Spring Cleaning your Life: Tools and Systems for Keeping Your Life Organized
So, in case you didn’t already know this… Organization and systems are my JAM! Like it might not be normal how excited I get about these things… but your girl needs structure when it comes to keeping my life in order. Not only do I need structure but I’m always on a hunt to find tools that make those systems as easy as possible. So today I thought I’d share a look at my process and some of the things I recommend if you’re trying to get a little more organized too.
Why Cozi is my Organization BFF
We’re jumping right into to my FAVORITE app for organization, Cozi. After Evan and I double-booked ourselves several times with family and friend get-togethers, I decided we needed to have a shared calendar so we could keep track of things and avoid saying yes to multiple things on the weekend. Sure, we could have just used a shared Google calendar, but another thing I realized was we were doing a lot was texting about groceries. “Can you pick this up on the way home from work?”, “Did you remember this when you went grocery shopping?” sound familiar? So I started my quest (yes, it was a quest) for finding an app that had a shared calendar feature + a shared grocery list option in one place. And I tested out a LOT of apps, just ask Evan 😂 and when I landed on Cozi I realized it had everything I wanted.
Guys, we use this for everything and it’s been a real gamechanger for us. Not only for our calendars and grocery lists, but we use it for keeping our other systems in check too. Things like meal-planning, weekly chores, weekend to-do lists, house projects, all of the things. One day I may just do a full blog post on all of the ways we use it because it is bomb.com. Here’s the best part too. It’s free.
It’s not just great for couples either, it was actually built for families and you can add your family members and decide who gets notified for what too. Trust me, it’s a life organization gold. The free version will totally get you by with all of the features I mentioned but they also have an upgraded version called Cozi Gold which we opted for which is $29.99/year. The biggest reason we did that was because you get a monthly view instead of weekly and then you also have more control over the notification settings too. Just do yourself a favor and check it out because it’s super convenient.
Creating Cleaning Routines
When you’re busy living life and trying to keep up with work and everything it can be easy to let some things slide. For me, I realized we weren’t keeping things very clean. Like… when was the last time we vacuumed?! For some, this might not be a huge priority, but I work from home and am always in a better mindset when our house is picked up and cleaned regularly. So we decided to sit down and come up with a plan that fit both of our needs. Sometimes just sitting down and having an actual conversation about things (especially because we had just moved in together) can be really helpful. For us, we broke our cleaning chores into the following:
Daily: Pick up clothes off the floors of bedrooms, wipe down kitchen counters and stove, and wash or put away dishes
Weekly: Vacuum, wipe down bathroom counters and tidy up as needed
Monthly: Clean kitchen top to bottom, organize the pantry, sweep/mop/vacuum all floors, refill any items needed and do an inventory of what needs to be added to the grocery list, clean bathrooms top to bottom, clean sliding doors and mirrors, and clean baseboards
And you guessed it.. we add the weekly and monthly reminders to our Cozi! We’re definitely not perfect and there are times we slip up because things come up, but having a plan and routine makes it so much easier because it’s just built into what we do!
Having Monthly Check-ins
At the end of each month, we also have a check-in to go over things that we have going on for the next month. Obviously we update our calendar as needed but this is just a quick check-in to chat about anything we need to do to get ready for things (gift shopping, vacay planning, etc.). Then we also add in anything else we want to set time aside for like a date night or alone time (so we make sure the other knows not to plan anything for them then).
Meal Planning with Pinterest
This is a big one for us and has been super helpful in planning our grocery runs. If I don’t have a meal plan, I will buy everything at the grocery store (none of which will go together) or I may just eat mac and cheese every night. I’m definitely a simple meal kind of girl so planning ahead helps keep our grocery budget under control plus it takes away the whole mystery of what to eat each night. So each week (on Thursday evenings) we go through and plan what we want to have for the next week.
I have a few go-to easy recipes but for the most part we use Pinterest to organize all of the recipes we want to make. I have a lot of recipes pinned on my account and then Evan and I also have a secret board that has a bunch of different sections so all of our favs are in one spot. We opted for a secret board mostly because I use my Pinterest account for my business too but it’s really helpful in making the actual planning process a lot easier. You can also load in your favorite recipes to Cozi and then there is a “add to grocery list” option that will take all of the ingredients and add it to your lost. Super convenient!
Budgeting with Mint
Then when it comes to mulah, Mint is my go-to for keeping everything organized. It’s a free budget tracking tool that I’ve been using for over the last decade and it is SO helpful. Budgeting or keeping track of your spending usually isn’t one of people’s favorite things, I get it… but if you really want to pay off that debt, save up for that house, or just be able to go out with your girlfriends without being nervous about your card getting declined, then it’s a necessary evil. Personally I love Mint because it makes everything super easy. It connects to your bank account, allows you to add in all of your monthly bills, set up spending goals, SO many things. Most important though it makes the whole process so much easier so that I can do a quick weekly check and then monthly review to see where I’m at on everything.
And there you go! I hope this has been helpful. Like I said, I know I’m a little extra with this stuff but these have all been things that have really helped in me and hopefully they can help you too! If you ever have questions on this topic too, shoot me a message... I could literally chat about this stuff all day!