Household Organization

American Housewife
Some of my key organization tools are my notebooks and my small calendar that I carry in my purse. January always seems like a great time for re-evaluating so I've been thinking about how these tools are working for me. There's no point in continuing to use a tool that is no longer the best fit for my life.

I've realized that I don't use the calendar in my notebook at all, I only use the one in my purse. I write things in it while I'm out. For example, when the kids were at the dentist last week, I made appointments for the 2 who need cavities filled, and for the next round of cleanings. I immediately wrote them in my calendar. I do the same when I'm at a PTA meeting or at church. I just pull out my calendar and write everything down immediately. That way I don't have to keep up with those little cards from the dentist, the PTA newsletter and the church bulletin.

I still use my menu notebook when planning my week's menu and making my shopping list and I store important receipts and tax documents in my household notebook. I was using the budget section every month until I started using mint.com for that. I love that mint can track our spending trends and give us averages of our utilities, grocery spending, gas spending, you name it.

Now that I have my duct-taped, been to Iraq and back laptop courtesy of Greg, :) I am finding it so much easier to do things online, so I have been looking at online organizers. I have played around with several. I have looked at Rememberthemilk.com, Cozi, and Springpad. They each have some really neat features. I think my favorite so far is Springpad because it is very customizable and is basically an online notebook. I also love that I can have it email me reminders of certain events or tasks. It also has a place for my weekly meal plan, favorite recipes (no more printing recipes from various websites, I can just put them on my Springpad), diary, shopping lists, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I'm on the computer a lot (maybe too much? don't answer that!), so it's easy to open up my Springpad and enter information from my calendar, enter a recipe or plan a menu. It even has a pantry inventory to help with planning menus.

I don't plan on giving up my old notebooks and I'll continue to carry a calendar in my purse, but I think the majority of my planning, budgeting and organizing will now be done digitally.

Have you made the leap to digital organizing? Why or why not?

By the way, I was not asked to review any of these online organizers. This is just meant to be helpful information for you.