How to: Organise Your Locker
Written by Mily Gu
How to:
Organise Your Locker
Firstly, welcome back everyone!! I hope you had a slow transition back this week. I was planning on writing something about transitioning back into on-site learning but I figured I would just be repeating information you’ve been hearing nonstop from teachers and coordinators (although the information and wellbeing sessions they have been providing us are very important and useful!)
So instead, this week’s ‘How To:’ will be something related to back-to-school, namely organising your locker.
There are many ways to organise your locker, different people will have different organisation strategies depending on what suits them best. Basically, there’s more than one way to organise your locker. Instead, I’ll just be giving some tips that you can either ignore or try out with your own locker that have been effective for me! :)
1. Make good use of your shelf! (if you have one!)
“If you have the privilege of having a shelf in your locker, make good use of it!”
Having a locker with a shelf is the best type of locker you’re going to get (out of the 2 options). There are many ways to use your shelf to your advantage. The most useful one (for me at least) being putting your bag on one level and your books on the other. You can have your books propped up like on a bookshelf which will leave you some space for your pencil case and other items :)
2. Tips for if you don’t have a shelf
Not having a shelf sucks, but you can still make the most out of it. When I was in year 7 and 9, I didn’t have a shelf :( but it did give me time to find out the most functional way to use a locker with no shelves.
I’m going to try my best to describe this for you. So when you have your locker, you line your books up along the back of your locker on either the left or right side. Because your books won’t fill up the whole locker, the opposite back side of the locker can be for your bag. So you basically have one half for your books and one half for your bags. You can prepare your books for your next session by placing them in the remaining space!
3. Folders
This is recommended by the amazing Alisha Kuniyil. She has one large folder for each subject, which includes her notebook and other spare papers she needs inside it. This way, if you choose different colours for each subject, it’ll be easy to grab the right colour folder and go!
4. Colour-Coded Notebooks (and/or notebook spines)
Similarly to the folders, you can get notebooks with coloured covers so you can tell the different notebooks apart. However, when your notebooks are lined up in your locker, you won’t be able to see the colours. In this case, you can always use a highlighter and colour the spine of the notebook just a little bit so you can tell which is which and grab the right notebook easily!
5. Getting ready in the morning
If you ever get to school a little before the bell, a reall good tip to be organised is to fully unpack your bag and putting everything in a designated spot so you don’t leave anything in your bag that you might forget! This really doesn’t take long but makes it so much easier to stay organised for the rest of the day :)
6. Preparing books for your next class
Last but not least, preparing your books for a speedy locker run. Now that there is only one person allowed at a locker column at a time, being fast at your locker is more important than ever. In the morning when you get to school, you can prepare your books for the next 2 or 3 sessions (depending on your schedule) so when the bell goes, you can go straight to your locker and grab the stack of books sitting there. When lunch/recess starts and you’re putting things away and getting your lunch, it doesn’t hurt to spend a few extra seconds getting your books for the next 2 or 3 sessions ready again. This is not only really useful for being quick at your locker, it also ensures you don’t forget anything for your next sessions.
And that’s it! I hope these are helpful in getting you organised and remember that everyone has a different way of doing things so some might work for you and some might not. Also a very big thanks to Alisha Kuniyil for helping me think of this topic and adding some of her tips in!!