My organization skills go between amazingly detailed to a big hot mess – depending on the day. I’m just being honest here. Some days I think I have it all together and well. . . others – not so much. My family calendar for example. What was once crisp, clean, focused and complete had become wrinkled, scribbled, ripped, and complete with an Africa-shaped coffee stain (that would be the big hot mess I was referring to). It was far cry from the Franklin-Covey leather planner that I worshipped and maintained when I had a “real job” for the State.
My husband cringed every time he’d ask about our schedule and I’d run and grab my trusty calendar. I’d haul this calendar (which is a huge desk size by the way) in the car with me if I was headed to Starbucks to get some work done. Oh the shame. I lost it last week (the calendar, not my mind. . . ). Found it in the garage of all places. Really? I needed a better solution.
My husband has politely suggested for some time now that we set up a family calendar station. I agreed, but struggled with the right solution. I looked and looked for the answer for our family calendar station, but didn’t find one I liked and frankly I wasn’t thrilled about a Central Command Station in our kitchen. I tried technology – Google Calendars and iPhone apps – they didn’t work. Kept going back to the ole trusty one.
But . . .I’m happy to report that I think I found the solutions last week (see below) – on clearance at Target – and I paid a whopping $6.14 for the answer to something that has been frustrating us for months. It wasn’t some amazing system, it wasn’t particularly innovative – it was a simple calendar that I thought I’d enjoy looking at daily and a weekly dry erase calendar that I thought would be perfect for menu planning.
I’m particularly excited for this little dry erase board. It’s only covers one week – so not overwhelming. It cost $4.14. I plan to use it for meal planning – to get us all on the same page for meals. If you can’t find it at your local Target, Amazon currently has it for $12.99 and free shipping with a $25 purchase (or FREE with Amazon prime). But look around at your local office stores or Target first.
My patient, supportive husband is happy for the organization and the cleanliness of it all! And I’m kicking myself that I hadn’t sought out a solution sooner. I think about how many things we have in our lives that bug us on a daily basis – and are really pretty easy to fix. The tagline, “Just Do It” seems to resonate with me.
I have a couple other examples from last week of small tasks that I tackled to “just do it” and make my life easier . . .
- “Just Do It” Example #1 – In our master bathroom I’ve had a set of towel hooks sitting on the cabinet for nearly six months, waiting to be put on the wall! Every time I’d wash my hands I was looking for the towel – hanging on the shower rod, folded on the counter, hanging on a cabinet. Oye! But last week I finally installed the towel hooks – took me about 15 minutes and NOW every time I wash my hands my towel is hanging where I left it – what a relief. I hadn’t even realized how frustrated I had become until I realized how relieved I was at the solution!
- “Just Do It” Example #2 – Leaving the house always takes twice as long as it should with two little ones. One of the frustrations is shoes! Finding matching pairs, finding the ones that fit and avoiding snow boots on 90 degree days! I went thru all the kids shoes and pulled out the ones that were out of season or too small. I separated them into two boxes – one for my daughter, one for my son. Now when my son needs to grab a pair of shoes, he can’t really go wrong. When I go to put shoes on my daughter, I won’t be sorting thru size three shoes trying to find the size fours! It took me about ten minutes and I’m guessing we’ll easily save that much time this coming week. Let’s hope!
I probably sound like a complete dork. You might be thinking my aha moments are like . . .duh! But like I’ve said before, I’m not perfect – I’m just trying to juggle life, babies, a blog, a mound of coupons, and more – and sharing my stories as I go. I am definitely going to make an effort at tackling those annoying projects that are just waiting to be done. By eliminating the little frustrations in my daily routine, I’ll have more energy to tackle the bigger ones!
This post is part of a series of posts I plan to share as I attempt to become better organized this fall. From silly things like a better calendar, to the disaster that is my office – I plan to blog about my quest to “get it together”. I’d love your ideas, suggestions or comments!
Is there a project or thing on your to do list that is hanging over your head? Have you tackled a project lately that was a huge relief?
The moose tacos made me look twice! We had moose chili a long time ago – yummy!
I went through the books we had on our bookshelf to weed out the ones we don’t read anymore. I’d like to transition into digital reading because it will save space and is “greener.” Anywho… Those books I don’t want anymore? I went to amazon and traded them in for a whopping total of $65! And Amazon will pay for shipping! I have to add though, I tried this with some textbooks and sat on them too long- I procrastinate big time- and lost almost $50. Let’s just say I’ve learned my lesson…
Recently cleaned out a hall closet where I keep my vacume and thousnds of other things. Bought a rolling thing with plastic drawers (I think Rubbermaid) and got organized. I’ve got a drawer for batteries,light bulbs, first aid junk, vacume bags and even card games. Wow is it nice to open that once nightmare of a closet. Should have done it years ago!
Wow, I had a good laugh at this post, because I created a “communication station” over my recent vacation. Yes, this is my idea of vacation fun. My son started first grade and has a lot of activities this year, and I’m much more busy with a new job and more volunteering, so I needed to broadcast our events beyond my little wallet calendar.
Here’s what I did. I put to use a wall in my small high-traffic hallway. It’s about 6 feet wide.
First, I painted the entire wall, floor to ceiling, with blackboard paint. I had some in the garage.
Then I bought a 24×36 magnetic white board and a 24×36 cork board and centered them on the wall (touching in the middle). I bought them at Costco for $20 and $15. While not a “steal,” they did come with accessories, like dry erase markers and push pins.
Finally, I cut (or rather, my husband cut) two little shelves from IKEA that I had sitting around from my last house and needed to put someplace. They are 2″ deep with a little lip. They were cut to 24″ to go under each board. They hold the markers and chalk.
Voila! A communication station. Here’s a photo: http://instagr.am/p/M85bj (Notice the scribbles on the bottom chalkboard. It’s already a fave of my 3 year old.)
If I could do it over again, I would have taken the extra hour to tape off the boards and painted the industrial, silver frames with a pop of color. But I was eager to get it done.
Now I’m looking forward to drawing on the top chalkboard each month, like for Halloween!
Thanks, QueenBee for the fun story about your own communication station!
Niquette – Way to go! I love your Communication Station! Very cool. Love the idea of chalk paint. And I had that same Ikea shelf for a long time and couldn’t find a good use for it – ended up selling it at a garage sale. But that is a perfect solution!
To help both my kids with everything needed for the next day, I bought two 5 gal. tubs (different colors) so they put their school bag, shoes, jacket in their assigned tub and the next morning they know where all of their stuff is. My daughter is the master of “I don’t know where it went, I put it right here”. 🙂
Great idea! I love that concept.
The shoe box has been my best friend since my little one was about 2, her shoes never went anywhere but a little box we have at the top of the stairs, and I also have gotten in the habit of telling her to get her sock (if needed) and shoes on 10-15 minutes before we are going to walk out the door. Makes leaving SO much faster!
Bought two of these about a year ago at Office Max from their clearance area for 4.99 each.
Two were needed, as I like to look out farther than the present 7 days, but didn’t want to have a supplimental calendar close by.
The boxes are big enough to section the top half off for the event of the day (mostly “guy stuff” entertaining, like football/soccer/baseball games on the big screen), which leaves enough room on the bottom half for food items dejure.
On the reviews portion of the Amazon product listing that you linked to, a smart person suggested hotgluing some magnets on the back so that it will stick to the refrigerator. This will be my old retired person upgrade project for this afternoon, as I’ve been cheeze-whizzing it with double-sided velcro tape that doesn’t adhere to the GE refrig very well.
Your site is fun, as it is down-to-earth, and contains relevant useful stuff.
Best of your site (for me at least) are the non-hardcore off-beat posts that seem to be based on a real-world perspective.
–Bill In Seattle
Hi Bill!
I was appreciate your thoughtful comments! They always add something to the discussion, thank you! Glad you like the real-life, off-beat post, which I hope to offer more up in the fall! (p.s. They are my favorites, too).
Thanks for following my site.
Heather
i like the post too! and will be over for burgers saturday 😉
I love posts like these to help remind us (as readers) that even the people we follow on blogs are not always perfectly organized and that they dont have some special handle it all perfect ability the rest of us seem to lack. I am on a roll with the organizing and making my life simpler. For instance I just got a free on the counter file organizer for my books of coupons and mail. I AM IN LOVE with it. 😉 I am going to continue to slowly tackle my office as well. If anyone knows of any good deals on medium plastic storage bins please post!
Glad you like the post. I am far from having it all together – that’s for sure! But we strive to just do better every day. I think living simply is the key. Less stuff. Less clutter. Less stress. It’s a beautiful thing. I’m actually hoping to do a post soon on my counter file organizer that I started about six years ago – it’s been a God send as far as finding bills, mail, stamps. I’m glad you are loving yours. I’ll watch for deals on medium plastic storage bins!
what’s a ‘counter file organizer?
Echoing Pam’s comment about “what’s a ‘counter file organizer?”.
My biggest failure in trying to emulate the “masters of couponing” is doing the prep work in clipping the coupons each week, organizing them carefully on Sunday morning (well, actually just throwing them into the giant pile of other coupons on the kitchen counter)…
…and then having them expire unused because I forgot (or was too lazy to sort through the pile to find relevant coupons #3, #8, #23, and #34 in a big blob of 46 coupons) when it comes time to actually go to the store…ACCCCKK!).
–Bill In Seattle
where do you find a great deal on moose meat?
I am lucky to get it from my parents for free. I’ll sometimes pay to have it shipped, otherwise I add to my luggage anytime I fly back from a trip up north to alaska. My father subsistance hunts for moose every fall – has my whole life. The whole family lives off the meat for the year. No leads on good commercial deals for moose meat though, sorry.
Great post! I have 1 million little messes I keep putting aside or over looking, My new motto is ‘simplify’. Still a work in progress 🙂
Simplify is a good motto to have. I’m working on that too!
I have the exact same dry erase calendar, I got it on clearance at Target last year and I still love it! I use different color pens for the next week as I go (I erase monday on Tuesday and write what I have for the next monday in a different color) If it weren’t for that calendar, I would have missed half the stuff I need to do!
This is a GREAT idea and one that I will have to steal! Thank you for leaving a comment!
Moose Tacos?!
Haha. Yes, I grew up in Alaska and moose is our primary red meat. It’s the only way I’ve ever known! 🙂 It’s organic, free range, and much leaner than beef.
Where is Alaska? I grew up in Kodiak.
I grew up in Fairbanks! Would love to visit Kodiak some day.