Here’s my secret to organising family life….

I don’t know about you but life can be chaotic around here sometimes!

Take this coming week for example, I have to remember some important work meetings, what shifts Mr Frugal is working, the early finish and the non uniform day for Miss Frugal, a family fun day that needs cakes, raffle prizes and money for Master Frugal, numerous after school clubs, a lunch date with a friend and a dentists appointment for the kids.  Oh, and an appointment for the dog with the groomers.

Granted, next week is slightly busier than normal but even a normal week required more juggling than a clown to make sure I can be where I need to be when I need to be there.

I’ve tried lots of different ways to keep track of everything and none of them work as well for me as this method so I thought I’d share it with you today….

Step One

So, first of all, I have a diary that I keep in my bureau that I write important dates in as soon as I get them.  If I’m busy when a random school letter is waved in front of me then I put it in a basket in the bureau and I’ll write the dates in the diary when I get chance – usually on a Sunday when I’m doing step two.  I write the info into the diary and if there’s too much to write then I’ll fold it up and pop it in the pocket in the back of the diary until it’s needed.

Step Two

I make myself a cute little mini booklet using a sheet of A4 paper.  I made a video on how to do this ages ago but I’ve just re-watched it and it looks like it was made in the 1970’s – it’s so shaky and I seem to have pointed the camera more at my chest than the paper but until I remake it then I’ll leave you with this little delight….

Step Three

Now you have your weekly notebook which is going to live in your handbag for the next week.  You need to choose what you’re going to use the 8 pages in your note book for.  I have my meal plan written on the front page, the next three pages are like a mini diary (mon/tue on one page, wed/thu on another and fri, sat, sun on another), then there’s my weekly to do list, a shopping list, a blogging to do list and the back page is just my scribble page for anything else that I want to remember like links to sites people mention or places I see that I want to go.

Each week, when I’m making my weekly planner, I check my diary and add in all important things into my little notebook and then I add everyone’s shifts and school things and make sure we have no overlaps.

I like having a weekly notebook as it’s less bulky to carry around and it just seems easier to keep track of things.

How do you stay organised?

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Image Credit: Prapan. Shutterstock