Ways to Organize Your Family

Do find yourself getting overwhelmed and disorganized? Does your mind sometimes feel like the wall behind this man?

You can use a wall to get yourself organized and remember appointments and activities for you and your family. Here are a few tips to keep yourself from ending up with a messy wall.

Create a chalkboard door. If you have a smooth kitchen door or place on the wall, consider painting one side of it with either chalkboard or whiteboard paint. You can create sections for every family member, with notes, appointments, homework, chores, or other events and responsibilities. Position a shelf with chalk or dry-erase makers, and an eraser. Develop a check-off system to ensure that everything on the board gets done. It’s pretty hard to ignore a list that’s right in front of you every time you go for a snack.

Use personal corkboards. Have a combination of corkboard posted on the door of your children’s bedroom, with their to-do lists, chores, and homework assignments. The corkboard provides a place to pin assignment sheets, permission slips, or any other related paperwork. Once again, have everyone check off items as they are completed. Parents can have their own version in the kitchen.

Provide a place to file things for every family member. These can be used to store class notes, project instructions, completed papers, and materials needed to study for final exams. Parents can store product manuals and warranties, paid bills, and tax materials.

Post a large monthly calendar for family activities. The best location for this is a hall or space that everyone passes by during the day. It could be in the garage or a mudroom. Make it every family member’s responsibility to post their activities and cross them out when they are done.

Use a computer program to log family appointments. Many calendar packages allow multiple people to interact, and provide visual and audible reminders before something is scheduled. If your family uses the computer frequently, this may be your best method for keeping things organized.

These are just some helpful hints and don’t feel obligated to use all of these methods.  It may require experimenting with several tools before finding the best choice for you and your family. In the meantime, hide the post-its.