organizing Archives

As a personal rule, I don’t ordinarily share any sort of crowdfunding campaigns here on the blog. Today, though, I’m breaking that rule because I wanted to share with you guys a project my friend Kathleen is working on and I think since so many of you are planner addicts (myself included), you can get behind this idea. It’s in its final days on Kickstarter and this is the kind of planner that many of us can benefit from.

I’ll let Kathleen tell you a little more about herself and her project:

I’m Kathleen Celmins, and I blog in a variety of places. I’m new to the Stacking Benjamins team, and that and For Profit Blogging are my primary platforms. I got into blogging through Frugal Portland. Essentially, I’m a writer/designer/marketer who wants to teach other people how to tell their own story.

The project that is taking the most time and attention is The Remarkable Year, a calendar/planner/motivational journal that has you set goals at the beginning of the year, and marks your progress throughout the year. Weekly, you create a “done” list instead of a “to-do list” and your progress becomes a record of how you’re making your year remarkable.

From start to finish, the process took about three months. I worked with a designer, then poured through it continuously until I was satisfied. I researched quotes until I was certain that they were accurate (which takes longer than you’d think!), then I printed it 27 times, continually adjusting things until they were done.

The Remarkable Year is a memoir in the making — a time capsule of what you accomplished in 2016.

This planner is for:

Those who feel like they’re running on a treadmill and not actually getting anywhere.These people are running 100 miles an hour in 27 different directions, and they don’t feel like they have anything to show for their efforts. The Remarkable Year will show them that they did a lot more than they thought, and will encourage them to keep up the good work.
Those who don’t plan their days hour-by-hour. Or if they do, they’re planning using a calendar app that helps ensure they make it to meetings on time.
Those who aren’t always looking for a new app. In today’s ever-connected world, some people seek to step back from technology. And what better way than to write down the major and mini-milestones in a beautiful book you write yourself.
Those who want to journal, but are intimidated by a completely blank page. It’s often easier to respond to prompts instead of starting from a blank page. Writing prompts make it simple to jot down the important pieces of your week.

The Remarkable Year will only be printed if we can raise enough money on Kickstarter: http://bitly.com/remarkableyear

What I love the most about a planner like this is that a) it’s paper. I need a break from organizing apps. They don’t work for me; b) it’s a way to look at the big picture instead of analyzing the minutiae; c) it’s a consolidated way to look at your progress; and d) it focuses on your accomplishments instead of what you didn’t do. It’s basically a reframing of goals and to-do lists, and I think this has immense potential.

A disclaimer I need to throw in: Kathleen is a personal friend of mine. She did not approach me about sharing her project; I approached her because I think it’s such a great idea. Please do not feel any pressure to contribute or share her project.

What do you guys think? Are you as excited about this as I am?

Save

Little House on the Prairie. Great books, greater TV show (particularly when I was sick and home from school as a kid. Between that, The Price is Right, and Press Your Luck, I was set). And despite the obvious romanticizing of parts of her childhood, Laura Ingalls Wilder does a great job describing what life was like as a pioneer in the mid to late 1800s.

I know what she's thinking. It's "what the hell was I supposed to do next?" I know this look well. — I know what she’s thinking. It’s “what the hell was I supposed to do next?” I know this look well.

We’ll talk about that throughout this project. For today, though, we’re going to focus on having a weekly chore schedule. In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura describes her mother’s (Ma) schedule as this:

Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.

The concept of this schedule is wonderful. It’s thorough, specific, and covers all the areas of housekeeping that a person would need to attend to throughout the week (including building in time for rest. Alleviates guilt that way, and makes room for whatever faith you observe). And for someone like me who loathes housework and often has a difficult time forcing myself to do it, it’s a great way to break up the chores into manageable pieces. It makes the task of attending to chores less daunting since, you know, I’m not having to cram them all into one day.

The schedule is also flexible enough that it can be altered to accommodate each individual’s life. For instance, I can assure you I’m not churning butter on Thursday or any day (although I will be spending one afternoon making butter in my stand up mixer). As for ironing, if something that needs to be ironed makes its way into my house, I’m going on a rampage to find out who did it. And mending? That’ll happen whenever a button falls off of something. I’m not saving it up for one day.

But maybe instead of spending a whole day mending, I’ll spend the day sewing cloth napkins or some other sewing project. Instead of churning butter, I’ll designate a day for grocery shopping, menu planning, and assorted other errands. There’s no need to stick to Ma’s schedule as written; I’m not Ma and neither are you. There’s nothing wrong with taking her framework and making it your own!

I’ll get the schedule party started. I think, for now, my schedule will look like this:

Laundry on Monday,
Clean on Tuesday,
Dust and vacuum on Wednesday,
Catch up on missed chores on Thursday,
Errands on Friday,
Food prep on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.

It’s worth noting that in this, I need to make time for work, taking my child to her activities, going to the gym, and volunteering at my child’s school. I realize this is way busier than a normal pioneer lady’s schedule but I’m a modern pioneer. My life comes with different demands than that of 150 years ago. Which is fine. This experiment isn’t necessarily about replicating exactly what they did back then. It’s about incorporating parts of their way of life into mine.

Also, I’m not entirely sure how this is a step towards self-sufficiency. I do think it’s a step towards organization which leads to buying less so maybe there’s something self-sufficiency related tucked in there. Regardless, it’s still using a pioneer living model (even if it’s probably fictitious) and therefore applicable.

Right?

Do you have a household chores schedule? Will you create one? What does it look like?

Planner Alert: The Remarkable Year

Pioneer living with a weekly schedule

Connect with Me

Subscribe to Jana Says