Getting Organised for 2015

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my Filofax, in fact I adore it, but since working from home and being mum it doesn’t always work for me.

For the past few years I have had diaries in there that have just remained empty and have never been written in. It has made me sad that I haven’t been using it to its fullest potential, and to be honest it doesn’t work for me not having a diary I forget things and I do need something.

Last year I was looking for a way to get us as a family organised and came across some American blogs that had home organisation centres and I feel in love with the idea, but also knew that the way they had developed them wasn’t really going to work for our family, so I began thinking about how I could have something along those lines that actually we would use and worked for us as a family.

So this year I ditched the diary in the Filofax, I know what am I doing.

This year for the first year in a very long time, I emptied my Filofax completely, and I went and brought diaries, and an address book.

I brought a brand new address book, as the addresses in my Filofax had been scribbled out and rewritten many times over the years and it was time to start afresh to be honest, I then decided to buy two diaries, one for us as a family and a monthly planner for blogging ideas, and for ideas for Scrapbookerry.

The monthly planner has a month to two pages spread and also has a section on each page for notes, so I have space to write down ideas, blog posts, and plan for the whole month. This is working well as I am able to actually see what my plans are for the month and what needs to be done each month, and I can plan in advance.

The daily planner, is a nice simple week to a page planner.

In the past I have always gone for diaries that have a page to a day, and to be honest they were great when I was working, but now they are bulky, and take up too much space and we don’t need them for a family diary. This narrows down the size of the diary and it means it fits nicely into my changing bag for Boo and isn’t too heavy.

The thing that I really like about the diary is that it also has a monthly page for each month and every week has a To Do list at the bottom of the page and each month has a note section as well so I can add ideas, and plans into the diary (there will be more about these in a later post)

It is a diary that is currently working well for our family and I can fit everything I need into it for each of us.

This is all fine but buying these diaries and address book meant that I had a redundant Filofax, and frankly that was just wrong and it needed to be changed.

So this year I have done a big change in the Filofax, and it is now more of a hub of family bits and bobs.

For starters the Filofax now never leaves the house, it stays at home and has all our important information in.

Basically I became very aware when I had Boo that Mr L really knew nothing that happened in our house, if I was away for a while things wouldn’t be paid, the boys wouldn’t go to places and I was also completely fed up of trying to find the important pieces of paper all the time, the car tax, numbers for the direct debits etc.

This is now what the Filofax has become our little hub.

I have changed all the dividers to coincide with the orange of the Filofax, and now I have an empty plastic wallet, that currently I have no use for, but I am sure this will change with pens or pencils, or post it notes at some point in the future.

The front of the Filofax has my beautiful Filofax hole punch which I LOVE as I am able to put in the important pieces of paper, and letters from companies, schools and clubs.

I have fourteen sections in the Filofax now, ranging from finances, which is must so we know what is going in and out of the house, meal planning, fitness and diet goals, school information, beavers information, cleaning plans, birthday planning, Christmas planning, home improvements, Scrapbookerry goals and plans, Studying plans (for my writing and photography course) and information for the kids and animals if Mr L and I are never here, little tidbits really, information about Baba’s rigors, the medicine he can have, his allergy to plasters and about his and Boo’s likes and dislikes and bedtime routines. The animal section is all about what they eat, how much, how often and their routines and vet details. All things you forget when you need it.

It is a hub of information, and means that both Mr L and I have access to it, there is no more one of us not being here and not knowing what is for dinner it is now in the Filofax so we can plan, we can be organised and everything is there.

And the best thing is Baba and Boo brought me a lovely box for Christmas and it is just the perfect place to keep the diaries, Filofax and address book. All in one place all together nice and neatly and organised!