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Happy New Year! I don’t know about you, but I am always enthusiastic about starting a new year. Back when I was a kid in school, I was usually languishing away in my school year come Christmas, but New Year’s seemed like a great time to get back on track. Maybe I didn’t always stick with my plans to do better in the New Year, but it still felt good to have that chance for a do-over. Since adulthood I’ve also been rather blase about sticking to my resolutions. I’ve dallied with trying a “word” instead of resolutions, but that hasn’t worked either.
Not that anyone is scrolling through my blog archives and checking, but I have never written about resolutions. Last year I briefly mentioned that Marc & I were trying out the “envelope system” of budgeting, but I didn’t get into it here. It actually ended up lasting us half of the year, but I just hated it. I feel like I was more confused shuffling money from envelopes week to week than I would be tracking my spending via my debit card. Or so I tell myself 
So this year I’m hoping to stick with my resolutions more by mentioning them here. My first one is one that I try and try to do all year: be more organized! I’m actually pretty organized in some ways–I have my bills system pretty streamlined and I’m pretty good at the menu planning. But my house could always use work, and I usually don’t know where to start (or end). I want to work on both cleaning and decorating my house (because it really looks a lot like we did when we first moved here), but obviously cleaning and organizing come first.
I bought a bundle of e-books for $7.40 after reading this post, and I set out to start something that I’ve always wanted to do: make a household binder.
Now wait, this is where I will be mocked and ridiculed by those of you who see me “in real life”. I don’t know why, but when I do a post about something like organizing my pantry, people think it’s funny! I guess it is, but I know that others are also interested in reading those posts. So I acknowledge that in some ways it is totally lame, but deep down I’m sure you know it can also be really helpful.
the bigger projects are on the left, the daily checklist pages are on the right
I printed the pages from the ebook “The 2013 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner” so that I had a page for every week of the year. This particular planner has chores for the day and the week broken down so that you don’t forget to do them and nothing gets overlooked. The other pages I printed were from Tsh Oxenreider’s ebook “One Bite at a Time”. I only printed the projects that I want to do (there’s no way that my husband would ever get on board with not using shampoo!), and I’ll stuff those projects in here and there so that I do one a week. Of course, I’ll have other projects but I just liked having the printed “instructions” of what to do so that I’d be more inspired to, you know, actually do them.
I 3-hole punched all the pages and stuck them in a binder that is sitting on my neat and very clean countertop (it helped that we also had company over tonight, so I was very motivated to start the cleaning checklist). I wish it didn’t take so much space, but it is convenient to have it in something that I can write in and not have to fight my kids for it (like if it were an app on the iPad). I love apps and gadgets, but there’s something about crossing something off a list on paper, you know?
So that’s my first step to being more organized this year: making sure I keep on top of things via a planner. Do you have any organizational resolutions? I have to say I’m starting with those because they are my favorite. I also have fitness ones, but they are just not as exciting to me
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this idea! What a great way to keep all of those ideas you have throughout the year in one place. I will definitely be trying this!
Oh, but fitness ones are so much FUN!
I think of my house as a work in progress when it comes to organizing. First of all, I do have a limited budget. 2nd, as the seasons change, our needs change. Now I have winter coats hanging over the backpacks which is a bit annoying but there it is. 3rd – our kids grow into different seasons. We’re out of the toddler/baby season. However, I still have a preschooler with his needs and older kids wanting to create models. I have to balance all this until the kids move into a new season which may be sooner or later.
I need to get organized. every year I vow to, of course the new year finds me full of energy and thought to do this! I’m going to check out this site! thanks for sharing.
I love those planner pages! I tried to go “paperless” and keep my lists on my Ipad and Phone and it didn’t work, I went right back to my planner. Something about seeing it written out makes me feel more organized! Good luck staying organized!!
Every year, I try to get organized and every year I fail! I need to look into “The 2013 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner”. Looks like it may be just what I need!
I’m looking forward to getting organized too!
Well now that I see how many of us resolve to get organized every year and then fail, I feel better. I’ve been kicking myself every year for the same problem, LOL – and am always whining that we need to get things organized around here. It’s always a work in progress, and never finished, ah well. I don’t even know if a planner could save me from my five kids, ha ha.