should include things like unpack bags, do homework, put clothes in the wash and take the lunchbox to the kitchen. Then in the morning, things like make bed, have breakfast, pack lunch in a bag, brush teeth and get dressed. 

Wake up before your kids

Another good way to get ahead in the morning is to wake up before your kids. Even if it’s just 30 minutes before, this extra time means you can get ready without distractions, make a coffee and set yourself up for the day! A happy parent makes happy children, so taking this time to yourself is so important to wake up before the chaos of the school run begins. 

Pack lunches and prep breakfast the night before

Another absolute essential to help you save time is to pack your lunches and prep breakfast the night before. Trying to do this the morning of the school run is a challenge when things go smoothly, let alone if things don’t go to plan! So, on a Sunday, stock up on lunchbox favourites and store them in the fridge/cupboards. You could prepare a few days in advance, so on a Sunday, make sandwiches for Monday and Tuesday, then Tuesday evening, make pasta salads for Wednesday and Thursday. This means you’re not prepping every night and cleaning up will be easier! 

The same goes for breakfast, as although it may seem simple, getting plates and bowls out, getting cereal boxes out and any spreads to go on toast can make life a lot easier the next day. If you want to do a hot breakfast, you could prepare some breakfast muffins that just need reheating, or you could get the saucepan out, pop the eggs in there in their shells and get the bread out next to the toaster. These are all small changes that add up to making life much easier each morning. 

Start milk deliveries 

Our final hack is to start getting local milk deliveries! We’ve all had those mornings where we open the fridge to find the dregs of a milk carton and a desperate scramble through the cupboard to find something suitable for breakfast that doesn’t need milk. However with milk deliveries, it’ll get delivered straight to your door as often as you need it, so you can take the pressure off breakfast as long as you have some cereal in the cupboard. Plus, you can get oat milk in glass bottles delivered if anyone has a dairy allergy or intolerance!