Tiny Improvements

*This is one part in a series of posts about what I’m doing to improve our lives this year. Not New Year’s Resolutions, just a few Tiny Improvements!


2) Get Realistic


Oh, the schedule. The bane of my existence. We are learning, slowly and surely to stick to a schedule. The older and busier I get, the more I realize that I NEED a schedule in black and white in order to get through my week.

In my “Command Center”, I have each week of the month printed out. On Sunday, I sit down with our calendar and map out the week: 

• our meal plan
•  house cleaning
• exercise
• blogging
• any social things we need to know about

This helps me see if we’re overscheduled, too, so I can add in some “us” time if we need it.

I’ve also devised a morning to-do list. This is a chronological checklist that helps me budget my time before and after work. I’ve distilled it down to the “must-do” (in my mind, of course) things that I want to get done:

• Brew a pot of coffee, pack lunches
• Eat breakfast and do my quiet time
• Make the bed
• Get dressed, pack work bag
• Throw in a load of laundry, if necessary
• Wash breakfast dishes
• Sweep kitchen floor, straighten up
• Take vitamins, drink water (8+ glasses)
• Feed cats, refill cat’s water

This makes it much easier to figure out what to do when I wake up at 6:30am and am a little groggy!

The Command Center

I've posted before about how we're trying to adjust to our new schedule since Mike has gone back to work. One of the key components is getting organized, so when I was blessed with a week off from work, I took advantage in a major way.

Organizing the pots and pans

Organizing the pantry

Organizing the laundry closet

I also tackled the medicine cabinet in our bathroom. Woohoo!

Next up on my list was compiling all of my random lists and forms into one comprehensive binder. I'm now calling this binder my Command Center, because it contains everything I need to run my household in one place.

I decided not to spend any money on this, because I managed to find all of the supplies I needed by shopping my own home! Go figure!

We do have some dividers, but they're not super cute so I traced the shape onto heavy scrapbook paper. Add in some pretty labels and viola! Cute, no?

So far, my categories are:

-meal planning (with recipes and favorite menu plans in a clear sleeve, weekly meal plan and grocery list so I can add things on the go)


-home management (phone and account numbers of our home services, to-do lists, our cleaning schedule and a to-buy list)


-budget (our monthly budget spreadsheet, a calendar with yearly expenses/reminders, deposit slips for the bank).


We are able to easily add categories as necessary by throwing in an extra divider. It's a quick and cheap solution to (hopefully) help me get organized.

I also fancied up the outside of the boring, black binder with some scrapbook paper. Yay! I love this binder. 


How about you? How do you stay organized? Any easy ideas or tips for us??

Linking Up Today with The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday!!! Go check out all of the awesomely thrifty projects!!!