Top tips to be organised

[Arushofbloodtothehead]

Looking for your top tips to help me be more organised in 2023 - anything that makes life with work, DC and school and their activities etc easier.

I'm not a naturally organised person and the only thing that really works for me is accepting there is a level of organisation I am capable of in life then picking what I apply it to. That and sorting little things when I spot them and not relaxing of an evening until the house is reset.

Shared calendar - I really like Cozi as everyone has a different colour
Everything goes straight into it. Everything! I also meal plan each week and that’s in there as well so we both know what’s happening for tea each night and you can also do a shopping list in there.

Otherwise I sit down with wine on a Sunday evening and deal with any school admin, party invites, anything at all which needs attention gets done or a reminder gets set to deal with it in the week on my lunch break if it can’t be done Sunday evening. DH also in this conversation so we divvy out jobs for that week. Once we know what needs to be done and who is doing it, what we’re eating and where everyone needs to be it helps massively as there’s less last minute panic.

My friend set me off with this but I also have a jar of pound coins in the cupboard for any school things as we never have any cash.

I do the Tesco shop online once a week. It’s made me much more organised and also saved me money as I don’t spend as much

I also have a cleaner once a fortnight. I know this is not an option for everyone but it really helps me as I sort, tidy and organise before she comes

Have a plan for the week, when you're doing the shopping, what's for tea, when the house is being cleaned. Who has activities and when. Get it all on paper or whatever so everyone knows. It will help keep things in track. If housework is an issue try to streamline belongings, have a spring clean etc. The less stuff you have the less there is to tidy and clean etc.

We have a family calendar in the kitchen that everything goes on so I don’t miss anything and we don’t get double booked.
I stock pile birthday cards and sometimes kids presents for all the parties they’re invited to and my teen is expected to take responsibility for her plans and tell us in good time.
also a shared shopping list between DH on our phones so any time he says oh we need this I tell him to write it down as it’s not my responsibility to remember
I like the idea about a jar of pound coins for school stuff

Make friends with somebody who is organized. I always lost the overview with the school stuff and my friend constantly reminded me.

I'm really liking these ideas.

I get a tesco delivery once a week and its the only organised piece of my life.

Need to make use of a shared calendar with everything in it, will have a look at Cozi.

I sorted out the kids wardrobes last week and everything is now in labelled tubs so I hope that will help when the school rush and activities begin again. Would like to organise clothes for the week ahead at the weekend but dont know if thats OTT? What catches me is remembering all the gear for different activities so that might help.

I wfh 3 days a week and the 2 days I'm in the office I would really benefit from having a meal ready to heat up when we get home so will look at doing something there as well.

Routines.

The more routine something is, the easier it is. Obviously it gets criticised as being boring, but I'd say it's better to be bored of your clean enough house, tasty economical food, and reasonably-calm kids than it is to be bored of frantic squalid chaos.

Exactly what routines you need is individual to you though. What's going wrong at the minute?

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