It may be hard to believe but we are only a little over a month away from the start of the school season. One of the ways we know that school isn’t far off is when we start putting together those back to school lists. You probably already have begun one yourself: clothes for the kids or uniforms if they need them, basic school supplies, and don’t forget to schedule the all important medical exam. Many schools are now requiring them for first time students. Then there are the back to school lists from the school district and the wish list of supplies from their teacher. If you are feeling overwhelmed, here are a few tips to help you wrangle those lists into a semblance of order.

List Consolidation

Begin by sitting down with all those lists and consolidate them. Create categories for everything and then take each item and assign it a category in your master list. When you put the multiple lists into categories you will find shopping a much faster chore. Then break down those lists by stores. You are getting closer to the actual shopping, which will be much easier now.

Shop By Store

Now that you have a list of all the needed items by store, decide on which store you will shop and keep to just one store per day. If you have plenty of items that you can get at Wal-Mart, then choose a day for just that shopping. The same plan goes for supplies from a place like Office Depot. By deciding to only shop one store each day you will find you aren’t as overwhelmed or exhausted at the end of each shopping day.

Plan for Sales

Don’t forget that there will be plenty of back to school sales coming up in the next month. Watch for them and then plan to get that shopping list done during the sale days. Just because you have created your lists broken down by category and store doesn’t mean you need to start shopping now.

Wait for Trends to Arrive

Some things can wait for after the first week of school. Your ten year old may have loved her Hello Kitty lunchbox last year. But once she arrives at school and finds her friends all sporting another character, she may sing a different tune. Wait until school starts before shopping for these kinds of items to cut down on returns when they discover their favorite isn’t quite so cool anymore.

So get those kids back to school lists a good once over. While it may seem a chore to put this much organization into something that isn’t happening for another month, you will be glad you did.