Friday, September 5, 2014

The Beginnings of a New System

      Today I've been trying to brainstorm about what it is I really want from my new system.  What I am going to want to make it stick?  I've had a binder and a cardfile system, but they just didn't quite work for me...  So I spent some time looking around on Pinterest and rediscovered the idea of a Command Center.  You see, I know I need something that I will really want to use.  It's going to have to be functional and nice to look at.

      I looked through a few different people's versions, what all they included and how they used it.  Just so I could have a direction with mine.  "It has to work for me" has been the mantra of the day!  So here are just a few of the ideas I have come up with so far:


  • Desk Calendar: To have a nice big space to list all appointments, birthdays, holidays and bill due dates with amounts.
  • ClipBoards:  Right now I'm thinking I need three.  To-Do (five sheets: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Seasonally, Annually), TJ's Chores ( the first two used with printed lists inside sheet protectors to be marked off with dry erase markers ) and then one for a running shopping list.  
  • Recipe Binder:  For all the new recipes I've found online and printed, instead of having to search through my enormous Pinterest every time!
  • Personal Management Binder:  I really did like parts of FlyLady's Control Journal.  Other than not wanting to call it a control journal... In this binder I will have divided sections for:     Cleaning Recipes (laundry soap, all purpose cleaner, floor cleaner, homemade clorox wipes, etc) , Menu Planning ( Menu Planning Sheets, list of new recipes to try), Blogging/Writing (Future blog topics & ideas), Birthdays/Holidays ( Any party plans, or gift ideas, etc), Finances (Three hole punched manilla envelope to hold bills, monthly budget), Projects (a place to compile project ideas and plans)
  • Coupon Binder:  Near the shopping list  
      Those are my ideas so far.  I'm sure I'll be tweaking the plan over the next couple days as I see how I can put things together and get started on actually putting these ideas into reality.  Thank you Crystal  ( http://crystaltouchton.com/consistency-in-business-challenge-day-4/   )  for the clipboard idea!  It's brilliant!

      Do you have a command center for your family?

5 comments:

  1. I have two large ring binders for all the paperwork. One's for the business and the other is for the household stuff. I have sections for the rent, insurances, bank statements, receipts etc.

    When it comes to listing appointments, I have a calendar that hangs up on my notice board. The notice board then has all the important letters that I need to see to right away--things like immediate bills to pay and our voting cards for our upcoming vote.

    There's also a whiteboard in the kitchen. Whenever we need to get something from the shops, it gets written on the board then it's all written on a piece of paper to take to the shops with us. We also use the whiteboard for messages to each other or to remind us of something that both of us need to see.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It sounds like you have a great system! I'm still tweaking mine so far but I hope mine works for me as well as yours does for you. I love hearing success stories!

    ReplyDelete
  3. One thing I've found over years of trying to be better organised and systematised is this: any system will work: you just have to use the system! It's easy to get caught up testing different systems so stick with it and adjust it to suit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just bought a big white board calendar to keep track of all the kids this school year. I now have all 3 in school. One in high school, one in middle school and now a kinder. So many dates..lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like you're getting it together. You're actually kicking me in the pants to get mine tuned up :)

    ReplyDelete