Hi everyone, we are preparing for my son to go back to school (Grade 10) at the beginning of September. It’s a very uncertain time for everyone. One that requires us to have grace for each other as we all try and navigate this stressful time. All I know for certain is that things keep changing so flexibility is key right now. So yes we are preparing for back to school but we are keeping all options open for the time being. Here in Alberta, Canada where I live, masks will be mandatory for students going back to school. Therefore I needed to implement a new system in our home with regards to face mask organization. I’ll share that with you today along with what we are doing to keep his face masks organized while my son’s at school. Hopefully this will give you some ideas for your own space.

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Face Mask Organization

The first thing I needed was a home for all our clean masks by the front door, readily available. I’ve had this hook set for awhile now. Some of you might remember that when my kids were little, I used it to hold their little backpacks. Now it’s going to hold our masks. If they are hanging here, everyone knows they are clean and can be quickly grabbed as they are heading out the door. The dilemma I had was what was going to happen when we came back in the door. Since I hand wash our masks (I only do laundry once a week so I don’t want to be doing a load just for masks) I needed somewhere that my son could toss his masks right when he got home from school. I walked around my house and found this metal bucket that I already had on hand.

The shelf ledge I have above where the masks hang is a great spot for it. It’s a bit too big but it works for now. I added a big Dirty Masks label to the front of it to remind everyone (hopefully) that their dirty masks need to go there. I used my Silhouette machine to cut the label but you could use a Sharpie on paper to get the same effect.

The plan will be for my son to take his dirty masks out of his backpack and put them right into the bucket after school. Then he’ll either hand sanitize or wash his hands immediately afterwards. I’ll hand wash the masks as soon as I get a chance. The entryway of our home is right in the middle of house so I can’t miss it and forget that the masks need washing. This is also one of the reasons why I don’t want to tuck the bucket out of sight.

You can use any kind of bucket you have on hand, just make sure it is one that can be easily disinfected. Take a look around your local dollar store. I spotted these cute ones below in the gardening section of Dollarama.

Oh and if you are curious, so far my son’s favorite masks are the plain white ones from Hanes. I purchased them at Walmart in a pack of 5 for $12.

Here’s an entire picture of our entryway so you get the full effect.

Behind the door on the right is our garage. On the other side of this garage door is a shoe organizer that I have set up to keep extra supplies for easy access. It’s really useful for holding all sorts of things including hats, mitts, disposable gloves, wipes, bug spray, sunscreen and extra masks and mask filters. This is a really great solution for finding extra space.

Unfortunately this particular pocket organizer that I have is no longer available. However here is one I found on Amazon (below) that might work well for you if you have a door being underutilized.

Another idea for an underutilized door is to add hook magnets to the back of it to hold your masks. This is my favorite mask by the way from Grace and Lace.

This hook that I’m using in my picture is from the dollar store and is a little more heavy duty than is necessary for this purpose. These ones from Amazon would probably be more effective.

Now as for how my son will be carrying his clean and dirty masks in his backpack, this is what I came up with. I liked the idea of using reusable sandwich bags because they will be easy to clean. Here’s a few I had on hand that could work except they are a little too big and my 14 year old son doesn’t love the colors :).

So here’s what I’ve ordered instead from Amazon (see image below). I will label one pouch for clean masks and one for dirty.

Next I wanted a hand sanitizer holder that he could attach to his backpack. I purchased this one below from Amazon that attaches to his backpack with a carabiner and is retractable. This way he can easily clean his hands before and after changing his masks out. And I like that he won’t have to dig through his backpack with dirty hands. I think that should work well.

So like I said, this is my current face mask organization setup. Once school officially starts we will have to adjust as necessary and I’ll keep you updated as we go. It’s a simple system just like most of my organizing systems are. But that’s just the way I like it especially with how overwhelming everything is right now. Keep it simple and not only will you have less stress but you’ll more than likely be able to maintain it too.

I honestly can say that this is one organizing post I never thought there would be a need for. Crazy times we are living in that is for sure.

Contributor Kristin shared a Quick and Easy Way to Organize Face Masks earlier this month on the blog so be sure to also check her method out.

And one of my readers (Hi Melissa!) is doing something similar to me and hanging her face masks as well.

What does face mask organization look like in your house?

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