Organizing

Every year Nov. to Jan. it seems every where you go stores are giving away free calendars. Most of the time these aren't ones you want to hang on your wall. Random cowboy scenes to tractors aren't my idea of good design elements. So, rather than waste those calendars I put them to a use. If you buy a calendar that you like and you would like to recycle the pictures to frame for later, I don't recommend writing on it. Sometimes pen will bleed through or even emboss or pierce the picture for the following month. So I save the calendars I love to hang on the wall and use for reference and the others I have a few different uses for.
I always get one from my bank that has pockets I like to use this one to collect my tax info or medical spending for the year. I keep it on my desk where I pay bills so that when I record doctor co-pays in my check register I record the receipt date in the box and put the receipt in the monthly pocket. When it comes time to claim flex spending or do taxes I have all of my medical receipts in one place and I have a record of them. I add them up monthly and write the total on the corner. Then I'll record when I've gotten reimbursed in another color pen. This doesn't happen more than a couple times a year so it doesn't get too confusing.
I get another spiral bound calendar from my insurance company. I like to carry this one with me in my bag. I like to write some to-do's for the week or month and fun things that happened or record growth or funny things my kids have said. It's also great for keeping track of birthdays. This way it's something I can file away to use to journal or scrapbook later. But it's all together. You can record new teeth, lost teeth, weight and height, appointments, vacations, first words, funny things, and you don't have to remember to write a date. This is good for those of us who are always thinking I need to remember to write this down, and don't. I also like to record housekeeping things to do like patch and paint the walls. I have found that if I write a specific date to do these things life always happens and it doesn't end up happening that day. This year I am going to write weekly goals and monthly goals this way I don't have a rigid deadline and I can still live but I also have a loose deadline pushing me to accomplish something. I really need something to push me to do the regular housekeeping things that need to happen but aren't so fun to do. At the end of the year I file my medical calendar. The other calendar I go through the info and take the things I need and record them in the appropriate place and put the calendar with all of our other memorabilia from the year. Now I just need a better filing system for the memorabilia.