My Office Study Nook Setup

Hi guys. Well as we are now a family of 4 and we have a 3 bedroom house, I have lost my study/office room! As I'm still on maternity leave and not due back part time until the start of next year I am handling it but I NEED MY SPACE. So I have created a Office/study nook in the hallway of my house. It is a really nice desk so I don't mind showing it off but as it is in full view of everyone who enters my home it needs to be neat as well as functional. This is a challenge for me as I tend to create 'organised chaos' in my space!
So after some juggling around this is what I came up with.

I took this picture from the walkway from the lounge room which leads into the kitchen. (If you want a better idea of where the space is in relation to the house check out the corresponding video here).

To the left I have a set of 10 coloured drawers which I used previously as my teaching supplies at work. It's not the prettiest thing in the world to be shown in the hall, but for now it works.

Each drawer is labelled with a specific category: catch all (items which don't have a home currently or need to be filed away go here and get cleaned out at the end of each week), post it notes, stationary, misc (stationary items I like but don't use often - items I give away as RAKs or to friends), storage (a place to hold my travel planner bags and pens), laminating pouches, coloured texts and pencils, coloured paper, plastic pockets and immunisation records for the girls.

Sitting on top is my planner tote which houses all my favourite and on-the-go items for my planners I can plan and decorate in any room of the house. I tend to move the tote to under the desk when I have guests over in order to minimise the clutter. If you would like to see a video of the planner tote setup click here. 

Here is a shot of the top of my desk (a desk handed down from my grandfather-in-law who had it passed down to him). It is such a beautiful desk and just needs a new piece of leather as this piece is getting a bit tattered.
From left to right I have my current planners in use, my washi tape wheel from Costco, my inbox which holds mail to deliver and bills to pay and my iMac in the centre. A jar rack sits to the right of the computer which holds my pen box holder I brought for $1 from The Salvos. I love this rack as it creates another level, doubling my space. Under the jar rack lives my hole punch, sticky tape and stapler. I also have a lamp, a hand sanitiser and some candles (you can see the lighter sticking out of the pen box holder I use to light them). The two planners open are my personal aqua Malden (my wallet/appointment planner) and my A5 aqua Malden (my home maintenance planner). The A5 lives on my desk most of the time open just like this.

A close up of the jar rack and pen box holder

A close up of one of the drawers in the desk.
They are not very deep but are perfect for spare pens, Dymo labeller tape etc.

This is a shot of under the desk. My aim is to have this cleared soon as we are planning to make an above the desk storage unit in the next few months to reduce clutter. The basket on the left holds envelopes, paper and 2 Martha Stewart A4 folders. Next is my A3 laminator. The next box contains extra filofax inserts and dividers as well as my storage space for my planners which house past months inserts to reduce bulk in my current planners. I like to look back on past information from time to time. There is also a tunnel from Ikea for my daughter and a basket which is used as a paper bin.

I hope this has helped you realise that if you are in my situation where you are unable to use a dedicated room as an office then you still have options to create your own nook in your house to call your own :-)

Have a great day!

Jen

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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

Organising my pantry

Hi everyone :-)
I have had a few requests for a 'How I organise my pantry' blog and video so I thought I'd get it done now before the baby comes and I don't shop for 3 months! ;-)
Here is a breakdown of how I sort my pantry. This is how it looks all the time. I thought it would be best to show an honest view rather than after my 3-monthly clean and spruce up (so be nice!)

When we brought the house we noticed very quickly that the narrow pantry we had was very limited. It looked big enough but when it was full of food it would spill out and we had to reach really far in to get anything. We also had the problem that because of it being narrow and deep it was almost impossible to find anything and we would forever be re-buying stuff we didn't realise we had and finding out of date items way in the back. Quite frankly, it was costing us a fortune!!
So what I ended up doing was a 1-2 day shop. I would buy what I needed for a couple of days and go again a few days later. Not only was this costing us more money doing it this way but I don't enjoy cooking at the best of times and it was such a hassle that sometimes when Dave and I got home from work we would just have 2 minute noodles, toast or take away!
We needed inspiration so off we went off to Ikea where we found the perfect solution to our problems.  Here we saw pull out drawers for deep narrow spaces like ours. You can pull out the whole drawer/shelf and can get easy access to everything and can see all the way to the back. It was perfect! The only problem was they were not cheap. However, having a carpenter as a husband can be very 'handy' at times I tell you! So when we got home I sent him to work building pull out drawers for our pantry.

The 5 drawers (from the bottom) are all pull out drawers and we left the top two as they were. That space is for items we don't use often as I can't even reach them standing on a chair! The bottom drawer is made out of a thicker timber (and I still need to paint it!) FYI - if you do not have a magnetic knife strip thingie then do yourself a favour and get one! They are fantastic, quick and easy to find which knife you want and gives you extra space on your kitchen table top (and we all need more of that!)

THINGS THAT HELP ME STAY ORGANISED IN THE PANTRY
1. If you have a space like mine, get a pull out drawer. They will change your life and ultimately save you money as you know what you have and have easy access.

2. Group items into categories and place them into baskets. This way everything is right where you want it at all times and everyone knows where they belong. The above picture shows all sauces and oils on the left and in the red basket on the right are all condiments. Below is another example where all the packet mix products are upright in their own basket where they are secure and easy to flick through to find what you are looking for.

3. If you have a young child I find it easy to have a 'kid drawer'. Here I know all her snacks are here so I can grab them quick as I head out the door.

4. I try to unbox as much as I can and place into a basket or container so I know how many I have left. It is a pet hate of mine when you go to grab something out of a box to find it empty! Grrrr...

5. Get yourself a tiered stand. Best invention ever!! These little babies give you twice as much room in your pantry and you can see everything so much better. Perfect for cans as you can see in the picture below. You can buy them quite cheap from $2.00 shops (they are not quite $2 but what is nowadays!) FYI - they are also fantastic to use on you home or office desk!

6. If you haven't already, get yourself a labeller. I think my husband thinks it's surgically attached to my arm at times. It not only helps you to keep organised but also the other members of your family. You may know where things belong, but when you label it EVERYONE knows! Less work for you and no excuses from them :-)

So there is a look into my kitchen pantry and how I organise things. Nothing 'world-first' about it all by any means, but it's what is working for us at the moment. If you have any tips on how you organise your pantry please leave them in the comments below as I am always on the lookout for better ways to organise myself!

I hope you are all having a great day!

Jen

2014 Goals layout for my Filofax

I have never been a great New Years Resolution keeper. I would do the typical super keen for ten minutes thing then fall back into old routines and habits but now with the added guilt of not doing what I set out to do and feeling like a failure.
So for this year I thought about goals I really could achieve and tools I could implement to really help with these goals and this is what I came up with.
I created a new tabbed section in the back of my Filofax labelled (you guessed it, GOALS). I have a cover page where I have 4 spaces for 4 different (and achievable) goals that are important to me. Below those sections are 4 sub sections to help nut out those goals. Again I made 4 goals with 4 sub sections only so I didn't spread myself too thin and fail before I even begun.

2014 Yearly goals template LINK

Then my goals are broken down into months. Small achievable tasks in the areas of: Health, Relationships, Finances, Personal Development, Organisation and Travel & Experiences. I only put 1-2 mini goals in each area. I also include a calendar where I can plot when I can do some of these tasks, counting down days, ticking down the days etc.

2014 Monthly Goals template LINK

I check on my goals each week to make sure I am keeping on track and use these lists to keep me motivated and accountable. So far so good (I have usually given up by now) :-)
I will review this system in a blog mid year to let you know how I am going and whether these templates have helped my goal keeping.

I hope you are all having a great start to the year and as always if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment below and I'll get back to you.

Enjoy your week!

Jen

Project Management System (filofax series)

Happy New Year everyone!
In this post I will be talking about one of my New Year's resolutions... Project Management. Do you ever have all these awesome ideas to fix up your house or make an awesome craft you saw on Pinterest but find it hard to schedule it all in and life just gets in the way? My biggest problem was getting super excited and starting all these different projects then getting overwhelmed because I took on too much too quickly and so abandoned them all vowing to pick it up again 'one day'...
Well this is my solution to my project abandonment issues - my Filofax Project Management System. Before I categorise everything (because that is what perfectionist me likes to do - attempt to create order), I use a 'brain dump' system. I love that name because I literately dump everything from my brain relating to projects I want to do onto the paper in any order. This brain dump is my 'Master To-Do List' and I just write it on the standard Filofax 'To Do' paper.

Once I have done this I can glance through it and work out what projects I want to be done sooner and what projects I can postpone until later in the year and I break it all down into monthly tasks. This format gets it all clear in my mind and helps me to prepare and break everything into manageable pieces.

Link to: 2014 Projects Template

* REMEMBER: This is a working document, meaning none of these timelines need to be set in concrete. This Project Management System is to help you do just that - manage projects. You most likely will need to alter the timeline as things pop up in your life. Don't let this stress you out or add pressure to your life, just simply move it to the next month. :-)

Once I have done this I then take 2-3 of the current month projects (no more than that or you will overwhelm yourself!!) and create tabbed sections for those projects in the next section of the Filofax. Here the task is 'nutted out' and broken up into mini to-dos and weekly tasks (if applicable).
Below is an example of some of my projects. The tabs marked ML V (mummylifestyle vlog), OL V (organisedlifestyle vlog) and OL B (organised lifestyle blog) are permanent tabs which house my You Tube and Blog pages and are separate from the regular projects. I included these just to show you if you were interested :-)

 Once each 'mini project' is complete you can tick off the boxes (my guilty pleasure!) until they are all complete and the project is done. I then remove the project and house it in a separate folder for reference. (I have a Kikki-K A5 planner headed my way in the post and will house past projects in there when I'm done).

So, that's how I do it. For more detailed projects (like preparation for Christmas etc.) I add a few more steps. Once my new (to me) planner arrives I will post a detailed blog about how I planned for Christmas Day and all the preparation that came before it.

Just remember, projects are suppose to be fun NOT stressful. Don't try and tackle everything at once. Lay it all out, break it up into manageable pieces and give yourself realistic timelines to complete in order to succeed.

GOOD LUCK and have an amazing week!!

Jen

A Peek into my A5 Home Management Binder System

Happy 2 weeks till Christmas 2013 everyone! What a crazy year it has been with a chocka block few weeks to go - thank GOODNESS for my home management binder system or I would be running around like a crazy person (more than usual anyway) :-)
In this blog post I'm going to give you a quick look into my home management system (aka my home bible) and show you the system that works for me. I could not find any pre-make inserts that work for my lifestyle so I created them myself! (which I will link for you further down). It is really important that you find a system that works for you, otherwise, no matter how 'pretty' it looks is is not functional for you and will not be a useful tool in your organisational process. Trial and error works for me. I tend to know in about 2-3 weeks if a template layout works for me or not. If not, I try something else.
I hope this post will give you some ideas in creating your own FUNCTIONAL Home Management system.

Here is my lovely $5 A5 Domino Filofax in burgundy (not my favourite colour but for a $5 bargain price at my local Officeworks how could I pass it up!)

When you open it up you find card slots on the left and a top opening envelope on the right. On the left I store my smily face paper binder clip along with my various sized Kikki.K post it notes and my very favourite post it notes, the super-sticky Post-It brand lined in the square and large rectangle size. The larger rectangle sized post-its (blue in this picture) are perfect for housing my grocery list as once I have written it up I stick it straight onto the trolley handle in the supermarket for easy access and it doesn't fall off!
On the right, the top opening envelope (which came with the Filofax) stores my repositionable flags (which I use for my menu planning), Post-It flags, Martha Stewart re-positionable dew drops (I LOVE THESE THINGS), my K-Mart coloured dots (which I use to colour code my calendar), scrap writing paper from Kikki.K and spare menu planners (I will explain how this works later).
The pens I use are my Frixion clicker pen (Officeworks AUD $4.00 approx. - purple one is shown here). I love these pens as they are smooth and neat to write with and are also erasable which comes in very handy. On the left I use a blue Paper Mate clicker pen to write on my page flags and sticker dots.

Turn the page and you are hit with a picture that always makes me smile, my gorgeous cheeky monkey daughter. :-) The picture is protected behind a flyleaf decorated with washi tape.

Next is a key to my colour coding system for my diary section of the planner. I use the same colour coding system for my Personal Malden wallet/planner system (detailed in a previous post). The key is self explanatory (red - money out, green - money in, yellow - birthdays, blue - appointments and work schedule) and works wonderfully for me as I enjoy the colour coding system but hate carrying multiple pens around so this is a fast and effective way to colour code (plus the stickers are AUD$1.50 for a pack of 5 sheets from KMart - score!)

I use this binder clip (from eBay for AUD$1.99) to corral all my previous calendar pages together.

Then comes the heart of the planner, my Day per Page calendar. I could not find the perfect Day per Page insert for my lifestyle so I created my own. Here is a working example of how I use it on a daily basis as well as a blank copy: (LINK TO MY DPP TEMPLATE)

The top left box are where I house my regular chores. I write my weekly chores on my Martha Stewart dew drop stickers and place them on the day I think I will do them. But my favourite part of this system is it's flexibility. Sometimes the day gets away with you and you may run out of time to do all the chores you planned (or you just kinda can't be bothered!) With this system you can move the stickers to the following day if you don't complete them. Or alternatively you may have a quiet day and could fit more in and re-schedule your next day. This system works perfectly for me as it is extremely flexible yet still keeps me accountable to get things done.
The top right box houses my 'Daily To-Dos'. This is my I MUST DO today section, along with the all important tick boxes (so satisfying!) as well as a water intake chart to mark off my daily water intake (I am hopeless at this and using this tool to help keep me accountable).
The schedule is down the left which is broken into the hour and a blank section between each hour for appointments at different times. On the right are my regular 'Daily to dos' split into two sections to keep everything organised and easy to see. They are 'Home' for jobs to do at home and 'Out' for jobs that need to be done out and about.
Below that is my banking tracker so I can track our money in our 3 different accounts. Next is a small notes section, followed by 5 small stars which I use to rank how the day has gone and helps me to reflect on the day and what has been achieved (or not achieved). Another way of holding myself accountable and also to reflect on good days.
On the righthand side is my menu planner as well as my home made flyleaf/page marker I created. Stuck to that flyleaf is a list of my weekly to-do's which is held down with washi tape. The weekly to-do's are great as they are tasks that need to be done but not on a particular day. So if I have a spare moment I just glance at the list and pick one of these tasks to complete. The To-Do pad was brought at Kikki.K.
On the flip side of my home made flyleaf/page marker I keep notes for myself as well as the Martha Stewart dew drop stickers once I am finished with them for that week.

Next are my 6 section tabs. They are: Notes, Financial, Projects, Meals, Personal and Goals.

My Notes section contains general notes, ideas and scribbles. I use it as my thinking section which then gets transferred into the relevant section when ready. It's like my information 'brain dump' :-)
My Financial section is where I store any information to do with money that I want to keep track of. I have created multiple templates which track my online shopping, finances and money repayments.

Click for Online Shopping Tracker template

The Online Shopping Tracker helps me to remember when, where and how much I brought items online. It is a great resource for keeping track of my online purchases and to make sure all items get sent to me and nothing gets lost or forgotten about.

Click for Financial Tracking template

The Financial Tracker is ideal for knowing at a quick glance where your money is and whether it is coming in or going out.

Click for Repayment Tracker template

The Repayment Tracker is great for if you have borrowed money from the bank or elsewhere and you are paying it off in increments. This form came in very handy when paying off our wedding (which is now 100% payed off - woo hoo!)

My Projects section is spilt into sub-catergories and is where I house all my home project plans and progress. The front page shows my 'Master To-Do list'. This is a list of all the projects I want done (with no due date allocated to them). Once this is complete I then allocate them to a month and then break down the month into weeks etc. This stops me from getting too overwhelmed with everything I need to do. I LOVE my projects tab and find I have been so much more productive with projects with my new setup!
I will be doing a video as well as a corresponding blog post detailing this Projects section in more detail soon if you are interested.

I then have sub categories according to the current 3 projects I have on the go at the time. Currently they are 'Christmas' (Christmas present lists and lunch menu and decor etc.), 'Backyard' (we are currently renovating the yard and adding a dog run down the back) and 'Layla's Room' (we are moving Layla into her 'big girl' room as we prepare the nursery for the new arrival in 2 months time).

Next is my Meals section. I do not enjoy cooking and meal planning is so boring and frustrating for me so I needed a system that was easy to use and effective. This works a treat for me.
Here I store dinner meals that are tried and true in our house. Recipes we enjoy go here and the list is getting bigger every day. On the left is a key explaining a colour coding system for the meal planning. Yellow - chicken, Green - beef, Orange - lamb, Blue - pork, Red - vegetarian. On the right is the list of recipes written on the correct coloured flag. There is also a 'Take-Away', 'Eat Out' and 'Left Overs' Post-It flag. The flags I use are WD Penfold brand from Officeworks for AUD$1.00 and are writable and re-positionable.

Once we have chosen out 7 meals for the week I then place them on the correct day in my meal planning template I keep between my daily pages. Again, as the tabs are re-positionable, we can chop and change the day we have those meals according to what we feel like on the day. Once the meal has been made and eaten, the meal flag then goes back into the meals section of my planner. This is a quick and easy way of meal planning in our house and takes all the thought out of the weekly shop. HURRAH!

Click for Meal Planner template

Then comes my Personal section which currently contains my Pregnancy Weight Tracker and once baby is here my regular Weight Tracker.

Click for Pregnancy Weight Tracker

Click for Weight Tracker

The last tab my Goals section. This is still a work in process but will house my 2014 year goals in all my personal, home, business and wellbeing areas of my life. I am still developing the perfect template for this but it currently holds my thoughts and ideas in each of these areas. I am hoping this will keep me on track and so I don't get too caught up in daily life to really reflect and be held accountable.

SO - that is it in a nut shell! I hope it has given you some ideas for your planner and that you may find the templates helpful for your personal use.
If you would like to see this set up in more detail please visit my Organisedlifestyle YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/organisedlifestyle where I go through my Home Management System layout section by section.

Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone and I hope Santa is good to you!

Jen xx