Are you super organised in your home life? Come tell me how please

[Feckinlego]

I'm fairly organised, but generally trying to improve most aspects of my life. I'd like to be super organised, prepared for almost anything that crops up in day to day life. So what tips do you have? What do I need a stock of? What do I need to write down? Etc etc. All and any help welcome!

Me and DH have shared Google calendar with all recurring/work travel/personal appointments and a collaborative Trello board (project management tool) for tasks around the house and bigger projects split into "needs doing", "in progress" and "done" columns. We use the same tools daily for work so that only logical to use it in day to day life. I mean, there is no card entry for "unload the dishwasher" of course - that is DHs chore anyway (mine is cooking), but bigger and less recurring things like taking leaf blower out to the driveway, booking flu vaccine and cleaning extractor fan would go into the Trello.

Get an online diary shared between you and anyone else in your household with a phone. Tell them to add events as soon as they know them and discuss any clashes well in advance.

Think through these events too. If you know you need to go to Katie's school straight from work for her parents evening, think about what time you need to leave work to make the appointment and how this will impact on tea time and getting Jane to Brownies etc. This will feed into the meal plan.

Buy birthday cards in bulk. Also go to cash point and get notes out of you can afford this. Then kids' birthday presents are sorted.

Meal plan with the diary in mind. Betty is at a sleepover on Tuesday so can have the meal she hates that night. Amy is at a party at lunchtime on Saturday so no food needed for her.

Buy toiletries and loo roll when they are on offer, have a cupboard full of this sort of stuff.

But clothes in the sale in sizes larger than your children. I have two of the same sex so even if child 1 hates the t-shirt I bought two years ago, child 2 might get wear out of it.

Unpack all bags as soon as they enter the house. School bags, rucksacks from a day out etc etc.

Also, get stocks of stamps and envelopes, stationery for kids, plastic wallets, all the bits of a packed lunch except the sandwich.

Shared calendar and put stuff in it the second you book it/get notification. Don't keep stuff in your head to enter later. I do stuff like paying for bills or admin stuff immediately if I can. School clothes for DD1, she has an organiser in her wardrobe for each day and on Sunday evening I fill it with her clothes for each day, so she just has to grab them and put on. No running about looking for stuff in the morning. First aid kid and change of clothes in bag that you take on day trips and outings. Wipes in car. Meal planning. Do whatever you can the night before. I have labelled folders to organise paperwork.

Declutter everywhere.
If the house gets untidy everyone mucks in for 30 mins to clear up.
Clear up = put things away where they live, not stuff it in a cupboard out of sight.
Make sure everything has somewhere to live and stuff that you need regularly is accessible.
Have a box/bag ready for charity shop items.
Use Alexa or similar for a shopping list (we just speak to ours).
Everyone has to put their own laundry away on the day it is done.
I do a tidy out (chuck out and.full clean) of 1 cupboard a week even if it isn't bad as it keeps on top of stuff.
File papers you need to keep as they arrive or shred/recycle immediately if not needed.
Don't bring or buy stuff into the house unless it has a home.

Do you have an iPhone? I run my whole life in 'notes' and calendar! And share lots with DW too so we can both see them and update.

See attached. I have a note with each day of the week and a 'not now but soon' section. I add to this constantly, as the mental load is so high for me.

I also have a shopping list note (separated into fridge/meat/bakery/cupboard/freezer headings) which we both update as and when. I don't meal plan because we use Gousto but do go to Tesco once a week-ish for the things on this list and breakfast and lunch bits.

Use calendar religiously, we have calendars for us each, us together, the kids, the dogs, birthdays!

I have a note with every single persons birthday on sorted by months too, I add their ages of the kids as I always forget.

I use Reminders for water plants, run dishwasher and washing machine through a cleaning cycle, feed my christmas cake etc.

These are exactly the type of thing I need. I do a lot already, eg meal plan with activities in mind, tidying out cupboards regularly etc. But a shared Google calendar sounds great so it's not just me remembering everything.

Keep them coming!

I'm a full time working single mum with an ever hungry 16yo DS.

At the weekend I...

Park run early while DS is still asleep
Meal plan and shop for the week - every detail
Freeze all but Sunday's food
Wash all clothes, doing the first two washes on Friday night.
Get them all dry.
Iron all clothes ready for the coming week
Do all life admin, banking etc
Fill the car with diesel
Batch cook soup and at least one meal to freeze
Normally make a cake or crumble

Weekday mornings....

Up at 6.30
Take food for supper out of the freezer
Make my lunch
Get DS up, fed and to the school bus by 7.45
Get to work by 8.15
Work until 5
Collect DS from school bus
Cook supper
Eat
Chase ds re: homework

Usually collapse in a heap and fall asleep on the sofa. Wake at 11.30. Chase DS off to bed. Get up at 6am and do it all again. Only two years to go 😀

Don’t do it all yourself. Split it between you and DH. If DS has a party and I’m taking him, I’ll also buy and wrap the present. If DH is taking DD for new shoes, he’ll check all her shoes as to which need replacing.

Lovely assumption that everyone has a DH there, @Parker!

After years of a Filofax I’ve finally got on board with the google cal - cuts out so much conferring with DH!

Also after years of searching for a good family wall planner, and trying various ones myself (had my own whiteboard for a few years, write on with whiteboard pens and write the lines on with permanent pens - works fine but eventually looks messy!) - I have now made my own weekly planner on Canva m. Everyone has a row, each day has a column, then rows for dinner and lunch for each day along the bottom. This is then on a clipboard which is hung up in the kitchen, and has a pen with it (pen holder clipped onto clipboard, makes me so happy 😄).

Then every weekend I go through the google calendar and transfer the week onto the paper planner in the kitchen. At the same time I plan meals and fill that in on the planner (write in school lunches so I know I’m not repeating etc) and at the same time do an Ocado order for the relevant stuff. Then bin the page each week and start afresh!

Meal planning wise I have an A5 binder with meals I ‘know’ 🙄 everyone will eat, and bring the recipes for the week to the front of the binder each week. But that only happens about half the time as a bit too rigid really. Good for slow cooker planning though.

Tried Hello Fresh etc many times, and meal prepping, but am in a buying pre-prepped food phase of life. And that’s totally fine!