The Organised Life :)

If you have been reading me blog for any length of time you will know that I looooove planning 🙂 I also love for it to all be very pretty – and why not? I have to use these tools all year round and look at them every single day, so I want to enjoy doing so.

These three little lovelies is what I will be using for 2016. Ideally I would have loved to have everything in one place, but the truth of the matter is that it would just be too big and cumbersome. So my planning tools are split into three. School Lessons, Day to Day, and Homekeeping.

At the bottom of the pile we have my Well Planned Day Homeschool Lesson Planner. I love this planner. It has a myriad of things that pertain to homeschooling AND the home. You can take a peek inside here. This is probably the last year I will be using this planner as my eldest graduates homeschool this year and I really am not going to be needing such a big planner for one child. I’ll go back to making my own homeschool planner from September. My youngest will more than likely be taking two outside classes from September so even less space needed for planning her lessons.

In the middle of the pile we have my day-to-day planner. It’s an Erin Condren Life planner. It’s the first time I’ve had one and I have to say that it is beautiful! The quality of the paper, the personalised features, all the additions you can add. It’s gorgeous. I love the size – A5 – which is perfect for what I need. Apart from noting down appointments, I also list my daily To-Do’s, so I need space to write. My planner also needs to be light enough to pop into my handbag if need be. It needs to be durable and functional but pretty at the same time. 

I really do love it, not sure I will purchase it again as the postage from the States made it really expensive. I may actually buy it again but have it sent to my sister-in-law in Canada and get her to post it on. Hmmmm, we’ll see. I may just purchase another A5 Filofax to use as my day-to-day next year and really only use it for that purpose to eliminate the weight factor that can creep in with having a ring-bound planner.

The last planner you see in the photograph right at the top is my beautiful A5 Malden Filofax. I LOVE this Filofax. It’s so soft and smells so good (It’s real leather). It also has so many pockets and even a zippered pouch for extra pens, or whatever it is you want to keep in there. 

In this Filofax I have everything pertaining to the smooth running of my home. 

*List of Service Suppliers

* Home Blessing List (maintenance, projects etc for the home)

*Menu and Meal Plans

*Entertainment Section (this is where I plan any social get together’s we are hosting)

*UK Visa’s

 (This has notes on what was needed, where we could write the tests we needed to write and the costs related, all sorts of general info and research that it took to get to the point of posting off our application. I’m keeping this section as our next step in 12 months time is naturalisation.)

*Finance

 (budget, expense tracking forms etc)

*Etsy Store 

(successful products I’ve made, brainstorming new ideas, costing, supplies etc)

*Gifts 

(list of birthdays, anniversaries etc and gift ideas etc that I want to give)

*Password List

(Oh my gosh – I just hate the amount of different passwords you need for various online things. This list stays at home in this binder so no chance of it getting out there)

*Contacts

Numbers and addresses of friends and family 🙂

As you can see my Malden Filofax holds ALLOT. I really could not include daily diary pages too, it would be so heavy to lug about. But I’m really warming to the idea of another A5 binder. I know you can pick up some really pretty ones at Paperchase for a fraction of the price of a Filofax brand. I might have a look at that and use the Malden as my daily (I can put my EC pages into it) and use the cheaper Paperchase one as my Home Control Binder.

BUT … before I make any changes I think I will just live with the way things are at the moment. It’s working, it all looks pretty and is not costing me a penny at the moment – and that’s important LOL.

What do you use to keep organised? I would LOVE to hear if you have a moment to leave a comment. I’m terribly nosey when it comes to planning and planners – it’s a weakness I’m afraid 😉

Happy Monday to you all. I hope that your week is off to a FABULOUS start!