Organisation - 52 Weeks Organised Home Challenge - Week 1

Okay, so technically I actually started on week 52 of the organisation plan on the Home Storage 101 website I am following but then the instructions did say I could start anywhere, so I'm still following the plan.


Keep a Family Calendar:
This week's challenge was to organise a family planner or calendar where you and the rest of the family could write up what is happening so you can plan car pooling, mum's taxi, meals, sports practices, dance rehearsals etc etc.
You can buy calendars like this with columns already setup for multiple family members. I know Kikki K does one each year. I received one as a gift from my wonderful cousin Alison a couple of years ago. I'm sure other stationers and printing companies have them as well. However as I have a laptop and an A3 printer and know how to use Microsoft Excel, I decided to make my own.

It really didn't take long to design and print - maybe two hours altogether, and that was starting from scratch as well as adding personalising touches such as family names, birthdays and public holidays etc.
I have set the calendar up with six columns - one for each member of the family. This gives everyone space to put in their appointments, practices, work commitments etc. As we currently play taxi to the three kids at home as well as my mother-in-law from time to time, using this will allow us to plan better our taxi services as well as when we are unable to play taxi so people know when they have to organise their own way to and from work or where ever.
I've also added a larger column to include things that relate to the whole family. This includes family birthdays, public holidays as well as family dinners or trips. 
I have done this for each month and printed them out. I stapled all the pages together then punched holes across the top so I could hang my calendar. The pages need a little stiffening to prevent them from folding in against each other, so I adhered a strip of heavy card board across the top of the pages and punched the holes through this as well. (The cardboard is at the back,so you can't see it... sorry).
I had a piece of dowel left over from my Photo Booth Christmas Craft. It was the perfect length (by good luck rather than good design). To craft it up a bit, I wrapped jute around the length of dowel. Thinking back to my days as a Girl Guide, I was able to wrap the jute so as to not use any glue including tucking the trailing end underneath as well. 

You can just see it at the top of the picture. (Sorry the better photo was too blurry to show the detail.)
I then added loops of jute through each of the holes as well and tied these to the same length. I slipped the jute covered dowel through the loops and then added a hanging string from one end of the dowel to the other, so I could hang over a pre-existing nail in the wall.
The finishing touch was a pen which I attached to a LONG piece of jute, so that hopefully it doesn't walk!!!


And now in a first for me (fingers crossed it works)... I have attached the template for the Family Planner. You can download it here.
Remember it is set up to be printed on A3 paper, but if you don't have access to an A3 printer all is not lost. Download the file, personalise it with your family's names, birthday etc, then save to a memory stick or disk and take the file down to your local copy shop or stationer to get it printed. 
And here is a tip - you only need to add your family's names to January and this will populate the other 11 months of the year.