Tired of opening your bathroom cabinets only to find chaos staring back at you? You're not alone. In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi teams up with decluttering expert Tonya Kubo to tackle one of the most frustrating spaces in many homes: the bathroom sink...
#682 – Back-to-School Prep: Tips for a Smooth Transition
#682 – Back-to-School Prep: Tips for a Smooth Transition
In this episode of Clutter-Free Academy, Kathi Lipp is joined by Tonya Kubo to tackle the often chaotic back-to-school season. They explore practical strategies to help families organize their homes and lives for a smoother transition into the school year such as
- Creating a backpack drop zone
- The importance of meal planning
- Practical ideas for keeping on top of the chaos
Kathi and Tonya share personal insights and actionable tips. They also introduce the upcoming Back-to-School Clutter Free Challenge, a community event offering daily encouragement and inspiration. If you’re looking for ways to turn back-to-school chaos into calm, this episode is for you.
Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest
Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.
Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.
Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.
Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”
Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.
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Clutter Free Resources:
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Order Sabbath Soup here
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Meet Our Co-Host
Tonya Kubo
Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.
Transcript
Kathi Lipp (00:11)
Hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And friends, if your kids aren’t already back to school, they are soon on their way. I just was ? on social media and a teacher was talking about this was the first week back to school. And let’s be clear, we’re recording this at the end of July. And I just thought those
poor children and then I thought no, those poor teachers, those poor, poor teachers. But can I just tell you, I love this time of year about, I am not going to school, I have no desire to go to school, but this feels like the kickoff to the rest of the year for me. There’s something about an academic calendar that is deep in my bones. And I know very few people feel this as deeply as Tonya Kubo,
Tonya Kubo (00:44)
Hey.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Kathi Lipp (01:10)
who is married
to a teacher and has two kids. So Tonya, how, it’s T minus what for your kids and Brian going, I know Brian probably goes back early because he has to get ready, but where are we sitting right now?
Tonya Kubo (01:13)
Yes.
Yeah!
Well, I think this episode will actually go out the day before school starts for the girls because school starts August 13th for my girls. Although today when we’re recording, which is July 24th, is the first day of school for one of our school districts in this town. So last night I was talking with parents who were like, first day of school is tomorrow. I was like, I’m sorry.
Kathi Lipp (01:31)
? okay.
Yes.
?
mean, when I was growing up back in the old days, and we were firmly into September before that was happening. And it just is not that way anymore. we want to help you whether you are going back to school because you’re a teacher, whether you have kids who are going back to school, or you just want to capture that pencils and notebooks feeling.
Tonya Kubo (01:58)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Kathi Lipp (02:19)
because that’s where I’m sitting right now. ? This episode is for you. Because here’s the thing, back to school chaos isn’t inevitable. And it doesn’t have to start at school. It starts at home. I really feel like that. Now sometimes, yes, school can add some chaos. ? But I think that there are some things that we can do at home.
to really make this time of year so much easier for ourselves and for those who are going back to school. Tonya, what is one thing that you do before kids go back to school that has been a win for you? Anything that you do.
Tonya Kubo (03:04)
I mean, there’s a lot of things that we’ve learned over the years. ? Some of them we’ve learned here from Clutterfree Academy. So in July is usually when we do our school supply inventory. Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent way too much time buying all the wrong stuff. And now we don’t do our back to school shopping until after what they call roundup, where they give us like the supply lists, because I’m
Kathi Lipp (03:07)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. yeah.
? yeah.
Tonya Kubo (03:30)
tired of predicting what teachers are gonna want this year. So delaying school shopping until after you get the class list, nobody gets kicked out of the first day of school because they didn’t have the right pencil. Like just, you know, send them to send them to schools as little as possible and get it later. The other thing though, is I would say is meal planning for that first month of school. That’s huge for us.
Kathi Lipp (03:34)
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Mmm.
Yeah, that makes a huge difference, right? Because ? if I remember anything about my kids going back to school as Tonya is yawning, it is exhausting. It is exhausting. No, here’s the thing, Tonya. You were just thinking about the beginning of school.
Tonya Kubo (04:02)
Sorry.
Exactly enough! Look, I’m so
tired and overwhelmed already.
Kathi Lipp (04:14)
and she wants
to put her head down on her desk. And I’ll never forget like that first week of school, it’s the hot mess express. They’re exhausted, their brains are exhausted, their bodies are exhausted, they’re cranky. And so to not have to fight over dinner is a beautiful thing to say, yeah, so what is it about?
Tonya Kubo (04:25)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (04:40)
this back to school that if we don’t prepare. mean, for me, it was my kids and their exhaustion. And the other thing is my kids would want to go back to school shopping for clothes. And I’m like, okay, we’re still in the dead of summer. Even in September, we’re still in the dead of summer. I’m not buying you five outfits that either you’re going to sweat in or you’re not going to wear until November when the styles change anyways.
Tonya Kubo (04:44)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (05:09)
So what makes it such a mess for you guys if you don’t prep?
Tonya Kubo (05:14)
So for us, part of it, it’s the routines, right? My people need a lot of notice and a lot of transition time. you know, like, so for instance, yesterday, Abby was at the doctor and he was making small talk and he asked her how she felt about going back to school. It had not occurred to her that school was starting in three weeks and she instantly starts anxious about how
Kathi Lipp (05:23)
Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (05:42)
she doesn’t have enough summer break left. So, right? So they just need a lot of transition. So for us, ? the change in bedtime. So we’ll start now, three weeks ahead, like having them go to bed a little bit earlier. And then the other piece though is it’s really the food because in the summertime, they’re used to eating whenever they’re hungry, there’s stuff around. then they’re, right, they’re gonna go back to school and it’s like, okay, for Abby, we’re gonna leave the house.
Kathi Lipp (05:45)
? bless her heart.
Yeah.
It’s a grazing.
Tonya Kubo (06:12)
7 15 she’s going to get to school at roughly about 7 45 8 o’clock and then she needs to not eat until lunch. That’s a long time for her to go. So I have learned it’s packing stuff that they can eat when they wake up but also for her she needs to have a snack on the way to school and then making sure that we’ve planned what are the right lunches because that’s the other thing as a mom.
Kathi Lipp (06:24)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Tonya Kubo (06:39)
I just want them to eat school lunch because I’m tired and I don’t want to have to think about it and nobody died from eating school lunch for a week. And also that’s a really rough adjustment. So it’s nice to be able to have a lunch packed from home for that first week of school. So that you’re not having to deal with the cafeteria stuff. Cause that’s the other thing. There’s a lot of cafeteria overwhelm that happens with our kids.
Kathi Lipp (06:46)
Yeah.
Yes, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I love that you pointed all of that out. And yeah, my kids were never big school lunch people. I’ll be honest, when I was a single mom, they were on free lunch program because I made so little money. And can I tell you, a blessing that was. What a huge gift that was. But yes, you’re right. The first Kim.
Tonya Kubo (07:15)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (07:28)
missed her first meal because she didn’t know how to navigate. It never occurred to me to figure out how to navigate the first and she was too shy to ask. And so, you know, and she was at a new school and blah, blah, blah. So that totally makes sense. And so I want to talk about some things that we can tackle for school prep. Some things you might want to consider, might want to think through. These don’t work for every family, but
Tonya Kubo (07:34)
Mm-hmm.
Yup.
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (07:57)
They’re gonna, but think through this list and see what might help you. ? One thing that we did is we had a backpack drop zone. We didn’t call it something cute like that, but we just said, okay guys, this is where your backpack goes when you get home. Because they’re so big, but we spent so much time looking for them. It was crazy. So if you wanna go get something and then trying to look for them the next morning, are you kidding me? Too much.
Tonya Kubo (08:08)
Mm-hmm.
That’s so true!
Kathi Lipp (08:27)
So if you need to go grab something out of your backpack, great. But this is not what we’re doing. We also, ? we were not big lunch pail people, but we had, you know, they had food that they hadn’t eaten. And so just a reminder, hey guys, any food that you didn’t eat, bring it back to the kitchen. We’re either gonna pitch it or we’re gonna use it the next day. ? Having a lunch plan. One of the things that we tried to do when we were packing lunches in high school was,
We tried to have three days that were like, hey, here are your standard kind of things. And then a couple of days where it was like, hey, if you just want to go grab some snack pack, like, you know your body, I trust your body, but I’m always going to insist on a piece of fruit and a water bottle. Like I need to know that those things have happened during the day. I was watching a video the other day of
Tonya Kubo (09:12)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (09:26)
a woman who was packing her husband’s lunch and he’s an ER doctor. And people are like, some people are like, that’s so much food. And then other people are like, are you kidding? He’s hardly, you know, that’s what you’re giving him. You know, he, deserves to sit down and eat a real meal. they’re like, have you met a doctor in the ER? There is no sitting down to eat a real meal. So no.
Tonya Kubo (09:33)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (09:54)
Like know your kids and know what they will actually eat. I would love to hear from you, Tonya. Like what are some things that your kids will actually eat in their lunches?
Tonya Kubo (10:04)
Yeah, well, so both girls are very different. something both girls like is mini charcuterie, or as Abby likes to call them, her snackle boxes. Yes, but salami, cheese, crackers, fruit, nuts. Lily can take nuts to school, Abby can’t. So that’s something that they both really enjoy.
Kathi Lipp (10:11)
Snacko boxes, I love it.
Mm-hmm.
Tonya Kubo (10:28)
Lily likes sandwiches now. She didn’t used to. This is the first year that we like sandwiches. Abby does not. Abby likes to have chips, but Lily’s favorite thing really is to take dinner leftovers. Like if we can find, if it’s good room temperature or cold, or we can find a way to keep it warm, she is so happy with like a metal thermos of rice and meat and broccoli. She’d eat that every day.
Kathi Lipp (10:35)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It’s perfect.
Yeah, perfect, perfect, perfect. And yeah, you can do that rice in a big batch and yeah, you’re good to go for a while. ? Yeah, my kids always wanted a sandwich. they had a place where they could heat things up. So we had one kid who liked a frozen burrito that, you know, kind of defrosted during the day and then went in there, those kinds of things. So.
? We did not have snackle boxes when my kids were younger, but that would have been fire for them. So thinking about that and letting your kids say, what am I actually going to eat? And then finding the healthiest, best version of that. Do they need a snack for the morning? Do they need a snack for the afternoon? Those kind of things. It’s good to think through those things instead of doing it at the last minute. Another thing that we did,
Tonya Kubo (11:43)
Mm-hmm. ?
Kathi Lipp (11:47)
that was ? very, very helpful was a labeling station. Now, okay, so this is interesting. My mom, who is a sewer, had ? got us labels one time with our last name and our phone number on them that could be ironed into clothes. So like jackets, that kind of thing. So that felt very, very fancy. And then just having, we did a bunch of
? Mailing labels that had our kids names on them so they could put those in books or they could put those in their ? Pencil box those kind of things so they would be able to have that kind of thing and then also putting over their Sharpie markers because sometimes you just need to write on stuff Especially like a lunchbox or something like that. What information do you label your kids stuff with is it name and phone number? What is it?
Tonya Kubo (12:36)
Mm-hmm.
Usually just name and phone number.
Kathi Lipp (12:48)
Mm-hmm, and I’m guessing that’s an adult phone number
Tonya Kubo (12:52)
Yeah, my phone number, always my phone number.
Kathi Lipp (12:54)
Yes,
yes, yes. Okay, so thinking about that labeling station and then ? I know that you have done clothes checks in the past where you’re checking to see what still fits, what doesn’t fit, what needs to be replaced. How do you go through that?
Tonya Kubo (13:08)
Mm-hmm. ?
it’s the least high tech thing ever. And I do recommend like spoiling yourself afterward because it’s such a pain, it’s tiring. But what we’ll do is so we’re in the process of that right now where we are making sure that everything is clean, right? So like going through all the hidden cracks and crevices where laundry likes to hide, washing everything. And then as it comes out of the dryer when we’re folding,
Kathi Lipp (13:20)
Yes.
Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (13:38)
we’re having the girls try it on right then and there. It’s like, oh, well, we’ve had this a while, try it on. And then, you if they try it on and it doesn’t fit, it goes in the giveaway bag. And if it does fit, then it goes into their drawer. I think that’s so much easier than taking stuff that’s already been put away and going through it. But that’s just what works for us.
Kathi Lipp (13:40)
? so smart.
Hmm.
Yeah. ?
I love it so much. Okay. And then family calendar. How do you keep track of all the things? I mean, between, yeah. You guys, I wish I could show you Tonya’s face right now. I just wish I could, or maybe it’s best we don’t.
Tonya Kubo (14:15)
Yeah, maybe it’s best we go. Well, we’ve tried everything, right? So one year we bought a family calendar that was like spiral. It’s very nice actually, Kathi It’s a very nice calendar. It was a great idea. And it had like your week schedule, a spot for grocery list, a spot for prayers for the week, like all, everything you could want to have. it paper and it worked really well and nobody ever looked at it.
Kathi Lipp (14:24)
Yeah, okay.
Perfect.
Tonya Kubo (14:41)
? So then I went to calendar whiteboard. So I’ve got one in the hallway. I’ve got one in my office and that worked for like a month and then everybody stops using, you know, they stopped looking at it and then because they don’t look at it, you don’t use it. We have a gigantic just blank whiteboard that’s in the living room that they do like to use for lists. But this year, you know, I’m just going in on trying digital because Abby does have a tablet. She doesn’t have a phone, but she has a tablet.
Kathi Lipp (14:41)
Of course.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Tonya Kubo (15:10)
Lily has a phone and then going, okay, can we just map everything out digitally? But I feel like it’s practical versus ideal. The meal plan still does best when it’s put to the front of the fridge with a magnet. My favorite though is when Mr. Brian Kubo, who we love and adore, opens the fridge where the meal plan is and stands there for five minutes trying to figure out what to make for dinner.
Kathi Lipp (15:24)
Right.
Love and adore.
Tonya Kubo (15:37)
and then comes and asks me if there’s a meal, like a plan for dinner. And then I go, yeah, I thought that was on the fridge. And he closes the fridge door and he looks at it. He goes, that one right there, that plan. I’m like, yeah, that plan honey, that one right there.
Kathi Lipp (15:48)
Right there. We love you, Brian Kubo. Well,
and you know my story of Mr. Justin Hunter, who, ? mom, were out of soy milk. Well, did you put it on the list? No, can’t you do that? Do you understand? Do you understand? First of all, I don’t drink soy milk. You are the only person in this house who drinks soy milk. And by the way, that list on the refrigerator is a magic list.
Tonya Kubo (16:15)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (16:17)
You just write soy milk, even if you just wrote soy, three little letters, you know what’s going to happen? Somebody’s going to read that list, put it on the shopping list, is going to go to the store. They’re going to use money that they have earned to purchase that milk. They’re going to drive it home. They’re going to carry it into the house and they’re going to put it into the fridge. So I think your contribution
Tonya Kubo (16:20)
We would get it for you, ?
Kathi Lipp (16:46)
could be writing the item that only you consume on the magic list. Yeah, he still hasn’t recovered from that little, could you just put, couldn’t you just do it? Yeah, okay. Anything that you’re trying to train your kids on now at the beginning of school that helps. I’ll tell you one thing that we did that I feel like a genius for. We had a minivan.
Tonya Kubo (16:53)
Ugh.
?
Kathi Lipp (17:16)
and we had a garbage bag and a recycling bag in that minivan and all of you empty, you go through your backpack and throw away anything that can be thrown away. Recycle anything that can be recycled and anything you need me to pay attention to, you need me to look at, you need me to sign, you need me to put on a calendar, put it in this tray, this bucket I have in the car and I will take care of it. But it is…
Tonya Kubo (17:40)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (17:45)
up to you to get that into the bucket. Anything that you are trying to train your kids now on as school starts.
Tonya Kubo (17:53)
? that’s so good. So cleaning out the back of the car when they get out, because, I’ve only been trying that for three years. We’ll see. ? My other mission is not to have dishes in the bedroom. Right. Because it’s like it would be easy for me to do the dishes after they go to school in the morning if I didn’t have to go hunt for them in the scariness that is a bedroom. But I think, you know, for what we’re working on right now is having
Kathi Lipp (17:59)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Tonya Kubo (18:23)
both girls get their clothes out, start thinking today about what they want to wear tomorrow. And we are working with Abby on doing her own laundry.
Kathi Lipp (18:33)
nice, okay, I love that. Okay, so if I had kids right now, one thing I would probably be combating, and I do combat with Mr. Roger Lipp, is every time we go to town, we don’t need to go to Starbucks. And…
Tonya Kubo (18:35)
Those are our biggies.
?
Mr. Kubo also does not understand why such things must be true. Why must he live in this torture?
Kathi Lipp (18:56)
It’s…
Yes. Okay, so one thing I will tell you, Costco, this is for my friend Brian Kubo in case this is a little snackety snack you like. ? There is a croissant, bacon and egg sandwich at Starbucks ? that is fire. It’s so good. It’s so good. And we have found it’s equal at Costco.
Tonya Kubo (19:25)
At
Costco?
Kathi Lipp (19:28)
for maybe a quarter of the cost. And so I’ll put a picture in the notes, but yeah, because if it was up to my kids, we would have just driven through Starbucks every single week and it would have to become the equal of our mortgage payment. And so I know that we would do Starbucks like every other Friday with the kids, but.
Tonya Kubo (19:44)
Mm-hmm.
same.
Kathi Lipp (19:57)
to have some food at home that they would actually eat because if it was just left to their own devices, my kids would not eat anything for breakfast. So I tried to have things that they would actually eat. what are some quick things that they can grab? Fruit, shelf stable milk, bars, what is it that they will actually eat? Heat up, microwave, breakfast, thinking through that is going to help you a lot. ?
Tonya Kubo (20:22)
you
Kathi Lipp (20:25)
Here’s my thing, Tonya. We don’t have to fix everything by Monday, but start to ask yourself some of these questions. And one of the ways you can do this is we are doing a back to school clutter free challenge. And I am super excited about this. This is in our free group, Kathi Lipps Clutter Free Academy. We’ll put the link in the show notes. But if you just go to ? Facebook and you type in Kathi with an I, Lipps.
or clutter free, you will find it, okay? Answer the questions we ask you because we are very selective of who we let in there because we don’t want people trying to sell you stuff or bug you. But this is a completely free group. In August 18th through 22nd, we are going to do a five day challenge to get you ready for back to school. So even if your kids have started school, even if you are not currently in school, but you just love the idea of prepping and organizing for the fall to come.
Tonya Kubo (21:06)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (21:25)
You’re going to love this. So I will be in there. We will be cheering you on. Tonya will be in there. We will cheer you on. People will be sharing their ideas. There will be daily challenges and community encouragement, tips and tricks. You’re going to love it. Well, Tonya, I salute you as you head back to school because it’s not just the kids. It’s the parents. And when you’re the only person in the household who isn’t going back to school, how much of this
lands on you. I know the answer. Much of it lands on you. You are the support system for all the emotional people who have to be places that maybe they’re not the most excited about or maybe they’re really excited about, but they’re really exhausted. And so we send you off with all of our hearts and our best wishes. Okay. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be a great year for all the Kubos and for all of our listeners and friends.
Tonya Kubo (21:58)
Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Kathi Lipp (22:23)
You have been listening to Clutterfree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter free life you were always meant to live.
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