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Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find some helpful hints for organizing your time and space. My passions are to help you make home a refuge instead of a crisis center, and to help you function in peace rather than chaos - at home or at work. I have switched my main blog to 1-2-3 ... Get Organized on WordPress, so please visit me there.



Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Organizing for School 2010 - A Family Calendar

    
At the end of summer, I'm usually feeling like life is out of control. It's been nice to have a less restrictive schedule, but I'm ready to have a little more routine. And being an introvert, I'm looking forward to having a little more time to myself and to spend on my business, which I greatly minimize during the summer. So here's a rerun of a post I did last year about getting organized for school:


Getting Organized for School - Family Calendar

I'm taking another look at getting ready for school - if you start now and get yourself organized, life will not be so chaotic when school starts. The following is a revamp from last year's post on the same subject.
 


A major aspect of getting ready for school (or life) is having a family calendar in a location where everyone can check in to see what's going on. It's best if it is located at your hub (see my post on this subject, listed below).

Your calendar can be an organizing software program on your computer/laptop or a wall calendar.

There are a number of great software programs that track several family members (some are free!). And there are several personal spiral/notebook type organizers - my favorite being the Planner Pad. I've done reviews of both software programs and notebook type organizers and will link the related posts below.

When my children were home, we used a huge calendar on the side of our refrigerator. My friend Carole, hangs hers inside one of her kitchen cabinets so it's not so unsightly. 

I like the look of Mom's Plan It Calendar. It's a 17-month calendar which can track up to 5 family members, with stickers, and more. 

2011 Mom's Plan-It Plan-It Plus Calendar

You can use a different color pen or marker for ea
ch person, and a separate color for family activities. Then it's a breeze to decipher your daily activities!

I use my Palm software and post the schedule on the fridge each week, including our dinner menus!


More on Calendars/Organizers:

Getting Organized for School - Creating a Hub 
Product Review of Organizers - Daily Home Planner  
Product Review of Organizers - The Planner Pad
Product Review of Organizers - PDAs 
The Final Review of Organizers 
Cozi 2.0, Oops