command center Archives - Growing In Grace

Organizing Home and School

October 9, 2013Tracy

Last year, I used these really cool wall-adhesive charts to organize my life. But unfortunately, my WallPops did not survive the move. (They adhered to the wax paper and would not come off.) So I was left scrambling at the last minute before the beginning of school wondering how I was going to organize myself.

Thank the Lord for Target! I actually made the trip to look for toy bins for Middlest’s room and happened upon these terrific magnet dry-erase boards.

Of course, with my aversion for putting holes in walls, I hung them with command hooks and adhesives rather than the actual mounting kit. But so far, they seem to be holding well. And I do love to feel organized.

I actually use the calendar to record our school schedule, placing the subjects in the Sunday box and filling in the rest of the days with assignments for that day. This system works really well for me because it’s up on a wall where I can quickly glance to know what to do next with each child, rather than hunting down yet another notebook or loose piece of paper.

The larger week-in-view allows me to highlight specific events or appointments that we have during the week. I update it each week from our Google calendar so that I don’t overlook those important items. It might seem overkill for some people, but it has been a life-saver for me. While we were moving, I really felt lost without this item.

{sigh} So nice to see my life again, neatly arranged in little boxes with brightly colored markers. It helps me feel that everything is in its rightful place.

Vertical Homeschool Organization

March 6, 2013Tracy

On my quest to organize my creative self, I’ve revamped how my homeschool lesson planning system works and thought I’d give you a peak.

I’ve moved my lesson plans out of a notebook and onto a wall. I’m more likely to look at my wall, and I don’t have to have a notebook open all the time. It’s been a super-duper success. Love it! Besides the fact that it’s beautiful, too, and totally appeals to my creative side.

When I purchased my Wallpops for my command center, I had one left over—the calendar. I really had no use for it as a calendar, so I tweaked it and am using it as my weekly lesson planner. Instead of the month, I write in what week we are in. I use Sunday as my spot for writing our weekly subjects; then, I write my lesson plans and notes into the other spots for the corresponding day of the week. This has been awesome!

With Christmas money, I also purchased this really chic magnet board from Etsy. On this, I keep teacher notes. My larger written plan that I write out at the beginning of each nine weeks, any material I intend to read or show the kids during the week, etc.

I’m also made use of Martha Stewart adhesive pockets (decorated with duct tape) for my teacher pocket (rather than a teacher tray) where the kids place their completed assignments and a smaller pocket for me to place memory work or, currently, or mini-books for our human body lapbook until they are actually glued into a lapbook.

The system has worked so well for me. I really do like it much better than notebooks, binders, sheet protectors, file systems, and all the other traditional organization. This is so me, which is probably why I feel such gorgeous relief every time I look at it.

What is your best method for lesson planning?

Taking Command: A Command Center for the New Year

January 10, 2013Tracy

I recently blogged about a book that I read to help identify how I best organize, and in attempt to put my reading to good use, I’m converting from a household notebook system to a Command Center.

Let me first say that I haven’t trashed my notebook entirely. I’ve found it very helpful for quick reference: important phone numbers, doctor information, babysitter information, etc. But I’m moving my planner out of my notebook and onto my fridge.

I chose my fridge because it tends to be the largest open surface that is in my main flow of traffic. Also, everyone knows that when you stand around trying to figure out what it is you are supposed to be doing, you always end up at the fridge.

organization

My purpose for this Center is to keep my day organized: cleaning schedule, routine, to-dos, events to remember for the week, etc. Anything that I need to attend to for the week and for the day, kept in plain view.

What’s Missing—

We use Google Calendar so that my husband and I can share events. It has worked really well most of the time, except that it is often out of sight when I need it. So, to solve that, I’m going to start printing off our calendar at the first of each month and attaching it to a smaller center I have set up by our phone.

My menu is also missing. I’ve been using ziplist.com for my menu planning and have really enjoyed it’s many features, including the ability to import recipes from all over the web (yes, pinterest, too!) and drag/drop them into a calendar. I love it! (and it’s free) Of course, it is out of sight. But honestly, I’m not positive how I want to solve this. I will either print it out and post it on the fridge, or I will write the menu onto my dry erase week plan. I’ll have to see which works best.

What’s There–

I have two dry erase boards. Actually they are not boards at all, but adhesive dry-erase paper from WallPops.com. The first one is a weekly planner. The major events from the week I will write in. This way, I will have another spot for those events to be seen, and by writing it in I’ll have that extra reminder. The other dry-erase board is for me to keep track of projects I want to tackle and special tasks that my husband would like me to get to. Having it on the fridge allows him to have easy access to add anything or to see that, though something might be undone right now, it is on my list of things to tend to.

Each day, I choose a few projects from my big list to add to my smaller to-do cards. These cards are laminated for dry-erasing. I have six cards in the pocket so that I can plan ahead for different projects, breaking that project into smaller steps if necessary. These and my cleaning cards are stored in Martha Stewart adhesive pockets. (I love these!) I’ve made mine a little fancier with some decorative duct tape.

Last of all is my daily routine. This tells me when I need to be cleaning or working on those projects.

And for right now, that’s it! I may keep tweaking it as I start to use it more, but for right now it has been perfect. Beautiful and always in sight.

Organizing in the New Year

January 4, 2013Tracy

Every new year, I’m totally inspired to get my life back under some semblance of control, to pilfer through the clutter and forge a new path toward organization.

Often, I ricochet between success and failure in this department. So in high hopes of making strides toward a new me, I’ve embraced my new year’s tradition of an organizational overhaul.

I just finished reading a tremendously helpful book entitled, Organizing for Your Brain Type. (link includes more about the book, plus a free quiz to find your organizing personality) LOVE it! It helped to break down my personality and what organizational approaches will work well for me and what will most likely fail. Nice to know that before you get started. I am the “innovator,” the creator, the lover of all things fun and beautiful. I also organize by stacks; everything must be out where I can see it or it might as well not exist. This totally explained why keeping a household binder with my planner has been such a struggle. I like the idea of the system but it takes oodles of discipline for me to actually make it work. It’s either always open on the table adding to the daily clutter, or it’s tucked away and absolutely useless (I never remember to open it).

The solution? A vertical system of organizing. In other words, the “command center” approach is much more likely to be successful than the binder approach, because I can have all my must-have info right in front of me at all times. So, I’m in the process of converting the side of my fridge. I’ll show you the finished product later, but for right now, I thought I’d share a few printables.

You see, as part of my innovator/creator personality, organization cannot be merely functional; it has to be either fun or beautiful (and ideally both!) So, I’ve devoted the time and energy to actually embrace this aspect of my organizing personality.

The first printable is my new cleaning schedule (inspired by a few different Pinterest posts) on 4×6 cards. I’m going to place these in an adhesive pocket on my fridge and daily switch to the next card. It will have both my repetitive maintenance tasks and my special cleaning task for the day.

The second printable is my new To-Do system on 3×5 cards. Each day, I’ll have up to 6 items on my to-do list that I’ve chosen from my longer list of Projects and To-Dos (this longer list will be on a dry erase board—pics coming soon—that way, Hubby can easily add any projects that he needs me to tackle).