I used to be BIG into list making. I had to have every detail of my day written out in order to feel organized. I loved scratching finished items off my list. And if it wasn’t on my list, but I did it anyway, I’d quickly write it on my list, then immediately scratch it off my list. Weird, I know.
Somewhere in the span of having four kids…I stopped making so many lists. Funny, isn’t it, that now when I need to be even more organized…I have fewer lists. I guess it’s because most days I hardly have time to find a pen, much less make a list with it once I’ve found it. Somehow I’ve stayed organized anyway (mostly) (and except for my storage room) without my detailed lists. I guess all the lists are just somewhere in my head floating around all the time, because now it seems I’m just thinking hard all the time about all that needs to be done and what I’ll do next and who can help and who’s turn it is and what’s going on in the evening and what’s going on tomorrow and whether or not I have enough flour ground for the breakfast muffins and…
Please, would someone just hand me a pen!
Okay, really…I’ve got it all under control. Really.
And, let me interrupt this regularly scheduled program with a little detail about my organizational abilities. While I am quite organized in the way I plan and in the way I execute my plans, like with menu planning and school planning and schedule planning…and I’m able to get A LOT done in a day as a result…and everyone always tells me how organized I am…and it’s true…
I’m not altogether organized when it comes to having my sock drawer alphabetized and my cleaning supplies in rainbow color order. If you were to come into my house right this very minute and walk upstairs (carefully so as to not trip over any tinker toys) into my bedroom, you would see that I made the bed this morning, sort of, and only so that I could throw five loads of clean laundry onto it so that they could be folded. But they aren’t folded yet (because I’m blogging, for Pete’s sake…priorities, people). And if you went into my storage room (after you signed a waiver stating that you wouldn’t sue us if you injured yourself as you tried to walk through)…you would see that I’m not great about having everything in cute little bins with labels like Organizing Junkie, whom I think is the coolest. Oh, I wish I was that good, but I’m not. My organizational skills don’t go that far. So, while I’m pretty organized…I’m not always organized, you know?
Now, back to the regularly scheduled program…which just happens to be about scheduled programs. Or just schedules. Our schedule.
Several of you have asked how I am able to get everything done while I homeschool and cook healthy meals and go to soccer games and chase four boys and all that other stuff we all have to do in a day. So I finally was able to fit it into my schedule to work on telling you about our schedule. Coming up, I’ll share with you about our daily schedule, our school schedule, and whatever other schedule I can schedule in to tell you about. (If I keep writing the word schedule in this post all clever like, it’s just not gonna be funny anymore. Kinda like when one of your kids tells you the same joke 47 times during breakfast and you can only fake laugh for the first 26 times, then you’ve gotta start telling the kid to please, please learn a new joke.)
Knock knock? Who’s there? Schedule. Schedule who? Schedule really be impressed that I thought of this joke all by myself.
Get it? Schedule is supposed to sound like “bet you’ll”…get it?
Yeah, okay, I should really go up and fold that laundry… :) Alright, I’m on it.
But first, I’ve gotta know…do you make lists? Are you an organized person? How do you stay organized?
Amy says
I like lists, but I don’t make them regularly. There is a certain satisfaction in making a nice clean line through the thing to do and then looking at a page of things to do with lines through them.
I am not an organized person. Nor am I disorganized. I am just a crazy mom that spends too much time on the computer and can’t remember things that aren’t written down and has a lot of obligations even though I try to say no a lot.
I try to have set things that I do on each day, a la Flylady, but not exactly. Try to make the beds every day (not always morning), try to clean the kitchen every night before bed. And meals and other stuff in between.
I’m looking forward to seeing your schedule!
Chelf says
Yes, but how do you pronounce schedule? Do you say “sked jule” like most of us, or do you go with Rush Limbaugh and say “shed jewel”?
I have both schedules and lists. I take both as suggestions for the most part. Monday is laundry, Tuesday dishes, etc. etc. etc. (I think of The King and I. Et Cetera!) Today I have to do A. B. and C. It just keeps my mind on track, and keeps me motivated to do as much as I can, so that the weekend can be free to do FUN.
Catherine says
People tell me I am so organised and my children always look nice and my house is always to clean and I always get the birthday cards posted in time and I always have the things I need ready for the day etc etc, but I really feel far from being organised ENOUGH to look after 6 children plus HB.
A lady from the church I grew up in was so organised she could walk to her kitchen in the dark, open her pantry and be able to instantly locate whatever it was she needed (don’t know why she needed it in the dark?) and I always feel like that’s what I have to live up to so I will finally be organised.
chinamama4 says
You are NOT weird – I add things to my lists just to cross them off, too!
We sound a lot alike. I appear very organized because I always have the five of us where we have to be, when we have to be there (and maybe even five minutes early), wearing clean and appropriate clothes, with whatever gear we need, as well as snacks, drinks, and stuff to keep everyone busy if there’s any waiting time. So we look good to the outside world. Just don’t peek into my cupboards or (gasp!) venture into my basement!
But if I didn’t have my lists to set priorities, I’d be totally lost, and we’d never get anywhere or do anything! So don’t anyone take away my lists!!!!
Lynn says
I am very organized with my time but not so much with my stuff. I need lists and plans to get stuff done. I use a planner but you have to take the time to sit and plan, to make it work. I go crazy though with out my menu plan and schedule. I really do need to relax it a bit, sometimes I am too scheduled.
Marnie says
I tend to make lists mainly for things I need to take care of outside the home. Such as a shopping list, that I promptly forget when I leave my house! But I do tend to remember things better after I have seen them written down. I just try to remember what the words looked like on the list. I guess I should write a list to remember my list. In answer to your question, no, I am not a big list person. Maybe next year…
Stacy says
You are a very funny lady! Love the joke :)
I like to make lists – but I often forget to look at them.
I’m looking forward to your posts on this topic. I am especially interested to know how you manage to make all those yummy breakfasts. The mornings where I make something a little more complicated than oatmeal seem to drag on forever.
Hope you have a lovely, scheduled day!
Stacy
Karen says
I, too, make LOTS of lists. I have a “notebook” with everything in it. If I lost that notebook I don’t know what would happen to me! Even my husband and kids know which one it is! (And, I also enjoy putting something that I’ve already done on my list just to cross it off.)
As for organized…I am pretty well organized until it comes to the sewing room. I know where everything is, it just isn’t pretty. But, I’m getting there!
Denai says
OHHH, I love organizing! I am actually going to be an organizer SOME DAY!!! I have changed my role I want to play though and because a Nutrition Organized Kitchen Organizer!!!! (need to come up with a name!) I make HARD COPY lists for cleaning and daily tasks… I keep a TO DO list because with 4 kids under 8, I have to keep track of EVERYTHING for them…and of course my HUBBY! I love planning the menu’s and my shopping lists. I get off on an organized space and go crazy when it goes to poop….
and on my blog I have a THURSDAY challenge to help others become better organizers too!!!
Feel free to check it out!
http://randombitsofknowledge.blogspot.com/search/label/Thursday%20Challenge
Joyce says
I’m a list maker! I usually have more than one list going at any given time. I have lists for things that need to be done around the house, home repairs, groceries, other items to buy, etc. Oh, when I actually write it down…I guess I am rather uptight.:) It gives me pleasure to cross off the items that are taken care of. I come by it naturally, my Dad is a the king of list making.:)
Thanks for your sweet humor, I really enjoy reading your blog each day.
Joyce
The Happy Housewife says
Laura-
I was just sitting down to write a scheduling post, but decided to procrastinate by visiting your blog, and what are you blogging about… schedules! Maybe I will just write a post linking to your site and let you do all the work… then I can write a post about delegating :).
I was cracking up as I was reading your intro because I was reminded of the Frog and Toad book where Toad (or was it Frog) lost his list and couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day :).
Toni
Pam says
I used to be very organized. Before I had a child or two. Now I’m in survival mode… I look forward to your ideas!
Andrea says
Amy pretty much summed up my exact thoughts.
I would add, I’d like to be more organized. I know I could accomplish more.
I’d love to read each persons number ONE tip that they think makes life easier, other than the list. I have one…Just ask my kids about “THE RED FOLDER.”
Sharon says
I do make lists. And I also throw my clean laundry on my bed. Do you know why?? Accountability! I HAVE to fold it before I can go to bed.
Anna says
yes, I make lists – to the point of sometimes driving my dear husband crazy. I find that if I don’t have a list (at least when I’m really busy with lots to do in one day) I have a hard time doing my work orderly and completely. Plus, spending all day trying to remember everything makes my head fuzzy. :-)
Oh, and I must confess. I add completed projects to my list, too. I thought I was the only weird one…
Barbara says
I love to make a list and cross things off as I finish them – and I add things that I did along the way that weren’t originally on the list, just so that I can cross them off and feel like I accomplished even more!
I was extremely organized before children and I didn’t keep lists. Now I have a daily minute-to-minute schedule (from the moment I wake up each morning to dinner time – after dinner, hubby decides how our family spends the evening together). We currently live in a large house and if I don’t do certain things each day, the entire house will be a disaster and it will take me a week of nothing but cleaning and organizing to get it back in shape – that’s too stressful.
I can’t live without my menu and grocery list.
I currently have about 5 loads of clean laundry on my bed too, but it’s not ‘time’ for me to fold it yet!
Org Junkie says
You crack me up! Would it surprise you to know that I don’t always make my bed either and right now there are toys from one side of the living room to the other. It’s just the way it goes sometimes :)
Looking forward to learning more about your schedules! I need to be more strict with following one and right now I need to back away from the computer, yikes!
Tanya says
The laundry on the bed thing is so funny! We do that too, so that it has to be done before I can crawl into bed and sleep (well, sometimes it ends up on the floor for a week, but my plan is to get it done anyway!) I keep a wirebound recipe card thing on my recipe holder in my kitchen. On it I have the day of the week, what week of the month it is (1 – 4), the lunch and evening meal, the daily chores of the kids and me, and the once or twice a month chores also scheduled on it. It is color coded per person as well. That way I don’t get overwhelmed with “the plants need watering, and the bathrooms, cleaned, and, and and.” I just know that it is scheduled and it will get done. I can also just point the kids toward it when they want to know what to do and I don’t have to remember what the daily chores are:) Long winded, sorry:)
Andrea says
I love your wirebound recipe book idea Tanya. We have a job wheel that we spin. I make it out of two paper plates and they rotate jobs. But I think your way would simplify things. Thanks for sharing.