The New Term Checklist: what to check before you replace anything

Quick answer: Replace what no longer fits or no longer seals, and wash and keep almost everything else. Shoes are the one thing to check first, because feet grow over a long break. Bags, bottles, lunchboxes and rainwear usually have another year in them ~ which makes the real list far shorter than the one in your head.

Emptying the backpack at the end of a term is its own small ceremony. A pencil sharpener, a hair tie, a wrapper, and at the bottom, the bottle everyone swore was lost in June.

Then we drag the last-season bins out and do it properly ~ on the floor of their rooms, or across the sofa where there is room and everyone is already sitting anyway. Four children, one afternoon. What still fits, what has been outgrown into the next child's pile, and only then the gaps that are genuinely left.

Every year I start out certain we need a whole new set. Every year the pile that actually failed is much smaller than the pile that just needs a wash ~ and the gaps come to three things, not twelve.

It is not thrift for its own sake. It is that a new term arrives with a list attached, the list is written by shops rather than by the child, and almost none of it survives twenty minutes of looking properly at what is already in the house.

So this is that twenty minutes, in the order I do it, piece by piece ~ what to check, what it means when something fails, and what genuinely needs replacing. It has saved me more than any sale ever has, mostly by stopping me buying the four things I already owned.

Does the backpack need replacing?

Usually not. The zip tells you before anything else does: run it the whole way, and if it catches at the same tooth every time, that bag is finished. If it runs clean, it has another year in it however grubby the front looks.

Then the straps ~ flat, not twisted, still gripping at the buckle. Then the seams where the base meets the body, which is where a heavy week really shows.

Ours always come back looking worse than they are. I have thrown out a perfectly good bag on looks alone, and I try very hard not to do that any more.

Do the shoes need replacing?

Usually yes, and this is the one that catches me every single year. Feet do most of their growing over a long break, so a pair that fit in spring can be finished by the first week back.

Press your thumb in past the longest toe ~ which, on two of mine, is not the big toe at all. You want about a thumb's width. Then press across the widest part, because a shoe can be long enough and still be wrong, and that is usually the one they stop wearing without telling you why.

If you only get to one thing on this list, make it this one.

Does the bottle need replacing?

Almost never. There is a soft click when the lid seats properly, and if you have stopped hearing it, take the lid apart before you buy anything ~ nine times out of ten it is the gasket, gone stiff in a drawer over summer.

One of mine drinks in one go, standing at the door with her coat half on. Another sips like she is being timed. Same bottle, completely different child ~ that is what the dual lid on the Sip + Chug is for.

Does the lunchbox need replacing?

Only if it stops closing, or the inside is damaged.

Most get retired for looking worn rather than for being unusable, which is a shame, because a lunch bag is one of the easiest things in the house to pass down. It goes to the next child with a wipe and a new name label and nobody minds at all.

What about rainwear?

Check the sleeves, not the shoulders. We cut rainwear generously on purpose, so it survives a growth spurt better than almost anything else in the wardrobe. Sleeves still reaching the wrists means it stays.

The walk happens either way. That is the whole design brief here.

The pieces that are worth buying once

The reason the pile gets smaller each year is dull and completely practical: the bottle bought this week sits beside the one from two summers ago and they look like they were bought together. One palette, carried forward. One print in a run of sizes, so a piece moves down to a younger child and reads as theirs rather than as a hand-me-down.

Which means you replace a piece, not a set. Nothing becomes last season.

The twenty-minute version

This is the order I do it in, because doing shoes first tends to shorten everything after it.

Buy only what failed, and only into the gaps ~ a much shorter list than the one you sat down with. When something has genuinely reached the end, the school day pieces sit together in one place, in colors that go with what you already own.

Frequently asked questions

How often should a child's backpack actually be replaced?

When the zip, straps or base seams fail ~ not annually. A well-made bag will usually see out several years, and then go to a younger sibling. Ours have.

How do I know if school shoes still fit?

Press your thumb past the longest toe: about a thumb's width of room is what you are after. Check the width across the widest part too ~ length is not the only measure, and width is the one that quietly makes a shoe unwearable.

Is it worth buying a more expensive backpack?

It is worth buying one built to outlast a single year. The number that matters is what it costs per year of use, not what it costs on the day.

What should I buy first if I can only buy one thing?

Shoes, every time. They change most, they are used most, and they are the piece a child feels all day when the fit is wrong.

What does not need replacing every year?

Bags, bottles, lunch bags and rainwear. Each is cut loosely enough to survive a growth spurt, and each is easy to pass on ~ which is exactly why we design them that way.