The Day Runner organzation system

I do consider myself to be organized.  The more kids I added to the family, the more organized I became.  I have a calendar upstairs and downstairs, a day planner in my purse that goes with me everywhere, and I use a calendar on my computer as well.  But when I was asked to look at The Day Runner System for Families, I jumped at the chance.  I wanted to see if I was missing any areas, places that could be a bit more organized. 

See.  It's not ME that's disorganized, it's my kids.  Could it be the fact that my daughter went to school one day with no shoes on?  Or the fact that I receive a call a week, asking me to bring a lunch/coat/hat/eyeglasses to school that someone has forgotten?  The Day Runner System is perfect for just about any family.  I was sent the Family Matters product line, which came with a large, undated, erasable wall calendar, a wirebound monthly planner book, erasable door hangers/reminders, activity folders and storage cases.  The set was huge and well constructed.  All dated items were for 2008, but I can certainly see how I'll use them when the time comes.

I did have a bit of a problem with the erasable calendar.  No sooner would I get something written than it would need to be changed, and in my zest to erase the old info, I'd also erase part of something else.  also, there was the time that one of my kids erased the entire calendar and filled it in with such delights as "Buy me candy" and "Eat at McDonald's". I think we do better with a pen and paper calendar, especially since I sometimes fill in appointments two and three months in advance.  The spaces were a bit small for us, but we have a larger than normal family with larger than normal commitments.

The door hangers are wonderous.  My usual method is to tape a giant note to the door, but these hangers are a more pleasant and attractive alternative.  Even when I write something along the lines of "The trash cans need to be brought up before dark", they still manage to look classy.  The area to add a wipe off marker is an awesome bonus.

One thing that didn't work for our family was the use of colors to designate different family members.  We have more members than colors!  I solved this by doubling up, but I wish that there had been a way to add additional members/colors.  The storage cases, I'll admit, aren't being used in their preferred methods - I try to put everything where it goes when it comes in the house, since with eight people, you can get overwhelmed in one day by the sheer enormity of paperwork.  Since there were only five of them, it didn't really work to use them for the kids papers, so I put magazines that I wanted to save in them.

The spiral bound planner lays flat and has both a month at a glance feature and each week, which is a nice touch.  The squares on the pages are large and the colors coordinate to the other products, so if you were able to designate one child as blue, it'd be a snap to see who had an appointment that day.

All in all, I think that Day Runner has a great product, and this system is great for small to medium size families.  Parts of it work for large families, you just need to be creative.

Comments

[Demi Gibson]

Well it is about time! I was a big fan of their products as a professional and tried applying my DayRunner to family life years ago which didn't exactly work out. I will have to check this new format out. Thanks!