Happy 2013!!! I have been noticeably absent from this blog, but with the new year comes a new focus. I have had several friends ask me if I have blogged about certain things I've done in my home, projects I've worked on or plan to work on, transformations, and honestly I just haven't had the inspiration in a while. But with a new year comes a new focus. The past few years I've spent a lot of time out of my home (working, volunteering, and just basically being distracted). I've realized that I love my home, and being in my home, and doing things to make my home a nice place for my family to be. So my focus for the new year is my home and all the "little pieces" that make up my home... family, cooking, decorating, organizing. I want this to be a place where I share my focus with you. So this blog is going to be revamped, and I'm hoping to be A LOT BETTER at sharing the process.
The organizing of my home, first had to begin with me. Over the past few years I have become a lot more forgetful about things. Appointments, meetings, lunches, practices, deadlines... as a mom running in different directions it's easy to forget things. And although I would get reminders on my phone, I'm just not very good at last minute reminders. I needed to be able to look at a whole month or a whole week and see jobs, or meetings SCREAMING out at me..."Hey don't forget you have the dentist on Tuesday afternoon.", "Hey girl, lunch on Friday with J", "HELLO... Yearbook purchasing deadline is FRIDAY!" Nothing more annoying to me that to see that I have scheduled a school meeting and a lunch with a long lost friend at the same time on the same day and have to cancel one at the last minute.
So my search for a good planner began. I tried making my own with the Martha Stewart line of items at Staples, but that big ole binder just was too big for my purse... and I carry a big purse. I needed something more compact, but I also needed more room to write. Sounds like an oxymoron right? I knew there had to be something that would work for me and after searching, I finally found it.
ErinCondren.com has a wonderful product called a Life planner. Have you heard of these? If you haven't and you need to get yourself organized you have got to get one of these.
The organizing of my home, first had to begin with me. Over the past few years I have become a lot more forgetful about things. Appointments, meetings, lunches, practices, deadlines... as a mom running in different directions it's easy to forget things. And although I would get reminders on my phone, I'm just not very good at last minute reminders. I needed to be able to look at a whole month or a whole week and see jobs, or meetings SCREAMING out at me..."Hey don't forget you have the dentist on Tuesday afternoon.", "Hey girl, lunch on Friday with J", "HELLO... Yearbook purchasing deadline is FRIDAY!" Nothing more annoying to me that to see that I have scheduled a school meeting and a lunch with a long lost friend at the same time on the same day and have to cancel one at the last minute.
So my search for a good planner began. I tried making my own with the Martha Stewart line of items at Staples, but that big ole binder just was too big for my purse... and I carry a big purse. I needed something more compact, but I also needed more room to write. Sounds like an oxymoron right? I knew there had to be something that would work for me and after searching, I finally found it.
ErinCondren.com has a wonderful product called a Life planner. Have you heard of these? If you haven't and you need to get yourself organized you have got to get one of these.
Each Lifeplanner is totally customized just for you. They have lots of different cover designs to choose from or you can even add pictures of your family to your cover. I decided I wanted something fun and neutral so I chose a gray and white print.
What I really loved about this planner is that you have tons of room to literally plan out your life on a day to day basis. I needed room to write... a lot of room. I don't know what your calendar looks like, but it is not out of the ordinary to have 3, 4, 5, 6 different things going on in one day. Well, how the heck are you suppose to write all of that on one little square? And on the other hand, I didn't need a whole page for just one day. This is the best of both worlds. At the beginning of each month you are given a monthly view calendar, and then you are given a weekly view calendar. The best part is that each day is broken up into morning, day and night. You also have a goal and to do area for each week. Great way to keep you organized and focused on what you need to get done.
Of course you have a note taking area, and a little plastic pocket to keep your pen, receipts, business cards, etc. Plus you get some lovely stickers to use for birthdays, doctor appointments, no school, etc.
One of the ways I keep all the appointments organized is by color coding the planner. Every member of the family has their own color marker that I use. This really helps me see what's coming up for each person. I also LOVE using Washi tape to highlight certain days or weeks at a time. I got this one at Target in their office supply area.
Goal: Organize my daily life... Completed!
