My Year in View; How I Can Be An Organised Mum All Year Round

Well, 2018 was over in a blur wasn’t it?! I swear as the boys get older the years get quicker.Time always seems to evaporate. At the end of the year and the start of the new one I always try to look at the year as a whole and try to get a sense of what I can expect and what I need to plan in advance to make sure I am organised. This may seem ridiculous to some but it’s essential to make family life flow better. Here is my year in view;

January.

As you pack away the decorations and festive bits, make an inventory of what you have and make a list of what you need. Have you got a diary? Stick a list of what you need into your October month. That way you won’t forget and over buy or the opposite and panic when you’ve put the tree up next year and remembered you needed new lights. Start a rough budget- when does the following come out; house insurance, car insurance, MOT, Tax, TV license. Have you got a budget book? Try this one here from Amazon- it’s under £10. If not this is a great habit to start this year and place in the months when each ‘big’ item is due out. Make sure you have a diary and a calendar- a family planning calendar is always the most useful- you can then use each column for each family member. Start to fill in everyone’s birthdays, anniversary and term dates. Towards the end of this month you need to plan Valentine’s Day. Are you doing crafts with the children? What presents will you buy? Are you having a date night and need to get your parents on board to babysit? It’s time to plan!

February.

The first half of this month needs to be focused on Valentine’s Day- IF you celebrate it. Don’t forget pancake day is also around this time! As, if you’re like me, this is one of those dates that is suddenly sprung in front of me. Get those play dates booked in for your February half term. The second half of this month you need to focus on Easter. It may be half a term away but it will come quickly. Keep your eyes peeled for my Easter posts this year.

March.

Easter usually falls anywhere from mid March to the end of April so lots of planning will go into this. This year it isn’t until Sunday 21st April, however as the school holidays begin at the start of April, I will want most of the planning and preparation done before then. On a personal note, my littlest man turns 5 this month so I will begin planning for that in Feb. The next thing to sort are your plans for the Easter holidays.

April.

All of the planning and preparation will fall into place this month for Easter. We also get a 2 week school holiday this month too so we make the most of this time. I also try to have a bit of a spring clean and sort out around this time too.

May.

Around this time I am planning what I need for our holiday, if we’ve booked one. I also start planning and buying for my eldest’s birthday which is at the end of June. There is another half term holiday too at the end of May so we plan some fun days out for that and the 2 bank holidays too.

June.

I usually start to plan what I need to do or buy for the end of the school term. I also try to plan any ideas or trips we want to take during the summer holidays. Any deep cleaning needs to take place this month before the boy’s break up for their summer holidays. I start to budget for Christmas this month.

July.

This is a carefree month. I just enjoy the sun, routine free time with my children. At the beginning of the holidays I do buy everything needed for back to school already apart from shoes, which I buy at the end of August but I have booked an appointment in advance for this a couple of times.

August.

I start to gather ideas of Christmas presents and write down a rough budget and list. Make sure you have everything ready for the start of the school year.

September.

It may sound crazy but this is the month to buy children’s gifts for Christmas before they hike the prices up. This is also the time to plan for Halloween. Purchase a Christmas planning book. Mine will be on sale later on this year so keep an eye out for that.

October.

Make sure you have Halloween sorted in the first couple of weeks. By the end of the month you need to have Bonfire night sorted. Keep on top of Christmas planning by using our handy planner. Have a brief autumnal clean.

November.

Once bonfire night is over, Christmas planning is a priority. Have a toy sort out.

December.

Christmas. Enjoy.

So that is my outline for the year. Some months require more prep and planning than others but if I stick to what’s going on by focusing ahead at what’s going on in the coming one to two months, then usually I am quite an organised person. I moved 2 weeks before December, but because I had been prepping and buying from September, it didn’t really affect me thankfully.

This blog is now going to focus more on helping you become a more organised and prepared parent. Life is so busy these days and as the saying goes, there are never enough hours in the day to get it all done. So, it’s time to find a balance with life so that we can once again be stress free and feel less cluttered; mentally and in our physical space. By following this blog, my Facebook page and Instagram page, I’ll be sharing my top tips and hacks on how I stay on top of it all and how we can all become a prepared parent throughout the entire year.