A year for organising...

I recently decided that I need to be more organised this year.  I'm sure we've all said that before - I know I have.  But we are so busy during the school year that our current system is not working.

• We miss appointments
• We lose party invites
• We are late with bill payments

I have tried a diary, the fridge, the phone, a wall planner and numerous other ways of keeping track and I have decided that the only way is to be more disciplined.  Therefore I sat down one day late last year and designed a diary that would hopefully work for us.

It is a week per double page with the dates on one side and a section for notes and bills on the other.

When we get a bill, it immediately gets written in on the day it is due (with the amount), then again under the bills section on the opposite page.  The bill then gets placed in a cardboard pocket that I have inserted at the beginning of each month.  January's pocket is pink!  I put a pocket in because when I've tried this before every time someone picks up the diary the bills fall out, get mixed up or get lost.

Any appointments or birthday parties get written in on the day and the cards get glued on to the note section so they don't get lost.  And all regular activities get written in too.  Plus school/music/sports special dates as soon as we know about them.

It's all spiral bound with a plastic cover to make it last the year.  So far the system is working - but it will only continue to do so if the WHOLE family is disciplined about using it.

We have also decided it's time to declutter, partly because the kids are getting older, partly because we intend to move in the next year, and partly because we just have too much stuff!  I started today with FJ's bookshelf.

We've kept a lot of favourites though, as the kids still like to read them sometimes, but this pile is destined for new homes.  Hopefully I'll tackle another one tomorrow!!