There's something wonderful about fresh school supplies, a new haircut and a fresh start every September.
We might not be headed back to school - but with school supply prices at the ultimate low - I wanted to clear my desk o' clutter and organize everything into a family planner.
For me, that meant creating a binder that would {hopefully} cut down on the annoying coupons, schedules and lists that always go missing in our little home. A cheap, convenient way to stay organized without going overboard.
Here's what I purchased:
Here's what I purchased:
- a three-ring binder
- 10 dividers
- cheap pencil case
- sharpies (Can you ever have enough?)
I'll admit, I spent far too much time clicking through lovely (and free) printables to organize everything from carpools to cleaning schedules but, to be honest, I just need one central location for schedules, a meal plan and these categories:
- Week at a Glance Calendar - for workouts, Ingrid's daycare, Dan's ever-evolving work schedule.
- Meal Planning - this should really be title "In a Perfect World Meal Planning" because I have yet to make a meal plan work. I'm never in the mood for what I "scheduled" and I'm always missing some random, critical ingredient.
- Budget - In hopes that if this information was close to to-do lists, I would check it regularly. High hopes. High hopes indeed.
- Goal Setting - I wish I could apologize for this - but for me, this is the only way I can achieve results. If it's written down, it will eventually happen.
- Blog Calendar
- Travel - Ideas for places to visit, travel sites to remember and places of interest to check out. No unnecessary planning or budgeting here!
- The Rest - a place for writing down passwords, housing random Groupons
My favorite site was The Project Girl - great tips and free printables.
After an hour of organizing, hole-punching and throwing all coupons into the pencil cases - tadah - now things are sort-of organized.
My goal of clearing my desk of clutter has yet to be realized, but now there's a pretty binder in place of piles of paper. I'll take it for now!
What about you? Do you set aside time weekly to plan? What tips and tricks have worked for you?
When it comes to meal planning, I am awful! I need to be better about this because we're stuck in a food rut where we eat the same things over and over again. Or I'll come home from work and proclaim "It's 'Fend for yourself' night!" And then it's a bowl of corn and maybe a fried egg. Is that a dinner? Probably not. ;-)
ReplyDeleteCalendars? I schedule everything for the family in my phone. It's worked so far.
Goals/Budget? Oh boy. Those are still sitting quietly on the back burner. Again, more stuff I need to get better at.