New Year's 2015 | Getting Organized

A few New Year's resolutions keep rising to the top. If you opt to skip the get heatlhy, lose weight route this year, I am a big fan of getting organized.

 

When I am organized, budgeting flows easier, because I know what I have, what I need, what I can do without and whether I have the money set aside.



An organized workspace makes me smile and want to blog.
Or at least helps me feel less guilty when I spend inordinate amounts of time on Pinterest.

When I am organized, my household is less stressed, because I don't go to crazy mom mode over realizing at the last second that we are late, missing a form or need to run out on an emergency errand to a store we just visited yesterday.

When I am organized, I can keep from running around like a crazy person.

 

I finally hit critical mass sometime around when my second child made her debut. I just couldn't keep track of everything I needed to do on my humble wall calendar any longer. The Lilliputian squares simply overflowed with all the awesome that made up our day to day lives. Papers were misplaced. Cupcakes promised might have been forgotten in the mounting activities and responsibilities.

Things were on the verge of getting ugly.

 

Sorry wall calendar, it's not you.
Actually, it is you.

I still love my wall calendar, but I mostly use it for the big item of the day.
Like flying to Orlando.
Or boarding the Disney Fantasy.
Other details need not apply.
But where could I keep all of these details?

Just a few of my favorite things.

I struggled along for a few years with a day planner, the contacts in my phone, email reminders and google docs each organizing a small part of my life and the side of the fridge became a command center that I tried to filter all of these disparate parts of my life. Then I added on a homeschool calendar and binder (because who doesn't love a good binder.)

I love all the pretty little extras!

For my birthday last September, I finally gave in and ordered my very own erin condren life planner.

These planners are definitely not for the semi-planner, as they've thought out each detail of what you might want and can be customized six ways to Sunday. They actually have pockets and spaces for all of those little parts of my planning life that I wanted to combine into one easy place and streamline all of my planning.

it's kind of fun to do the impossible.

It worked!
My homeschooling and kid activities and vacation details all fit in perfectly! The appointment reminders and girl scout meetings and rehearsals all stayed in line with plenty of blank pages and margins to put notes on blogging and my run schedule all in one place.



Plenty of space for recording, journaling, planning, doodling and just keeping track of where you are!

I love it and I am not going back to fifteen kinds of planners and organizers all going every which way.

For anyone who wants to order a beautiful, personalized life planner, I can't imagine a better place to start. (No, they didn't pay me in any way shape or form. I just bought their product and absolutely love it!

Even the packaging makes me happy.
We ended up using this box as the basis for a time capsule.

Kylee had trouble believing that the beautiful wrappings weren't for her.

My back cover makes me as happy as the front.

What helps you stay organized?