Life Planner and Kitchen Command Center!

Our kitchen has this lovely little spot for a desk.  Sadly, it was a source of stress for me for nearly a year before I did something about it.  It began as a dumping ground for every bag, paper, and tchotchke that came in from the car each evening after work/school.


First order of business in any organizing project is to clear everything out and analyze what you have.  I left a couple of things - cloth napkins, a collection of Everyday Food magazines, some pink paper plates/napkins from Soph's birthday, and my camera/cords/flash.



I then brainstormed for probably 3-4 weeks about what I wanted.  I knew I wanted a big wall calendar to display the family's schedule a month at a time.  Someone pointed me in the direction of Erin Condren and I was hooked.  I ordered her Life Planner and her wall calendar, both personalized!  I then waited with bated breath for the postman to arrive.



You know its something good when you take a photo of the wrapping.



Here's a close up of the personalization on the calendar -- it is 11 x 17, so its nice and big to see from a distance.  I really could write larger on it, but I was trying to be neat.  (For client confidentiality purposes, I had to blur out a couple of work things.)



I also bought a mail holder from the Martha Stewart Collection at Staples.



I relocated a little desk lamp from the family room - it fit perfectly.  I bought a magnetic white board from Target to hold the calendar and any other notes.  I bought a pack of multicolor Flair felt tip pens, but Sophie wanted them so badly that I had to hide them in the cabinet.



Here's my Life Planner!  I decided not to put a picture on the front because I'm always in court and I sort of felt skeevy about all the random people at the courthouse seeing photos of my kids every time I needed to write something down.  Behind the Life Planner is the deskpad that comes with the big monthly calendar!



The Life Planner comes with stickers! So fun!



Of course, Soph has already claimed the spot as her own.  We got a chair from Home Goods to complete the little desk nook.  I love it.



The shelves above the desk were outfitted with bins from Target and labeled with those Martha Stewart labels from Staples.  Lest you think I did this in one shopping trip, let me explain that this took me at least a month to put together.  Time for Mommy-Projects moves so much more slowly when one has small children....



I organized the baskets based upon what I had originally stuffed into those spaces -- I did this in September and these bins are still working great in December, so the categories seemed to cover what we needed them to include.



And three months in, my Life Planner is getting some serious use. (Again with the confidentiality stuff. You understand how it goes.)  I love that the day is split into morning/day/night.  I try to use the morning part for exercise/stuff about daycare/important things to remember for the day.  "Day" is for all my work appointments/court appearances.  And "Night" is typically reserved for meal planning.  It is a work in progress.



Most of all, I just enjoy having a brightly colored calendar in the black and white, Times New Roman drabness that is a law firm.  It also happens to make a lovely cupcake coaster. :)  You know, for that 3 PM pick me up.



So that's my kitchen command center and my new Life Planner!  Next up, my pantry organization project!