The busier you get the faster time seems to go. If you’re not organizing your time, you are losing it. A planner is the best, and might I say prettiest, way to organize your time. However, a planner can help with more than just your schedule. If you’re like me, you operate best when everything is in one place. To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday, here are my tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission. Read the full disclosure here.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

[bctt tweet=”Celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday with tips for organizing your planner! #planner #giveaway” username=”diyadulation”]

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Your Planner

Choose a planner that works for you. My personal favorite is the Happy Planner which I have been using for a year now. There are a ton of reasons I love it but the biggest reasons are:

It is easily expandable.
It can be folded completely in half due to its unique disc system.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission. Read the full disclosure here. — Photo credit: Amazon.com

Your Responsibilities

It is important to consider what your household responsibilities are when organizing your planner. If you take care of the cleaning and cooking in your household then you need sections in your planner for keeping track of these. With the Happy Planner, you actually have 2 options for achieving this.

You can buy the Home Planner set which is what I have (and totally recommend).
With their awesome punch, you can create your own. Simply design you planning and organizational pages. Next, punch them and place in your planner.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Accessories

Let’s be fair: the accessories are the most fun part of your planner. They make it unique. They make it yours. Some of the accessories I use are:

Dashboards – These are a unique idea from Create 365. They are plastic inserts that are perfect for sticky notes and to-do lists.
Pocket Folders – Frankly, I feel like these are a must. You definitely want folders in your planner to help you organize.
Washi Tape – While not a necessity, washi tape makes organizing easier and prettier. I use it to block large events such as when Hubs goes to drill or when we go on vacation.
Sticky Notes – Create 365 actually creates ones that are perfectly compatible with your Happy Planner. These are handy for a multitude of things such as your to-do list.
Colorful Pens – I’m a little OCD when it comes to my planner so I use colorful pens to color-coordinate tasks and appointments.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Your Sections

At the very least, you should have monthly and weekly calendars. Put your important events on the monthly calendar so you can see everything at a glance. It is important to note that you need to make sure you move these items to your weekly calendar as soon as they come up. You don’t want to plan out your week and forget about an obligation you have.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Case

A case for your planner makes the entire organizational process so much easier. That is the one regret that I have. I wish I would have bought my planner case sooner. It is so convenient to have all of my supplies in one place. I’ll show you how I organize my case in a later post but for now, trust me, this is definitely worth the investment.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

A Peek Inside My Planner

My planner has to work overtime for me. I tried having separate planners for both my blog and my personal life but it just didn’t work for me. I need everything in one place. That’s another reason that I love my Happy Planner. Now, I am more effective because everything is organized and at my fingertips.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

My Dashboards

I use 2 of my 3 dashboards. One holds post ideas that I want to write. The other holds appointment sticky notes and the tops items on my to-do list.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Monthly Calendar

Those post ideas I talk about on my dashboards? I put those on my monthly calendar. This is excellent for bloggers especially. It allows you to rearrange your editorial calendar as necessary. For example, if a sponsored post comes up.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

Weekly Calendar

On the weekly calendar, I lay out my daily schedule. It is important not to do this more than a week in advance because of how quickly things on your schedule can change. The Happy Planner allows me to block my activities and responsibilities into morning, afternoon, and evening categories. This is incredibly helpful when blocking things such as doctor’s appointments and kids’ activities onto the weekly calendar.

Cleaning Schedule

I love the daily cleaning checklist that comes with the Home Planner set. There is plenty of room for me to add my own cleaning tasks and the basic ones already included are helpful and relevant. This can be a life-saver for staying on top of the household clutter.

Meal Planner

The last important section I include in my planner is the meal planner. It has a calendar for scheduling your meals and it also have an itemized shopping list. We like to have use a dry erase board on the fridge for our grocery list so, instead, I use the shopping list to keep track of what we have available for meals. It is my pantry and freezer list.

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

The Home Planner set also includes a budget section. If you do yours on pen and paper, this is excellent. I keep track of ours electronically so this isn’t a section used in my planner. One last thing I want to point out is that your can get expander rings to enlarge your planner (you can see mine in the photos above). These are perfect when you need a lot of items in your planner, like me. Whew! That was a lot of information to cover and those are just the highlights. It is time for the birthday celebration, though, so here it is! Help celebrate the One Year Anniversary of DIY Adulation where you could get the gifts. Enter for your chance to win the basic necessities to start organizing your time and responsibilities below!

To celebrate DIY Adulation’s first birthday here are tips for organizing your planner as well as a giveaway to give you all of the tools you need to do so.

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There are hundreds (possibly thousands) of articles out there telling you how you can be a SAHM but the hard truth is: it may not be the life for you. To help you decide, here are 8 reasons why you can’t be a stay-at-home mom.

[bctt tweet=”Being a #SAHM is not for everyone. Here are 8 reasons why you can’t be a stay-at-home mom.”]

As a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) you often hear how lucky you are to be “able” to stay home with your kids. That statement is usually followed by, “I wish I could be a SAHM mom.”

These comments aren’t generally coming from a place of malice so when I would hear them I would simply smile politely or make some non-committal response.

Unfortunately, when you are a SAHM working your but off for your family, these statements can seriously piss you off no matter how well-intentioned. Why? Because being a stay-at-home mom is very much a choice and as with anything in life, if you want it bad enough then you will find a way to make it happen.

You Don’t know how to budget

Budgeting skills are essential to being a SAHM and living on one income. You need to know exactly where your money is going and why.

If you are cutting your income in half this skill is even more important. You have to know where all of your money goes before you can figure out where and how to cut back.

Work is the only time You spend outside the home

Being a SAHM can be incredibly lonely, especially when your kids are little. If you can’t think of a hobby you do outside of the home or if you are the first of your friends to have kids, chances are being a SAHM won’t work for you.

Taking care of yourself comes more naturally when you work outside the home. You get time during the commute to recharge with some tunes alone or you enjoy a lunch out with your coworkers.

Once you are a SAHM you have to be incredibly intentional about making the time to recharge and socialize.

You dread Cooking

Having meals at home is key to saving money, whether both parents work or not.

If you’re not willing to meal plan (sometimes having to plan how leftovers will be made into another meal) then stick with it, being a SAHM isn’t for you.

Even if you aren’t going to be at home, you still have to figure out a way to save money on food on the go.

You can’t say “no”

As a SAHM people assume that you have all of this free time. This leads to friends and family making more demands on your time.

Grandparents think that you can run an errand for them. Friends with kids always call you in a pinch. There will be no time that is truly respected as “Do Not Disturb” because it’s assumed that you are technically always available.

If you struggle with saying “no” and setting firm boundaries, then try to hone those skills before becoming a stay-at-home mom.

Perception is important to you

SAHM’s are under appreciated, under paid, and very akin to slave labor. Chances are, the people inside your home will never realize how much you do and the people outside of it will assume your life is easy.

If how people perceive you and your value is important to you, then a SAHM is not the job for you. It’s incredibly rewarding but also thankless. Which leads to the next reason you can’t be a stay-at-home mom below.

Being a SAHM is not easy

In fact, it is incredibly hard. When your kids are home all day, messes are made all day.

You are responsible for making every, single meal and serving snacks. That inevitably adds to your never-ending pile of dishes.

You fight to establish a routine and get incredibly mad when that routine is balked because it throws off your entire schedule and leads to cranky kids.

You aren’t a fan of late nights

As a SAHM, you will get less sleep than you did before. You’re forced to use the precious moments when kids are sleeping to get things done that you simply can’t focus on while they’re awake.

If you usually update your calendar, pay bills, and the myriad of other life tidbits at work, now you have to find time to fit them in.

You Love your current standard of living

This one is huge and, I would argue, is the number one reason you can’t be a stay-at-home mom.

If you aren’t willing to give up your cable television and morning latte then being a SAHM isn’t for you.

If you are living on 2 maxed out incomes, you can’t expect to go to one income and keep the same standard of living.

You have to prioritize and sometimes that means not even having Netflix and learning to make your own bread. If you’re not willing to live like that, you can’t be a SAHM.

Luck Has Nothing to Do With It

I wasn’t “lucky” to be a SAHM. In the beginning, I sacrificed like crazy and worked my tail off to be able to do so because I wanted it bad enough.

I learned to make a lot of our food from scratch like Poptarts, bread, sauces, and more. It was hard work to make but the ingredients are much cheaper and saved us a fortune on groceries.

All of our furniture and décor was hand-me-downs. Clothes and toys were either given to us, thrifted, or handmade by me.

I budgeted constantly and stretched every penny as far as it would go and then some. At one point, we were even down to one vehicle. These were the hard choices we made to live that lifestyle.

If you aren’t willing to live your life like that, then you can’t be a stay-at-home mom. Most importantly, there is nothing wrong with that. Working outside of the home doesn’t make you less of a mom.

Doing what you need to take care of you and take care of your family is the only true requirement of motherhood. That doesn’t always mean staying home with your kids. If that is you, own it.

Besides, that jealousy goes two ways. Sometimes that SAHM is envying your ability to get out of the house kid-free and be around adults every day.

See where I’m linking up!

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