So I spent the first 8 months or so of our marriage keeping the monthly calendar and weekly calendar of to do’s in my personal planner or sometimes, you know, just rattling around in my brain. Which left me with the burden of constant reminding “we have this thing this week and that thing next week”. I slowly but surely started to feel like I was moving out of a wife role and into an authoritative of role, not what either my husband or I wanted. Something needed to change because my reminders started to feel like nagging and it was really starting to get to both of us 😑
After enough frustrating moments and mismatched expectations and feeling straight up tired of being our family’s personal calendar, I realized we needed a family calendar. A nice big family calendar placed where we could easily see it on a daily basis and maybe even have some space for mail organization too?! Could we do it? Of course we could. (I think I need a whole blog dedicated to how I find these items I dream about. I’ll eventually link it here)
So, I set out to find a whiteboard style calendar with a white frame. I had the exact picture of what I wanted in my mind and I knew what I wanted to pay. I held on to this little vision and didn’t settle for anything less than that in my searching. I looked online and kept an eye out while out and about. And a few weeks after setting this intention to find this whiteboard, I found one at Hobby Lobby for HALF OFF and I believe the final purchase price was about $9.99! 👌:
The calendar did not come with a way to hang it (maybe my package didn’t receive one?) so I made my own using two small screws and some garden wire):
With that purchase, I also bought a mail organizer to hang below the calendar so we could stop using the kitchen table as a catch all for mail and miscellaneous items 👍🏻 I labeled each section “new”, “needs attention”, and “outgoing”:
I also added a little holder for the dry erase markers made from an old plastic bottle and some package ribbon:
With this setup and knowing how much it has improved our communication and teamwork, I feel so motivated to decorate and add events to the calendar. Sometimes Tommy even adds a little artwork of his own too!
We opted to hang the two items in our entry way. It’s worked out to be such a handy location because we can touch base on things as Tommy and I head out to work. What a game changer this one little item has been for us! Now I’m not the family calendar, and Tommy and I work as a team to review what’s going on each month. It’s a sweet deal! Here’s the final product:
Does your family has it’s own organization system? And if so, what is it? Do you like it? I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment in the "leave a comment" section below!