Organizing Idea

January seems to be a month where people take stock of what they'd like to change/do better/get rid of, maybe it's the whole New Year's resolution thing. In fact, January is designated as "Get Organized" month.


Though making New Year's resolutions has never been a big thing for me, organizing is just part of my nature. And, taking down the Christmas decorations and decluttering the house seems to invite a fresh perspective on how to simplify life and tighten the organization belt.


With three small children and increasing commitments, keeping a family calendar in a high traffic area of the house was something we needed greatly. In the past, I attempted to do this but the calendar I created to go on the fridge was more of a pain to maintain and went from being a few weeks, to a month or more behind, so I abandoned it.


Though paper calendars may work for many people, I wanted to come up with a solution that didn't cost me money each year and saved some trees...I like to be as green as can be. Plus, it had to meet my requirements of being somewhat safe from the hands-on curiosity of our kids, easy to maintain, look good and fit within the limited wallspace of our kitchen (a high traffic zone), and be inexpensive.


Here's what I came up with:

• I found a picture frame in our house which wasn't being used.
• After measuring the dimensions of the viewable area, I measured seven columns (for the days of the week) and six rows (for the weeks in one month) on white pieces of paper, drew lines with a pencil and traced over the pencil lines in black marker. Note: I made the top row a little narrower than the rest of the rows since this would be used just for writing in the current month.
• Then, I inserted the paper into the picture frame (behind the glass).
• Voila, instant customizable calendar.
• I use dry erase markers to write in the dates and activities and all it takes to wipe it off is a little water and some paper towel. So easy!
• The best thing (for me) is that is cost nothing because I had all the materials on hand.
• The great thing (for everyone) is that you can adapt this idea by choosing a picture frame size which accomodates your family's needs (bigger families would probably need a larger frame), and the choice of colors in dry erase markers can make it easier to distinguish who is doing what.

I applied a similar idea for a message board which hangs above our phone. Here's a picture of what that looks like, so you'll have an idea of how the calendar looks:

For this project, all I needed to do was print out "Messages" on an 8 1/2 x 11" paper, cut it to fit the frame and insert it behind the glass. I love this because you can customize the look of the font and, because I love Scripture, I added a verse which seemed to fit the "theme" of this project. As with the calendar, it provided something which is highly visible, re-purposed items in our home, is easy to maintain and looks classier than many memo board options.

If you have any questions about these projects or have some organization ideas of your own that you'd like to share, please leave a comment with this post.

Andrea