What is your favorite household planner

[Laurie in VA]

Good afternoon! In my never-ending quest for a less harried life, I have been considering the use of a planner to help me organize both my days and the house.

I find myself constantly wandering from one place to the next - never finishing anything and basically moving small piles of stuff from one location to another. It's gotten to the point where I rarely cook dinner anymore (and I make the same lunch day after day). The house needs decluttering...you get the picture.

I haven't done much school-wise with the children since Christmas. The oldest (6yo) gets the 3 Rs but that's about it. We never go outside anymore. I am just wandering...

Anyhow, I wonder for those of you who use a planner, what do you use? I have looked at some pages at Donna Young, looked at Franklin Covey stuff, actually have a Palm PDA, have looked at Keepers at Home... I'm just lost!

Any planners you just love? Or maybe I just need to force myself to "shape up" sans help! ;)

[Sunny]

Motivated Moms, in the daily format works for me. It gives me a list of chores to accomplish, an appt. calendar for me to write down important things, and space for menu planning and notes.

[Michelle T]

I have used Motivated Moms, and Flylady, but I always go back to my own spreadsheet. I made it up in Excel, and print out a copy each week.
Michelle T

[Jennifer in MI]

I've made up my own. It's a simple binder. Inside it I have post it notes sticking out with labels: Budget, homeschooling, spring cleaning list, To Do list, Master to do list for house.

Budget list: I keep it with our budget for the year. I'll update it as necessary.

Homsechooling list: This is where I keep my notes and plans for the years to come. If I see a good post, I'll print it off and stick it in my notebook.

Spring Cleaning List: I have a master list of every room in my house with every thing that needs to be done for spring cleaning. I go through it every Lent so by Easter I have a clean house!

To Do List: I list things as I think of them here. Most of the time my notebook is open to this page.

Master To Do List: All the projects we want to finish on our new house. Things from this list get shifted to the "To Do" list as we decide to tackle a project.

I use a BIG calendar for every day use. That tells me what activities we have for the day.

I need to incorporate my daily cleaning list and grocery shopping/meal planning list into my notebook. I have a Motivated Moms type of planner that I made myself. I printed off the MM planner and personalized it for myself.

Good luck on your quest!! Even though I have this planner, I don't think being organized necessarily is a result of having it. It helps, but it's more of a state of mind.

[Ellie]

I like Gregg Harris's (http://www.amazon.com/Christian-familys-complete-household-organizer/dp/B000739PJM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204492575&sr=8-2). You can also find it new if you do a little searching.

I used to have a Franklin that I *did* carry with me. It had different things than the Gregg Harris organizer.

Two other recommendations:

Sidetracked Home Executives (http://www.shesintouch.com/) for general household organization

File--Don't Pile! (http://www.onlineorganizing.com/ProductsPage.asp?name=File_Dont_Pile) by Pat Dorff

[Laurie in VA]

TY all. I have a question about Motivated Moms. I went to the site and looked but there is only 1 sample page. I wonder what other pages they have. Is oit basically chores, tasks, calendar, menu, and notes - or are there more like budget, spring cleaning, etc?

Not sure what I am going to do just yet. I like the idea of a 3-ring binder that stays in the kitchen, but also like the idea of a smaller planner that I can carry with me. I just know that I need to do something...

[Ellie]

TY all. I have a question about Motivated Moms. I went to the site and looked but there is only 1 sample page. I wonder what other pages they have. Is oit basically chores, tasks, calendar, menu, and notes - or are there more like budget, spring cleaning, etc?

Not sure what I am going to do just yet. I like the idea of a 3-ring binder that stays in the kitchen, but also like the idea of a smaller planner that I can carry with me. I just know that I need to do something...

That's why I liked Gregg Harris's: multiple masters, more than you can possibly imagine, and you just photocopy the ones you need. It has everything for home and school.

I didn't need to take everything with me that was in Gregg's, which is why I also used my Franklin.

[Sharon in SC]

Combo of Outlook for long term planning and one page per day Daytimer paper system for daily lists, Flylady for house cleaning, and Quicken for "bookkeeping".

[Jennifer in MI]

TY all. I have a question about Motivated Moms. I went to the site and looked but there is only 1 sample page. I wonder what other pages they have. Is oit basically chores, tasks, calendar, menu, and notes - or are there more like budget, spring cleaning, etc?

Not sure what I am going to do just yet. I like the idea of a 3-ring binder that stays in the kitchen, but also like the idea of a smaller planner that I can carry with me. I just know that I need to do something...

What is it that you need to take with you? I'm wondering if two small three ring binders would work well so you could personalize it for yourself. Figure out exactly what you want out of a planner and then make it. The smaller one could be for you to travel with (calendar, shopping lists, etc) and the larger one could be your budgeting, homeschooling, etc one.

Motivated Moms - when I do this religiously I don't really need to do a deep spring cleaning. It lists SO many chores (no menus) - changing filters on furnace, cutting fingernails, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, etc.

[Sharon in SC]

b...ut also like the idea of a smaller planner that I can carry with me. ...

Well, until it broke, that is why I LOVED my Ipaq compaq. I could sink it with my Outlook on the desktop and that really was the ideal for me. However, when mine broke, I had to go back to using my Daytimer one page per pay paper system for the very reason you want something - portability. I have a homebase (Outlook) and can transport what I need for the day (DayTimer).

[Laurie in VA]

Years ago (before kids) I had an organizer that I took with me everywhere. I didn't even carry a purse - just the organizer with a lipstick zipped inside, LOL! It had my ID, bank card, checkbook, calculator, plus all of my planning pages. It was invaluable - especially while I was planning our wedding. I used my organizer religiously for about 6 years, then stopped when I had children.

I tried a PDA (twice), but I like to be able to jot things down and for some reason the PDA doesn't "work" for me, even though I can create notes and such on mine.

I also bought a FC organizer a year or so ago, but bought a size too large to comfortably carry with me.

I think what I really want is something that can go with me all the time, just like I used to do. I can use it for scheduling, meetings (I am on several committees at church), address book, to do lists - all of the things that I used to do.

Then - I will make a chart for home (a la Donna Young) that lists the daily, weekly, and monthly chores that need to be done.

[Montana Peach]

I finally found one that works for me...from eBay. It has the planner in one zippered side, a small purse area in the other zippered side. it has an outside pocket for keys on one side, cell phone pocket on the other and a shoulder strap. The pages are from Graceworks, they have household-oriented planner pages that fit and this one is comparable to the FC compact size.