Tips for Organizing Student School Lockers
Strategies for Middle School and High School Success
Aug 22, 2009
It doesn’t matter how hard one works on a project, paper, or homework assignment if it cannot be located when its time to be turned in. For many middle schoolers, keeping track of assignments, supplies, and belongings is second nature. But other students become easily overwhelmed at the prospect of managing so many different tasks at one time.
Benefits of being Organized
Fortunately, good organizational skills can be learned. Mastering these skills not only help students feel more together and prepared; being organized may also help reduce anxiety, help students feel more confident, increase grades, and save time.
Cleaning out Lockers
First, start with a clean locker. If it’s a new school year, great. If not, remove everything from the locker and divide into three piles: keep, toss, and take home. The “toss” pile includes trash, papers no longer needed, and other assorted junk that’s just taking up space. The “take home” pile is for things that are to be kept, but aren’t needed at school. This stuff is just taking up valuable real estate in an already too-crowded locker. The “keep” pile, obviously, if for things that are regularly needed in school. These are the things that will go back into the locker.
Creating a Locker System
One of the keys to keeping a locker organized is having a place for everything. This saves time in the long run, as students will know exactly where to look for what they need. Put things in a place that makes sense. For example, students may choose to put all the supplies they need for morning classes in one spot, and the things they need after lunch in another spot. Other ideas: taping a class schedule to the inside of the locker door, using post it notes as reminders, and keeping a huge box of pencils (which are always disappearing) in the locker.
Locker Supplies
Students may also want to consider purchasing things like locker shelves, magnets, magnetic baskets, and other accessories designed to help keep lockers tidy. These things can be found at most office supply stores and are most plentiful at back to school time.
Keeping Lockers Organized
Having the most beautifully organized locker is a complete waste of time if it can’t be maintained. The most important element of maintaining a clean locker is getting into the habit of returning things to their place at each trip to the locker. This can be a difficult habit to get into: bell pressures can make a student feel rushed and bring about the “I’ll fix it later” attitude that is a major contribute to locker disorganization.
Fortunately, the time a student saves not having to search for lost items more than makes up for the few seconds of extra time needed to keep things organized. Students may need to mentally force themselves to resist the urge to just drop their binders into a pile on the bottom of the locker until the get into the habit of putting things away each time.
Locker Checks
Even with proper maintenance, lockers will probably need a brief spot check every week or so. Eliminating any items that need to be taken home or thrown out, and assuring that things are in their proper place, will keep a student’s locker in top shape.
With a little effort and practice, even the most disorganized students can start to turn their lockers around and reap the benefits that being organized brings.
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