AVON, Conn. -- Getting children up and out to school on time can be a real challenge some mornings, but with a little organization, a good amount of that stress can disappear.

These are additional tips offered by Eileen Perrotti of Homeworks, a professional organizing business based in Avon, for people who want to be more organized in the school year.

The first thing to tackle in the morning: Getting the kids dressed in "matching" clothes.

Perrotti suggests that instead of hanging clean clothes up in the closet, parents match up tops and bottoms, fold them together and store them in dresser drawers, making it easy for kids to quickly pick out outfits.

"Another thing that's very good is if you have a drawer for school clothes and a drawer for play clothes," Perrotti said.

1. Keep a hamper in each child's room and when feasible, do laundry loads for each child.
2. Select outfits the night before.
3. When folding outfits together, you may want to put two shirts with each bottom (skirt/pants/shorts) so that the child can feel like he/she is making some choices.

Food

Before bed, put a selection of cereals on the kitchen counter, ready for the kids' breakfast.

"They can come in and serve themselves and sit at the table," Perrotti said.

When it comes to packing lunches, putting all the sandwich ingredients in one container will help speed up the process of making the sandwiches.

"Have it all together in one bin that you can pull out of the refrigerator and that makes it so much easier," Perrotti said. "You don't have to pull things out separately to make your lunches."

Children can help select their snacks.

"Have a snack drawer and take all the snacks out of the boxes and put them into a basket," Perrotti said. "This way, it's easier for them to see the snacks that they want and put it in their lunch bag."

Keep spare change in a container in the kitchen so it's easy to grab for hot lunch and milk money.

1. Put fruits together in the refrigerator so they are easy to find.
2. Leave a clean (and empty) lunch box on the counter each night, so it's ready to go in the morning.
3. Altoid containers make good coin holders for that hot lunch/milk money.
4. Ask for change in coins when you're at the store to help refresh the supply of lunch money.

School Center

Perrotti suggested setting up a "school center" in the house to help organize schoolwork, using a bookshelf and baskets: Assign baskets to each child and keep an extra basket filled with items that might be needed for homework.

"There's everything in here from crayons to magic markers to glue to scissors to rulers," Perrotti said.

Children should put important papers parents need to see or sign in the top basket.

Perrotti also suggested having a bulletin board above the bookshelf for menus and calendars. She likes using color-coded calendars.

"Every member of the family has a color: When you see red, you say, 'Oh, those dates are for Liz.' So, this way, even the children know, 'Oh, this is a day for me,'" Perrotti said.

1. Keep a dictionary, thesaurus, calculator and paper (lined, colored & graph) on the shelves as well as a pencil sharpener.

Backpacks

Backpacks should hang in the same place each day, and Perrotti suggested keeping the homework in the backpack unless it's being done.

1. Attach a carabiner to your child's backpack so if the backpack becomes too full, the lunchbox can be clipped to the backpack and won't get lost.

Parents' Files

1. Find a countertop area to keep a set of files of important school papers.
2. Keep a file to store papers specific to each child regarding upcoming field trips or upcoming school events.
3. Keep the school handbook there as well.

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