DIYfish inserts review - A5 WO2P v2.1

Well I have had a very fun and productive week and a half!
After reading so many positive comments about the DIYfish inserts I thought it may be time to give them a go. It took me a few months to build up the courage to try them though. I say 'courage' because it looked WAAAYYY complicated. Pages that open up and fold in on other pages, weeks that go vertically, monthly and weekly check lists and heaps of blank spaces. I didn't know if I'd be able to use all the sections let alone understand how they'd all fit together!
But I did it. I ordered the 3-month trial. However, I did cheat and got a lovely friend of mine from a Facebook planner group to print, cut and send them to me because I KNOW I would have gotten confused or not had the time or patience to put it all together and I would have given up! (Thank you Stephanie - you're an angel)
Once they arrived to my door, I got all excited, ripped open the packaging and my heart sunk... There were pages and pages in all shapes and sizes. I spent the first 15 minutes just staring at them thinking 'Why did I buy these?' 'How the hell am I going to put this crazy planner insert thingie together??'
But I persisted and watched a few You Tube videos to help me figure it all out. This video (here) from Nadine's Mixed Plate was a great help for understanding and ordering the inserts.
Once I figured them out I tried adding my regular information in the inserts and this is what I came up with...

Underwhelming isn't it! So then I started thinking 'What would I like to have in my planner that I couldn't add in my other inserts?' and I got to work filling out the empty spaces.

I am converted! Turns out I am now IN LOVE with these crazy DIYfish inserts! I now have everything I need all in one planner.
The left side of the Day page I use for to-do's (top-down for things to do at home and bottom-up for things to do out and about), the coloured stickers are for the washing system I use, and the section on the left is a calendar (not a lot on that day I guess!) The right side of the day page are for notes and the bottom half I use as a daily journal about my family and kids. I LOVE this. I have a filofax I used for journalling but only used it every now and again as life would get in the way and I'd forget. As my A5 planner is always open on my desk and always in use, it was much easier to remember to journal. I'm really enjoying it.
I had a good meal planning system, but this new system has made it GREAT. Below is my weekly menu plan:

I use the left side of the table to plan what I am going to make during the week. On the right is where I write all the ingredients needed for that meal. This is very helpful when prepping for my weekly grocery shop so I don't forget anything. As I have 2 young babies, going to the supermarket once a week is hard enough let alone going back a second time! Visit my meal planning video (here) to see my old system which still use the flag system.

I also write my dinner meal in my daily page:

I also enjoy the monthly tracker. I'm still feeling around with how it works and how it will work with my lifestyle. I have ideas to try for July and I will write and video an update later next month. Here it is at the moment:

I also have a section in my planner for a detailed look into my blogs and videos but I wanted to be able to view my next topic really quickly as I'm using the back of the weekly 'flap' and my quick dot point overview of my OrganisedLifestyle topic for the week to keep me on track, organised and easily accessible.

I've also started using a basic colour coding system with these highlighter tabs from daiso. It works great. I can see what I need to at a quick glance of colour with these tabs instead of needing to carry multiple coloured pens everywhere!

So this is it in a nut shell. It looks confusing and overwhelming but if you can get past the initial shock of how much is in here then you may discover how awesome this system is. It is really changing the way I plan for the better.
I. like most of us, am always evolving my planning system and I will do an update again in a few months but I am really enjoying this system so far.

Please visit my YouTube channel or click the link (here) to see the video where I show my DIYfish review in more detail.

You can also find my on my new OrganisedLifestyle Facebook page or Instagram.

Any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you!

Have a great day

Jen

My new planner tote

Firstly, sorry I have been absent lately, I was off having my second baby girl :-) She is now almost 3 months old (oh my gosh!) and things are just now starting to settle back down to some sort of normality. We couldn't be happier with our little family! However, now we have 2 kids we no longer have a spare bedroom I can consume as my study (GASP!) We have a communal desk for hubby and I but all my craft and planner 'stuff' seems to occupy the majority of the space. Also, as the desk is in full view of everyone walking past the lounge room I found it difficult keeping it neat and tidy all the time. 

Enter the idea of a planner tote! I thought that by getting a tote to carry all my supplies I would not be limited to one space and everything will be at my fingertips without it being strewn across the tiny desk for the whole world to see. I started googling and searching on Ebay right away. I was disheartened as everything was not quite what I wanted or over $100 which I was not prepared to spend. So what did I do... I took my complaints to the planner Facebook community (because lets face it, who else would understand!) Here one of my BRILLIANT Facebook friends explained to me that she was recently in a similar situation and found her answer at the local hardware store! She found a builders tool bag worked perfectly as a planner tote! It has heaps of pockets, open top for easy access, very solid sides and a very strong handle in order to hold the weight of all the tools.

So I went off (well ok I sent hubby on a detour on his way home from work) to our local Bunnings and Masters with strict instructions of what I wanted with a $20 limit. This is what he came home with:

BEST.BUY.EVER! I was over the moon. It was just what I wanted and the price was right :-)

So I went to work pimping it out and this is the final product:

Here you can see 4 pockets across the the front. The left flap contains my double sided tape. The next pocket holds 2 Kikki-K sticky note pads. Then is some super cute turtle note paper that looks as though it was made to fit! On the right pocket are some paper clips.

The 2 slit pockets behind, hold my Mark It dots and Kikki-K To-Do note pad on the left and my Kikki-K sticker book and a card from a beautiful friends of mine on the right.

The above picture shows one side of the bag. There is a metal bar attached to the side which is made to hold a tape measure (so my husband tells me) where I clip on my 4 sharpie markers.  The pocket on the right is a perfect fit for my Rapesco planner hole punch! You can also see my washi tape which is threaded through a velcro strap back onto itself. I have absolutely no idea the real purpose of this strap but it is PERFECT for holding my washi as the velcro is super strong, easy access and out of the way!

The other side has 2 pockets, one in front of the other. The one in the back holds a pouch full of post it notes and page markers and flags as well as some note paper. The front pocket holds my Martha Stewart dew drop stickers, K-Mart sticker dots and K-Mart repositionable (so they say) and write-on stickers. You can also see another 'washi velcro strap' where I have attached my thin wash tape.

This side has one large zippered pocket along with 4 little pouches. As I use the zippered pouch often I do not keep anything in the mesh pockets as they would be constantly falling out.

Here is the zippered pouch opened containing my frixions 0.7mm pens, highlighter and rub-a-dub sharpie pen for writing on washi tape.

Here is a birds eye view of the top of my planner tote. It holds sooooo much. The handle in the middle is super comfortable to grab as it has some squishy foam and its also non-slip. The handle can move from side to side if you need to get in the middle of the bag.

The planners I have in there from the top down include: A5 Aqua Malden (my home management system), my new A5 Calipso in bright blue, my new personal size domino in violet and my personal size aqua Malden (my wallet/diary)

On one of the long inside walls of the bag are 3 pockets. Starting from the left I have: 3 lined post it notes (2 large, 1 medium size) and a Kikki-K note pad. The middle pocket contains a spiral note pad also from Kikki-K. The small pocket on the right holds my purple scissors.

The items next to the planners in the centre are my paper cutter, Dymo labeller and my fox zipper pencil case from Typo containing my 'go-to' stickers and page flags. I also have a note pad, and 2 pouches of stickers tucked in behind my A5 Malden.

I LOVE this setup! It works perfectly for my needs, keeps everything super organised, easy to access and a fantastic price... what more could a girl ask for!

If you want to see the video of my planner tote click here

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions please feel free to leave me a message!

Jen

P.S. I have just created a new Facebook page for my blog and YouTube channel if you would like to check it out :-)

You can also find me:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/organisedlifestyle

Facebook: organisedlifestyle

Instagram: http://instagram.com/organisedlifestyle