Organized...

 Household Planner

I can't say that I have ever felt 100% organized but it is a work in progress and maybe that is what it always really is - schedules change, contacts change, jobs change, etc.  But I am attempting and I am feeling pretty good about it.
A couple of weeks ago I read this post on a blog I check out frequently and with the baby coming and I will soon be having grandparents and others in the house to lend a helping hand I thought what better time to start my own household planner.  I did edit mine a bit to fit our needs.  Mine includes:

Calendar - exactly what is sounds like a calendar for the entire year

Contacts - with contacts I not only included family, but daycare, dr.'s office, hospitals - I also attached a Google maps.

Cleaning - this is started but I haven't been able to really get into the routine of it and mine is not as detailed as the post describes - I simply have the days of the week and what cleaning task get accomplished on that day.

Schedules  - instead of adding the daily schedules for the kids as part of cleaning I made a tab specifically for our schedules, I also included our dogs schedule.

Community Resources - I added this tab because when we moved here this summer our realtor  gave of this great packet/list of community resources: plumber, electrician, lawn care, etc. and I have found it very useful but have also left it floating around our office so now it has a home and if anyone is watching the house for us while we are away or if we need someone to come and look at something our list is handy.

Things to Do - parks, events, museums in the area that are fun and family friendly (and usually at little or no cost)

Activity Station

We have this great sit at counter that manages to always find itself cluttered with everything from the daily mail, to craft projects to lost game pieces...the list goes on.  So in my attempt to keep the counter decluttered and have a home for specifically the table activities and crafty things that Noah and I work on at the table I put together a cart of items - so far it is working.

I brought the kitchen cart that we had in our laundry room up and placed it under the bar in this empty area - fits great.

Purchased 4 snap top tubs from Wal-Mart (only $4 each) and they have great latches that stay together when little hands pull the tubs off of the cart and they land on the floor.  

I plan on rotating the materials in 2, maybe 3 of the tubs but currently they are housing:

Craft Materials: paper, stickers, pipe stem cleaners, pom poms, etc.

Playdough: cookie cutters, plastic knives, small rolling pin

Bristle Blocks (will rotate with other table toys)

Empty Tub (it is always good when I end up with an empty tub we will see what we fill it with)

The cart also has:

Noah's Art Box: glue stick, watercolor, markers, crayons, child safe scissors, chalk

Large Floor Puzzle (that is rotated with other games and puzzles)

And we use the top of the cart to leave projects to dry or if we need to finish something later

How do you get organized, I would love to hear your ideas and what works for your family and household.