In my kitchen I have what I like to call my master calendar. Everything goes on this calendar…every event, activity, lesson, requirement, library due date, show and tell date, birthday, anniversary, etc. If it isn’t on the calendar it more than likely isn’t going to get done or remembered! My husband finds this very helpful and my nine year old daughter also refers to the calendar on a regular basis now. My hubbie and I even have a household calendar rule if we both have plans for the same night…whoever gets their activity on the calendar first wins! (so who do you think is usually the winner…lol). Very, very important dates like you know Mother’s Day and my birthday even get circled in red just so there is little chance for error if you know what I mean.
Now that I’ve said all that, my WFMW tip is really this. At the beginning of every new year I sit down with both my old calendar as well as my new calendar and I quickly go through and transfer all the birthdays and anniversaries from one calendar to the next. On a particular birthday I’ll simply write “Granny’s B-day (90)” for instance and obviously I’ll adjust the age with each year as well. Since my calendar hangs in a high traffic area of my house at eye level I can’t help but glance at it every morning on my way through. This is the best way I know of for keeping track of birthdays although I will admit I did miss one friend’s birthday this past year and I’m still feeling badly about it six months later. Things like that don’t normally happen to me but somehow her birthday got missed in the transfer. So this time when I sat down to do the transfer I timed myself and it didn’t take more than 15 minutes to do and that was with a double check just to make sure I didn’t miss anyone this time.
Here is a picture of where my calendar hangs in the kitchen…using a 3M Command™ Adhesive hook of course. It looks bare but that was because I took the picture before doing the birthday transfer.
Stop by Shannon’s at Rocks In My Dryer for plenty of wonderful Works for Me Wednesday tips.
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Laura, great idea! At the end of each year, I use my old calendar to update my new one but I do something a bit different. I think I’ll use that as my WFMW post next week. :)
Great tip. I do the same thing except I had to start adding a reminder about a week before the birthday so I wouldn’t wait until the last minute to mail (or buy!) the gift or card.
Happy Wednesday!
This is great! I do that too, and I didn’t do it last year, I had a pretty little calendar out instead, and regretted it. I was late for a lot of birthdays.
Happy New Year!
I love calendars, seriously, those tiny little blank boxes waiting to be neatly penciled in :D
Great minds think alike – this is what I posted about, too, for my WFMW!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing =) Happy New Year!
Gotta do this-tonight!
I just did this last night :) Great minds must think alike!
I also use a free service called BirthdayAlarm.com and input those into there. It sends me a free email reminder a week before my friends & family’s birthdays to remind me what is coming up. It helps for the ones I actually happen to forget :)
Well, OF COURSE it is hung with command adhesive! :) Great idea! We don’t really have a good spot for something like that in our home, though I suppose we could do something like that on the back of the front door. I’m liking the idea alot. I may have to go out and get a large calendar just for that purpose! Hubby usually has no clue what’s going on until I tell him (four times is about the right average). Thanks for the tip!
I do the same thing, and it’s funny, but my calendar is in the same spot in our kitchen. :) I hadn’t put the number of years of birthdays or anniversaries until a relative sent a calendar she had made that had that info. on it, and I thought it was a great idea, especially to make note of those “milestone” birthdays and anniversaries.
Okay are you a long lost calendar transfering twin or what. You do exactly what I do even down to the birthdays with the age in parenthesis. That is scary! :v)
I do exactly this. I buy the Mom’s organizer calendar with the big squares and it works wonderful. I also delegate a different color pen for each family member so activities are easliy identifiable as to who’s it is without taking up more writing space putting in names.
I heart my paper calendar. Hubby had talked me into doing it online this year with Google calendars, but I think you just talked me into buying a “real” one!
Great idea. I do that too. :-) It really helps!
I love the idea of a master calendar! But I haven’t even bought a 2007 calendar yet!
P.S. I just put all my friends bdays into my cell phone and it alerts me. I guess that’s cheating! :)
You are soooo good. You’re my hero! Maybe in my next life I’ll be as organized as you are. I just bookmarked Lara’s bags too!
I love this idea of transfering everything right at the first of the year.
This is my first time here….I will be back….there is so much to read!
Blessings
Great tip! I am organized challenged and I enter it in my phones calendar with a reminder alarm. And on my microsoft outlook at work. Now I will hang up a calendar like you do, so the rest of the family knows whats going on! Thanks
Pam at Terrific Teens
Hi! Be careful not to have birthdays listed in too many places because then when you update one you will need to remember to update all of them…it might be easier to stick with one central spot where everyone can see it. Hope that helps.
Thanks for your comments everyone!
I thought I already commented, but maybe I didn’t…maybe I just thought about it. So anyway, all reambling aside. I have to get some of the hooks from 3M that you mentioned. I love your blog and have an affinity for organizing gadgets like you. I’ll just bet the oranges in your other post were bought for reasons other than the oranges. I bought a case of clementines (what the heck’s a clementine anyway) for the pretty wood crate they were in!
I always think about doing this every year, but never have. I think you’ve inspired me to get this done! My mind is getting pretty old… I can’t just remember dates like I used to,
I’ve been using a planner for the past year and it hasn’t really been working that great for me. I don’t always open it up to look at it. I’m thinking I probably need to go back to the wall calendar. In the meantime, I’m giving Google calendar a try. It sends email alerts for upcoming events. Since I check my mail a couple of times a day, I’m thinking it should be a good solution. If not, I’m going to go back to the wall calendar.
I am so glad to have found your blog…I love organizing too! We keep our large calendar on the fridge. I bought one of those desk blotter types ($1 at Target!). It works wonders at keeping us going. I use to use a small one for myself, but dh said he never knew what was going on…now he does. With three boys in baseball, our summer schedule gets especially hectic. We couldn’t live without this!
Blessings,
Angela
I have this same calendar hanging in my kitchen!
I do that as well! I guess I’m more organized than I thought. I also have that same calendar, LOVE the recipes! I hang mine on the inside of one of my cupboard doors. It’s by the stove and I can lean back against the counter to check out what’s going on, or to write something down, so convenient! My husband has even started looking at it. Great WFMW post, I’m sure I’ll be back here. I am, like a lot of people, organizationally (is that even a word??) challenged.
Great tip i must say. I was also tagged for forgetting birthdays but not any more coz http://www.forgetmeneversolutions.com> is helping me do all my work. I no more sit and write down everything in a calender i just log on and type the dates and the wish lists of my loved ones. I also get great gifts here online so i am no more that bad in remembering. Go ahead try it once.
Thank you for reminding me to do this. Duh!!!! I almost threw out my old calendar before transferring the birthdays. Going to do that now so I don’t forget.