A painting instructor of mine once called me “a great organizer”, referring to how I painted. Although it sounds like a compliment, I never quite took it to mean that he considered my work good. It’s true, I have always liked organizing things since I was a girl. When my room would get too messy, I did not like being in it and would tidy it. My sister, on the other hand, could drop things anywhere in her room and would often be told by my parents to clean it up. But to be a great painter, do you need to be a great organizer on canvas and in life?
Fast forward to the present and I could tell you that while I am great at organizing some parts of my life, I still have much to improve on. These last few weeks of summer were a prime example of that. Missed or late appointments, late bill payments, forgotten groceries. I could blame it on lack of sleep or perimenopause, but my lack of organization has not been solely during this time period.
So with the start of a new school year – which includes our eldest starting high school, three new family furry members and me working outside of the house – I am determined to actually be that “great organizer!”
How, exactly?
THE ANSWER: Set up easy systems and then maintain them. The key words being “easy” and “maintain”. It’s all about the maintenance, once the systems have been established! And consistency is key!
Part of the problem in our household is that the other people don’t necessarily follow those systems. Matt says if he isn’t the one who implements them, he doesn’t feel empowered. He is also a bit stubborn about following other people’s directions (aka rules). But if a system is simple enough, it should be something that everyone can follow, regardless if he or she was the one who came up with it.
There are many types of systems to keep you organized. In this post, I am going to focus on calendars and planners. Other systems I will cover in future posts include lists, binders and files.
First and foremost, setting up your calendar or calendars is crucial for an organized year. Even more important, is getting all the information right! Recently, I missed a speech therapy appointment for Brighton because I had entered the wrong time into my phone calendar and subsequently on our big family calendar. Despite text and email notifications about the appointment, I ended up being a no-show because I didn’t double check the time. I had also taken a work shift that morning, because I thought the appointment was at a later time. It was an embarrassing mistake that we were thankfully not penalized for since it was the first time that had happened.
While some people prefer digital calendars, I have always had at least one physical calendar on the go because I like writing things down. Last fall, I purchased the dry erase calendar above, to keep track of all our appointments, important events, etc. in one central area. For years, I’ve gone through many renditions of command centres for our family. This calendar is currently located in our kitchen, which is very much the hub of our home. It is large enough to read from afar – 38″ x 50″ – and comes with an eraser, extra pushpins and a dated calendar for 4 years. You just need to provide the markers.
I love BIG calendars! They show you in a glance how the month is looking overall.
When we lived in Toronto, Matt painted one of our walls with chalkboard paint and then eventually painted a large calendar on it. Size-wise, it was probably slightly bigger than the one who have now.
Of course, size does not guarantee that everyone in the family will pay attention to the details on the calendar. I still get asked all the time when things will be happening. While my go-to answer would be “Look at the calendar!”, I usually also tell them when, too.
Another drawback of this type of calendar is that it’s only good for one month. If you are not right on top of getting the next month’s info onto it, then you run the risk of forgetting something. That’s why I also input all that data into my phone calendar and also a planner type of calendar.
Every year, I love picking out a new planner!
Since 2017, I’ve bought them from various places – including Amazon, Winners and Indigo – and am still searching for the most optimal one. If a planner has stickers included, it is all the more enticing, but I’m also looking at the cover and the layout inside. All of the ones above are also coiled, though the one I got for 2019 (not pictured because I seem to have misplaced it) was not.
I did spy this one by DesignWorks Ink that I quite liked when I was at HomeSense yesterday. But it was too small, not my favourite colour and also had too many months for my liking. The few planners that I did get that had more than twelve months would just end up blank in those extra months.
Personally, I like to have enough space each day to write my daily tasks with enough breathing room for other notes or thoughts. You can see that my planners have gotten bigger in the past few years because I wanted more writing space.
In my current 2024 planner by Orange Circle Studio, there are about ten full-size pages dedicated to “notes”, most of which I have already filled.
I like the weekly layout since each day has ample room for writing. The pages inside the planner are just slightly smaller than your normal 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper, and the blank task list in the bottom right corner of the spread is also helpful. The cover is also a thick, sturdy material and there is an additional double-sided inside pocket sleeve. I always have little papers that I need to tuck away and access from time to time.
From the looks of it, there are some cuter planner covers available for 2025, like this floral one or this Hello Kitty one. But I would rather stick to a 12-month one than a 17-month one since I still have the one for this year going. It’s hard to find one for only twelve months though. Apparently the 17 and 18 month versions are geared towards moms with kids or students, but I have never been one to plan out our whole year in advance. If I could just enter all the school related events that I know of right now, that would be a great start and a first for me.
So far, our kids have not signed up for any extra-curricular activities, and we have only one trip scheduled. Beyond that, we are more of a go with the flow type of family.
The trick with planners is to make sure you write in them daily. I know some people like to make their to do list the night before, but I prefer to do mine in the morning. There’s also a trick to not putting too many things on your to do list and/or prioritizing your tasks, but I will touch on that in Part Two of this organizing topic.
Another thing I’d like to start doing is designating certain days for certain tasks. Some moms and families likely already do this, which is how they maintain an organized household and schedule. At the start of the year, I was doing pretty good by exercising and blogging two to three times a week, typically on the same days every week, but sort of fell off the wagon by the beginning of summer. The kids being at home 24/7 made it much harder to fit in my personal wants and needs. Now that they are back at school, it is time to get back on track.
A sample schedule for me would be:
MONDAY – exercise, blog
TUESDAY – staging, laundry, art
WEDNESDAY – exercise, blog
THURSDAY – staging, groceries, art
FRIDAY – exercise, blog
SATURDAY – family time, clean bathrooms, more laundry
SUNDAY – meal prep for the week
This, of course, is what it would ideally look like but since my work hours are not regular, and appointments would be thrown in the mix, along with food needing to be replenished before a week has passed, nothing is set in stone. I don’t know about your family, but we generally have to go to the grocery store more than once a week simply because growing kids and kittens seem to inhale certain foods at lightning speed.
Speaking of food, meal prep is a whole other thing I have to get a grasp on. As much as I have strived in the past to be a great meal planner, sometimes I change my mind about the meal. Or I forget an ingredient or two. Or I run out of time to prepare it properly. Matt has definitely been more of the cook this past year and I really haven’t minded.
Maybe there needs to be some sushi made this week.
