Before becoming parents, G and I were pretty independent people. For the most part, he kept track of his schedule, I kept track of mine, and neither of us were too terribly concerned about what the other had planned unless it involved ourselves or a plane ticket.
Oh how times have changed!
Now that we’re parents we schedule things like mowing the yard and going to the bathroom a week in advance. We even discuss our work schedules on a regular basis to determine who can do daycare drop-offs and pick-ups. I don’t know what I’m having for lunch today, but I know G plays volleyball tonight, has a Fantasy Football Draft on Thursday night, and is going to the Packer game next Thursday night. Our schedules are totally dependent on each other!
Of course this doesn’t include the fact that Kate has more on her little social (and medical) calendar than I did all four years of college combined! My solution to make managing our lives a little easier is our “command center”–this dry erase calendar system (from Pottery Barn) mounted in the kitchen in a can’t miss spot with our lives on display:
The top left piece holds these cute little pewter G&D letters I received years ago from my friend Aly (back in our Nestie days!), a container of push pins for the bulletin board, dry erase markers, and notepads.
The lower left piece is a bulletin board where I pin cards and keepsakes from friends and family:
Close-up of one of my favorites–a birthday card from my sister-in-law Lesley:
We use the calendars to keep track of appointments, which days Grandma Pam is coming to take care of Kate, birthdays, weekend events, Kate’s 10 days of antibiotics, and even (occasionally) meal planning. I wanted to have two months on display–instead of just one–because we often need to plan so far in advance that we need to see what’s coming up next month.
Can you tell I’m looking forward to my Ft. Meyers getaway next month?
One of my favorite things about this system is that the calendars slide onto a wall-mounted track, so when August is over I can slide it off the top track, wipe it clean to get it ready for October, and simply move September from the bottom track to the the top track–easy peasy!
We’ve been using this system for a little over a year now and I’m not sure what we’d do without it!
How do you keep track of your family’s lives? I’d love to hear your ideas!
I love this idea; I just wish I had a place in our kitchen that we could put it.
I’m in school right now, so the very first thing in my binder is a calendar that shows when classes are, football for my son, and anything else that might come up. Since I’m gone from home so much, this helps me keep track of where everyone is on any given day.
OMG I want these! If we only had wall space. Seriously in our kitchen we have zero wall space, so we use a photo calendar my sister in law makes for the entire family every Christmas, and hang that on the side of one of our kitchen cabinets. Honestly though, I use my work calendar more for keeping track of things, and since hubby uses Outlook as well for work, it is nice because I can send him “appointments” he can accept which will populate his calendar (make sure to lock them to private!) and then we both know at a glance when doctor’s appointments, Moms Night Out etc are coming up.
We also use a calendar system. This year we used a 1/2 off coupon for a shutterfly calendar and I think we’ll continue to do it in the coming years. It’s a great way to display some of those fun photos from the previous year and everyday I’m reminded of that moment:) I also put any milestones my daughter reaches or fun things we do as a family on the calendar – I found this extremely helpful when I was creating my daughter’s baby book.
Such a cute idea! We have a huge wall calendar in my husbands workshop in the garage. All upcoming appointments and schedules go on there. It’s the ONLY way he remembers when I make plans for us. You know, besides nagging.
Very cool system, though we do not have room for all of that. We use google calendar and printout 2 months which we magnet post on our fridge
I like that card.
We use the Ikea chalkboard that has a white border and the hooks on on the bottom. Works for us. But yours is great. I like that you can slide the future month out and put it on the top when it becomes the current month.
Hooray for you getting to be “OOT” soon. Fun!
jbhat
I LOVE this! My husband and I are expecting baby #1 in January and I know we’ll need a calendar like this to keep track of each other. I have looked at different calendaring thing at Target, but I love that this is dry erase! I’ll definitely be purchasing something like this soon so we can start meal-planning and keeping track of our schedules before baby comes!
This is a great idea, and unfortunately we have a lot of medical appts for both girls. However, Dh’s schedule doesn’t change (he will be on call in the winter) and he doesn’t do any appointments. SO I just keep a planner in my purse, it’s my lifeline. Plus I need to have it with me to make follow up appts, etc 100% of the time.
I love how organized you are!!
We have the pottery barn dry erase system too and LOVE it. Recently though we started using the free Cozi app on our smart phones. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! It is super easy to use, color coded by person or group, and gives you reminder texts on your phone that you decide the time frame for(a must for my husband!).
That is your kitchen?! That is gorgeous. I love the baskets! The command center is pretty great too. I love my dry erase calendar but it doesnt look as nice as your center.
Love it! We use Google calendar which is great for us to check via computer or our phones.
We are Google calendar addicts. I don’t know what we’d do without it!
Google Calendar over here too! We need something we can update from anywhere – work, home, or out and about, so it works since it’s synced with our phones and we can access it from any computer. We have it so we have separate calendars for myself, my husband, family events, and meals, so that different categories show up different colors. I LOVE it, and now can’t imagine life without it!
Forget the calender, I love the kitchen!!! How beautiful! Have fun on your trip down here, it’s hotter than heck! Btw, it’s Ft. Myers, only one e.
We use Cozi and love it!
Right now I’m the only one who seems to keep track of both my own as my husbands stuff, all neatly (or not so neatly) written down in my daily planner. With the hubs being on irregular shifts, it’s a necessarity to keep things rolling. We’re building a new house right now and for the new kitchen I am definitely planning on having a similar monthly overview somewhere on the wall. Now I just wish we had a pottery barn nearby where I could find an awesome one like this — all the Dutch stores kind of suck for these kind of things for some reason!
Thank you for your comments everyone, and for all these great ideas! I’ll have to check some of these online options out. That could be really helpful for us when we we’re on the go!
@MNinFL–Thanks for the correction on Ft. Myers. I’ve been spelling it wrong for years now, lol!
I always swoon over those Pottery Barn calendar systems and never actually get one. I may just have to now. On an unrelated note– I live in Fort Myers! You’ll have a great time here in beautiful SWFL. If you happen to turn on the TV and watch the news, be sure to watch WINK, that’s where I work 😉
@Work-Wife–Looking forward to being in your neck of the woods soon!
try cozi.com there’s an app for it, its a online calendar you can update by person/category and it also has a to do list or shopping list so everyone can see stuff from anywhere.
I love your command center. We have a kitchen calendar that sometimes I forget to update…or my hubby forgets to look at! we’re so out of sync. I tried Google cal, but I love the feeling of writing something down with pen and paper! Great idea!
_Chrystal in VA
I love your command center & kitchen! I wish we had a good place for hanging something like this. Thanks for the tips, I’ll definitely try something like this in my own home.
Love it!! Where did you purchase these? Thanks!!
What type of markers do you use on this calendar? A local restaurant showed me Expo Brightsticks flurescent wet erase markers/pens that she uses and said she buys them from Staples but Amazon.com is cheaper but you have postage to pay for shipping. Do these markers clean up easily with just a swipe of a damp cloth?
Looks like mine are SRX markers from The Board Dudes. I got them at Target. They do wipe off very easily with just an eraser or paper towel.