UHeart Organizing: A Colorful Family Calendar

When it comes to work, nothing fills my heart more than seeing my printables being scribbled on or tips found on this blog being utilized. Many of you share those photos with me on a daily basis through Instagram, and I save each of those images and love looking back and re-reading your stories and excitement. So to those of you that have done that, thank you! It means more to me than I could possibly put into words. (shop here, loads of freebies here)

Megan recently added one of my monthly calendar printables to her home, and I couldn't be more honored and smitten that she decided to share how they worked for her and her family.  Her photos and easy planning process are an organizer's dream; especially when she starts talking about color coding and stress melting away.

Hi friends!  Are y'all back to school yet or getting ready? My 1st grader went back so early, August 10th, but this summer with him and a baby at home, along with our two cousins, created a very full house.  I was actually ready to give them the boot and take control back of our home!  Last year, when he was still in Kindergarten, we set up a system so that he could get ready in the mornings by himself (without me nagging!) and it's still working! #praiseGod! 

But now, back at home, I was the one starting to go crazy with all those little reminders about school functions coming up, holidays, birthday parties, doctor's visits, and we haven't even gotten the sports schedules yet!  I'm good about keeping everything in the calendar on my phone, but sometimes you just need to see everything at a glance so you (and your family) all knows what's on the daily agenda. 

How perfect is it that Jen makes the most delightfully pretty and useful printable calendars?!  I chose one that I knew I would love to see everyday and printed it out through the end of the year.  I love how I didn't have to leave the house to start this project; just print right to the printer in our home and my calendar instantly arrived! Adore these colors in her non-traditional rainbow. 

Then, I assembled all my calendaring essentials: the calendar on my phone, the school schedule with all important dates, holidays, and conferences, thin colorful washi tape (similar) and pens.  

You could get really specific and use one color pen or washi tape to color code each type of event, I loosely did that here. I used yellow tape for birthday parties, aqua for school vacations, pink for my hair appointments, etc...  

You could also color code by child if you have more than one.  I didn't want to make myself stress more about the coding system than just getting the information translated onto the calendar, so I wasn't too strict with this.  

Those colored pens in the photo are awesome because they are actually erasable with the eraser on the end of the pen, but I ended up using my trusty thin point sharpie and writing directly onto the thin washi tape.  

The things I wanted to make sure to keep track of in this calendar are: school holidays, in-service days, conference days, project days, birthdays and parties, doctor and dentist appointments, my hair appointments that are booked through the end of the year because my stylist lives out of town (#priorities), and sports (although we don't have those schedules yet).

It feels so good to start getting everything out of my head and onto one calendar I can see!  I could feel my stress level decreasing as I recorded all these events onto the pretty calendar. 

I used to just keep one month at a time hung on the fridge, but I found I much prefer being able to see several months in advance. It's also easier to jot future appointments down as they come up when you have many calendar pages showing. 

To keep from damaging the wall, I attached the calendar to the wall with washi tape.  It's a cute, aqua gingham pattern, but of course the options are endless!

Ah!  I feel so much better and more prepared for the rest of the year now! Wishing y'all a wonderful school year!

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My name is Megan and I am a lawyer by day, design and decor lover by night, and Mama to the sweetest 2-year old boy you've ever seen. I'm passionate about fitness (and chocolate!) and could not live without my relationships, girl talk, and my morning coffee. I've been blogging for two years over at Honey We're Home, sharing my love of keeping things organized and beautiful at our house. My efforts to live in the moment and cook more are an adventure in progress.