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Preparing for Back To School Using a Backpack Essentials Checklist

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It’s an uncertain time for us all, especially when we talk about sending our kids back to school. While it’s an exciting time, kind of like how you feel when you see fireworks; it’s also a time of worry and concern. When your child is worried, concerned or just anxious about going back to school full time, my best advice is to get them focused on the fun tasks of the preparation. The first step to prepare for school would be to check out my 3 Tips for Choosing The Right Backpack because that’s where it all starts.

The second step (and I cannot stress this enough) for alleviating concern and worry is to create a checklist. You all know how I feel about checklists {wink}. By focusing on something that needs to be done you change your distracted mindset (creates worry) from something you cannot control to something that is within your control (a plan of action). What’s the best way to organize that plan of action? I’ll say it again, create a checklist.

First, let me say I cannot even believe I have a teenager! It seems like just yesterday we were shopping for her Hello Kitty backpack for kindergarten. As is the case in the last few weeks before school starts, she always gets excited and rattles off periodically the list of “I need this”, “I need that”.

So to keep it all organized (so we both could understand) I suggested she create a backpack essentials checklist. Since I’m a list maker, I also taught my daughter about list making for staying organized. I’m also a big Happy Planner fan and also got her hooked on the Happy Planner too. The school needs and wants list gets easier each year as she gets older. I’m good with that.

My daughter decided to use a Jansport black and white polka dot backpack that I had given her. While I did not find one like this backpack anywhere (I did get it some years back); Amazon has a Jansport Grey with White Polka Dots backpack which is just as cute and perfect for any teenager.

She then decorated her backpack with various boondoggle “charms” for her backpack zippers. Even I remember how fun these were to create!

Her theme for this school year is mostly black, yellow and lemons with some green / leaves mixed in. So, she decided to use a yellow Recollections cover that she deringed with the Mini Happy Notes Recipe Foodie.

Using Happy Notes is also a great way to customize the notebook to your needs, whatever they are; the Happy Planner is an extremely versatile disc-bound system. The best part of using this system for school is you can easily take the pages out and quickly put them into another Happy Planner or Notes.

Personally, I tried to walk away from the Happy Planner, just to try other systems but I quickly came back because it’s just a wonderful system to work with for any purpose. I can even use this planner system as a bullet journal because they have tons of paper options, even grid. On that note, let’s take a look at my daughters backpack checklist.

30 Backpack Essentials For School

  1. Planner
  2. Notebooks
  3. Binders
  4. Pens & Pencils
  5. Highlighters
  6. Pencil Case
  7. Laptop
  8. Lip Balm
  9. Accordion (file holder)
  10. Wallet
  11. Lotion
  12. Water Bottle
  13. Snacks / Lunch
  14. Hair ties
  15. Hand Sanitizer
  16. Tissues
  17. Mini Hair Brush
  18. Deodorant
  19. Mints / Gum
  20. First Aid (kit-small)
  21. Pads
  22. Sticky Notes
  23. Loose Leaf (paper)
  24. Glasses
  25. Compact Mirror
  26. Headphones
  27. School ID
  28. Keys
  29. Music Stuff
  30. Calculator

This essentials list is not all inclusive and it is a list that fits her needs. But, it’s a great visual to see some of the items her and her classmates are packing into their backpacks. The amount of stuff these kids have to carry around these days is crazy. I’m not saying everything on her list is what she carries -most will go into her locker. But, books wise, it’s a lot.

She is also choosing to use all Happy Planner Notebooks this school year instead of the typical wire-bound ones. She chose the Classic Happy Notes Good Things and classic Happy Notes Tropical (which is no longer available; the cover reads “Positive Thinking, Positive Outcome”).

This combo looks amazing together!

Lastly, she will build up her school wardrobe and she’ll be all set and ready for school.

Now she is all ready to head off to sophomore year.

If you are getting ready for back to school and prepare a checklist don’t forget to share by tagging me on Instagram and using #btdinspired, I’d love to see your work (and I just might repost your photo)!

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