How to organise everything in my life OS?

Linda32

Hi, These alot of things there, so its baby steps. You can't do it all at once and nobody does ever.


These only the two of us here, myself and OH.

We use a calender which is clipped to the side of the fridge with a magnetic clip. I use this, you put yours where ever you are sure to see it and use it. Even if its next to your bed.

I look out for free/cheap events advertised on notice board and write these on the calender for days out at the weekend.
Do you have a tourist information in town, they are a mine of information on free events, again write these on.

Car MOT write it on the calender to carry forward for next year, so you take it in a month before. Same with Tax etc, so no nasty surprises.

Batch cooking for meals and a meal plan. For instance I have some cooked chicken defrosting in the fridge now, for tomorrows tea, this will be mixed with curry sauce and rice for tea tomorrow.

When I made the meal plan, I added the curry sauce to the shopping list before I went shopping.

Get a pen and note pad and put it where ever you will use it. Add everything to it as you use it. So you then have the makings of a shopping list almost made when you go to the shops.

Saving money, well the meal plan will help of course.
What I do is take off the money needed for direct debits then devide the rest up on a weekly basis. So much for petrol, food, spending money.

If we have £65.00 for food but only spend £60.00 then we save the £5.00

Just about all that I learnt from reading these forums, previously it was whatever was on offer from the frozen section for dinners. Now I only buy frozen peas and sweetcorn from there :T :money:

Note pads and pens are your friend, put them where ever you will use them.

HTH

DollyDabbler

Choose one thing from your list and start with that first, when you have that sorted, move onto the next and just add everything you want to do, bit by bit to fit in with your family.


Calendar – when letters came home from school with important dates, it got written onto the calendar, straight away. Dental appointments, injections etc all went onto it.


I didn’t strictly meal plan, but I did have meals that could be put together quickly enough with store cupboard and freezer stuff, and I kept a running list on the fridge as/if we ran/were running out of stuff.


Washed bedding the same day every week, so I got into a routine. Washed other clothes as I collected a full load and then they were dried, ironed and put away as quickly as I could. I saved the ironing until the kids had gone to bed, and then sat and watched the tv and ironed with the board at its lowest height.



As the kids got older, I got them into a routine, where they helped to do jobs around the house. They can both mow lawns and clean windows. The quicker the house got tidied, the more time we had to do something fun. As they got older, we had one night per week when we each took a room and cleaned it, rotating weekly this included the bathroom and kitchen so both mine know how to clean and look after themselves (though they don’t like ironing and the eldest at uni now is permanently crumpled). The night was flexible, so it could move around cadets, youth club etc, but it was always once a week.



Kept the housekeeping separate, worked out how much the bills were on a yearly basis and opened a separate account that money went into monthly to pay for these.


Learnt to accept that although we put in a good effort, life is much more interesting if the house is not immaculate and the kids were far happier, so long as they were clean, fed and loved, and didn’t always have tidy bedrooms.


I have two kids, ones 21 and the other is 17 (thinks she’s 21) and have mainly worked full time since DD was 3, I also have a DH who worked away from home regularly with upto 3 months stints abroad occasionally.

tigerfeet2006

Get yourself a slow cooker for work days. Always cook a little more than you need to pop in the freezer for a home made ready meal for those days that you really can't be @rsed.

I have a pad that stays on the kitchen work surface while I am poodling around at home, in the evenining it sits beside me and when I go out it goes in my bag. I do rolling lists of things I need to do and flip it over and write down any food shopping I' need to do in the back. My rolling list at the moment tells me I need
bottles&cakes (mufti 2nd dec)
wooden coat hangers
cutlery drawer insert
washing up bowl
toilet brushes
Make Dr.s appt
order school photos
Fabric Rehab discount email expires 23.11
Which nativity performances the GP'sx2 and us can do for when we get the tickets
food storage boxes
xxxxx bday pressie BEN10 (3RD DEC)
xxxxx bday pressie clothes (3rd dec)
welly boots size 9&4

As I sort each thing it gets crossed off the list and when I get to the bottom of the page I write everything I haven't done on the new page and rip the old page out. That way I get things done quickly as I don't want to keep writing the same things down again.

I meal plan, which helps to keep food bills down and I do the Grocery Challange.

I have Google calender on my iPhone, I know I am lucky to have one and not every one does. My DH's calender and mine are linked so I always know what he is doing. You can also get it on your computer as well http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/about.html

squeaky

This older thread should help:- How to organise everything in my life OS?

And more help here:

Help me organise my life

Another 'organise' site

being organised


I'll add your thread to the first one later. Good luck

bramble1

My filofax! It goes everywhere with me, and i keep my life in it.

PolkaDotsAndLace

Lists, lists and more lists I find. And some nagging. Have also started mealplanning which saves lots of nipping out to the shops.

I only have myself and OH to organise though, I imagine it's much harder with kids!

LameWolf

A few years ago, when my lupus brainfog started to be a problem, my husband bought me a PDA (Personal Digital Organiser). Everything gets put in there event-wise, also when bills etc are due, and if I want, I can get it to "cheep" at me, either on the day, or a few minutes ahead of an appointment, or even days ahead (for birthdays to allow time to post a card). I wouldn't be without it!

For finances, everything is on an Excel spreadsheet, and the money for monthly Direct Debits is "earmarked" at the start of the month, so that it can't be used for anything else. Similarly, if anything is bought on credit card, the money is earmarked so that we always pay off the bill in full. I have a page each for Direct debits, Credit Card, Other Earmarked Money (for one-off things) and Money Available. It works for us!:o

monnagran

Try Flylady, she is a bit full on and there is no need to follow her to the letter, but a few simple routines keep things ticking over nicely.
The best thing I learned from her was the tip about the kitchen timer. If there is a task you have to do set the timer for 15 minutes, (5 or 10 if you don't have 15 spare) and see how much you can do before the timer goes off. Even children love to join in and try to beat the timer.
Above all, don't stress. The children will remember a relaxed, fun family life not a clean kitchen floor.

Cat501

Thanks for those links squeaky, I LOVE reading about being organised, so between them - and the organisation sites linked to - that's this week sorted:D

Maybe the organisation can start next month.....:o

oh god, just found the "complete how to declutter and organise your home" collection, by the time I've read all that it'll be next year!! It's fab though

tigerfeet2006

monnagran wrote: »

Try Flylady, she is a bit full on and there is no need to follow her to the letter, but a few simple routines keep things ticking over nicely.
The best thing I learned from her was the tip about the kitchen timer. If there is a task you have to do set the timer for 15 minutes, (5 or 10 if you don't have 15 spare) and see how much you can do before the timer goes off. Even children love to join in and try to beat the timer.
Above all, don't stress. The children will remember a relaxed, fun family life not a clean kitchen floor.

Or join the Fly thread on here