This may be a boring subject to some of you.
Or if you’re like me you may enjoy this kind of geekery, buy way too much stationary and launch into full colour co-ordination mode.
Life with the responsibility of multiple humans (as opposed to just myself… Gone are the days) gets all sorts of busy. The kind of busy that’s hard to keep squeezed into my head. The dentists appointments, his football practice, family weekends away (yay!), babysitter’s days off (gasp!), doctors appointments, nursery days, work meetings, taking the wee dude to the cinema, flights, pay days, due dates, weddings… on and on, etc etc, ad infinitum.
I gave up psychologically trying to keep track a long time ago. I’m now an avid fan of outsourcing to The Family Calendar.
I’m hugely jealous of those of you who maintain some kind of cool futuristic shared Google calendar with your significant other. The kind that you actually check and send each other invites, notifications and whatnot. So smooth. So easily synced. So right up my little digital loving street.
However, I’m the proud spouse to a man that is built for analogue. We’ve tried the online calendar thing which resulted in a lot of me asking “Do you even check the calendar?” and a lot of Gavin looking frustrated that his life was being ruled by a smartphone. This frustration often comes when he’s near any electronic device as it will immediately burst into flames (or at the very least stop performing the task Gavin’s trying to perform) and he will flip all the tables. We’ve tried to be jovial about this and have nicknamed it his TIMS (Technology Induced Mood Swings), but alas… It’s not compatible with any kind of digital symbiosis.
To combat this, I bought a paper calendar (I know, genius…). But not just any paper calendar… This one. Which I heart-eye-emoji. I put our names in each column and can see at a glance what I’m up to, Gav’s up to and Ethan’s up to. I can keep track of babysitters (God bless grandparents) and the handy birthdays column helps me see those too without commandeering more calendar space. It also has pockets! And I love pockets in everything. I keep upcoming important paperwork in there that doesn’t need to be dealt with just yet, likewise for non-urgent bills and concert tickets stored in their relevant month pockets. I know I’m starting to sound like a QVC slot, but honestly. I love. And will repurchase for next year.
I also may have went overboard and bought stickers to liven the whole thing up. These are the things that excite me now *sigh*.
The calendar hangs on our bedroom wall (we’re currently living with the in-laws, but that’s a whole other post) and eases my what’s-happening-this-week anxiety, because Gavin actually glances at it from time to time.
When looking for a way to keep on top of our comings and goings I got lost down a Pinterest rabbit hole of ‘command stations’ in kitchens. This seemed to be more of an American thing and likely more useful if you have multiple school aged children. But woah… It takes family organisation to a whole new, military inspired level. Impressive and daunting all at the same time.
I’d love to know if there’s anyone out there who shares my geekery over this stuff.
How do you keep track of all your humans?
Do you have any stationary finds I need to know about?
Are you a digital or analogue family?
xo
Aah I love our family calendar. Even though I’m the only one that uses it!
This year’s is from M&S. It has nice big pages with all the columns, a stick on pen (DO NOT USE THE PEN FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE FAMILY CALENDAR), and a notepad where I can leave passive aggressive notes.
I’m starting to keep an eye out for 2018 that includes columns, stick on pen, pockets and a notepad so if anyone has any amazing links to share I’m all ears.
“and a notepad where I can leave passive aggressive notes”. I actually got a true early morning lol at this.
I more passive aggressively ask Gavin “So, do you know what’s happening this weekend?”. Maybe I should migrate to paper form.
We’re not quite yet a family, but used to use the couples calendar version from Busy B. Also loved the pockets for storing wedding invites etc. We gave it a miss this year as we were more using our Apple calendar but I really missed those pockets. As we become a family of 3 in january im definitely going to get the family one for 2018 as tracking another persons life (however small they are) is going to get tricky. Looking forward to seeing what others use. Another recommendation for gorgeous stationary is http://www.kikki-k.com – I fell in love with their meal planner and week planner that my sister has to organise her family life in australia. Expensive but worth a lust! X
Oh Jenny, I used to live in Australia and Kikki K was my favourite way to burn money on paper things. I had all sorts of planners and notepads from there.
Unfortunately, the UK stores are all dotted south from me. The online store is nice but nothing like actually walking around the shop 😍
I have had this calendar for 3 years running and it is one of my most treasured possessions! So much love for the pockets! x
I just ordered next year’s one too! The pockets are one of those “why doesn’t every calendar come with this?” things.
Oh I need this! Total stationery nerd here. I use my phone for diary notifications, but would never attempt to co-ordinate with my luddite of a husband. 🙂 We do have a family calendar which hangs in our utility room and it works well for us, but it doesn’t have pockets and now I’ve seen this version, I NEED the pockets. It would work wonders for clearing up the stupid amount of paper that floats around our kitchen surfaces. Until the calendar falls off the hook under the weight of bank statements and electricity bills…
Also: Kikki K has just probably eaten the remainder of my salary this month. And a monogrammed leather planner has gone on my Christmas list.
Tracy I swear by these metal filing boxes with suspension files for bills etc. (http://amzn.to/2vrmlud). Mine is never locked so unpaid bills go in the calendar pocket and once they’re dealt with, straight into the suspension folders.
I find the metal ones way easier than those paper concertina ones you have to unbuckle and wrangle.
We’re a digital family and Calendar Is King. If it’s in the calendar, it’s immovable – and if you have something planned but don’t put it in the calendar then you just have to suck it up if (for example) your wife is not a mind reader and also arranges something the same night, because she put it in the shared calendar first.
Now I’m off to look at command stations on Pinterest. They sound like a level of organisation I can only lust over.
What a great post, I am SUCH a stationery geek. I have rows of gorgeous notebooks and diaries on a shelf that have never been written in, they just looks so pretty! Back to the calendar thing – we have an M&S family calendar which works way better for us than a digital calendar (i’m a bit of a technophobe). We have a row for the 3 of us, a row for meals and a row for birthday’s. I also have a Filofax which I confess, I barely have time to look at these days but I’m always buying cute accessories for it, post-it notes, stickers, rose gold paper clips, you know, all the essentials 😉
I’m such a stationery & organisation geek/obsessive. I’ve used a similar calendar which I’ve used this year however the pocket has been misused by my OH – constantly using the pens and then NOT RETURNING TO THE POCKET!
I also am guilty of double calendaring so I’ll add to the wall calendar and then follow up with a Google Family Calendar reminder as well as texting him a couple of days before to make sure he’s looked at the calendars – LOL. If it’s on the calendar, then it’s LAW.
Now off to google command stations whilst hitting Hobbycraft at lunchtime to stock up on chalkboards, peg hooks and envelope slots!
I’m jealous of you paper diary people, that calendar sounds immense! We are digital diary people, although as Sara says if you don’t put it in the calendar then and something else goes in, tough luck… 🙂 I love that the reminders pop up on my husband’s phone as well as mine! No chance of forgetting… Also loving the sound of your metal filing thing Naomi, I have just ordered 3 letter trays/boxes so that everyone can have their own box. My husband is a serial dumper of stuff, so I have decided everything can be chucked in a box and you have to sort it out when the box is full (if not before). Order will reign!!!
We’re an iCal family. I freelance and the husband works odd shifts so we need to be able to access each other’s diary easily. Plus keep on track of birthdays and events for the kids (seriously they have the best social life!) I love that it updates over all our pcs and phones instantly so there’s no excuses! I tried paper diaries but would constantly lose or forget to write things down.
Love my family calendar. It hangs on the kitchen wall and has a columns for each of us and a spare that I use for meal planning. Think it was a cheapy from The Works but pretty and functional. Although it my husband always has to be reminded to use it! Cant help but notice that my boys columns are always full of exciting activities and parties while mine is all about doctors appointments and practical stuff!
I have tried and failed with Trello (my husband LOVES it) and just revert back to my trusty Filofax (with weekly “to do” inserts). Unfortunately my husband hates clutter, and so will simply not tolerate a wall calendar of any kind!! I even resorted to sticking one on the inside of a kitchen cabinet but it mysteriously “disappeared”…
So we resort to a weekly – “what’s on next week” chat and synchronize our respective diaries 🙂
Great post. I use both. I have a wall calendar with numerous columns (one for me, one for hubby, one for our babies, one for visitors and one for birthdays). Wish it had somewhere to store papers like yours too though! I like being able to see the month at a glance. Hubby won’t use it though so we also have one on our phones that we sync (although I still get asked what we’re doing!) why is it we women always seem to do more of the organising?!
We’re a kitchen calendar family! I did set up a google calendar but my husband never looked at it, we had very similar conversations to you Naomi!! So now, everything is on the paper calendar and I have photo on my phone of the next couple of months! I used to keep a diary in my bag too, but never updated it!
We have a photo one from Boots that I make every year (usually in November when they send me a 50% off code!), it’s always nice to look back on photos from the previous year (where possible I try to use photos from the relevant month!) but my favourite thing is that you can add events and it saves them so I don’t have to add birthdays every year!! (and you can put a photo of the birthday person in if you want to , although then you can’t write anything in the box which is annoying and leads to lots of footnotes at the bottom of the month!!).
Next to the calendar we have a menu for the week chalkboard, and a picture rail (nicely linking to today’s Rock My Style post!) with a noticeboard with pegs on, for all the paperwork – invitations, appointment letters, tickets etc, so I guess I do have a sort of command station going on, although I’m already thinking of ways to improve it before my little starts school next year. This is also home to the calendar pen – like Karen’s comment above, I get all the rage if someone *husband, I’m almost exclusively looking at you* moves it!!!!
The thing I hate about a paper calendar is if plans change and I have to cross something out!!!! To try and avoid this, sometimes I stick mini post-its on until I think something is firmed up!!!
Definitely a paper version hanging on the utility door in the kitchen. We normally have a pretty Emma Bridgwater one but now with two kids (who have more going on than me!) I think I NEED that busy b one…. just been browsing JL who have a variety…
And it comes with stickers! I’m sold!