To me, being organized does not mean remembering everything. It means having systems in place to ensure that our lives run smoothly. I don’t have space in my brain to store all of our schedules and lists so I rely on different devices and strategies to keep track of what’s important. 

One of the biggest organizational tools we use in our home is our color-coded calendar. Between school, dance classes, family events, and various appointments, our schedule has the potential to become very chaotic. Our color-coded calendar is a visual that lets us easily communicate where everyone needs to be and when. 

Here’s how I set up our color-coded calendar:

This minimalist calendar is from Amazon and I used a Command wire toggle hook to adhere it to our cabinet. It’s in a central location at a height where everyone can quickly reference it.

I prefer an 18-month paper calendar to a whiteboard or chalkboard that only has space for one or two months at a time. With this calendar, I can jot down everything for the entire school year all at once, including seasonal breaks, half days, and school events. 

I like my colored pens being easily accessible so I used a Command hanging strip to stick this pen holder next to the calendar. In case we make any mistakes while we’re writing, I also keep white-out in the pen holder.

Each pen color represents a person or group of people in our family. Scanning for a single color at a time is so much simpler for me than trying to process the entire page in one glance. Here’s how the colors are currently assigned:

• Red- me
• Blue- Husband
• Pink- Goose
• Purple- Belly
• Orange- Both kids
• Light Blue- me and Husband
• Green- the whole family
• Black- everything else

I don’t write my husband’s work schedule or the kid’s regular school schedule because we aren’t going to forget things that are daily and consistent. The calendar is for noting extracurricular activities, appointments, meetings, special occasions, and changes to our ordinary routines. 

I also want to mention that I use the Google Calendar on my phone to reference my schedule on the go. I use the same color system and I cross-check every couple of days to be sure that both calendars, paper and digital, are up to date.

A color-coded calendar may not exactly be a revolutionary concept, but I can’t imagine staying organized without it!

While these are all items on our actual family calendar, most of the dates and times have been changed to protect our privacy 🙂 

For more organization advice, visit my meal planning guide and see our stress-free morning routine.

Talk to you soon!