Day Runner

Oh, organization, you cruel mistress! Ever since I was in high school and I started having multiple things to keep track of, I have implemented many organizational systems.
College brought on the necessity of organization. My first Day Runner intervention occurred when my homemade system brought heartache and dismay to my best college pal and anal retentive equal. If we could have color-coded our underwear without risking ridicule, we would have! Being a full-time college student and working multiple jobs is the first foray into organizational madness. But…
Being a mother of four children, all in school, all in multiple activities??? Not for the faint of heart.
I have had a system of color-coding my kids. Uh, I don’t smack them blue with a big drippy paintbrush, but any activity whatsoever that has to do with them renders it immediately color-coded in that child’s color.
So, when mama gets an email from Parent Bloggers Network saying, “Hey, want to review some Day Runner stuff?”

Uh, PBN? Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear…well, you get the idea.

There were multiple products and I’m going to write in the order that I liked them. And the nice thing about receiving so many products is that no person’s organizational needs are the exact same as the next and each person will find some things useful while another person may not.

My favorite thing isn’t even the one I figured on necessarily using at all. The Storage Cases helped significantly decrease my piles and clutter from the plethora of papers that come up around here with mail, school and activities. There were five available, all in different colors (yippee, COLORS!) and now each of the four kids plus hubby have a place I can keep their variety of stuff. I rearranged a little bit a counter space in our high traffic kitchen and now have a small control center for sending a kid who hasn’t seen “my homework” or “a note from my piano teacher” I can send that kid over to their storage case and see if it got filed away.

My second favorite thing will be/is the appointment book that starts dated 2008. I have always found planners and books of this type helpful in staying on task. The appointment book is going to be quite used and abused come 2008. With even more psychotically anal color coding within - woot!

I put up the Erasable Wall Planner but it's not really something I would use as a tool for myself but as a reference for the rest of the family. I know our schedule. They don't know what's going on until I tell them or they happen to ask. I already implement of bulletin board in our mudroom area for school notes and calendars, so this is kind of a duplication of something I already do but with busy kids, I would recommend utilizing a big main calendar so the entire family knows what is going on.

Lastly, the door reminders and folders. I already use folders for a plethora of organizational uses. It is quite possibly the biggest holdover from those old school days to grab a folder, label it by "subject" (like coupons, notes from the dance teacher, Scout fundraiser packets, etc) and make sure you are keeping things together and looking for a necessary piece of information takes no longer than identifying the folder in which it was tucked.
The door reminders are very clever, but not anything I would probably implement in our house at this time. One of my two readers would be oblivious to even notice it anyway (I love the kid, he has some serious attention shortcomings though) and I'm pretty much always home when kids are here. I can see this being an incredibly useful tool for down the road when my teenage kids are arriving home and perhaps I'm not here, the door reminders would be great for leaving messages and hoping they actually get noticed. (For now, we tape messages to the TV screen in the kitchen because you have to actually read it and take it off before you can watch TV... it's primitive but it works.)

I have always used and had success with Day Runner products. For any busy person on your shopping list this year, I would not hesitate to put any of these items on it. They will be grateful and a lot less stressed when there is a well-made product line to help keep things on track.

Sunshine's Rating: