Fall is coming soon! It’s my absolute favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather, wearing fall clothes, cooking comfort food, going to the apple orchards, the leaves turning colors, and the upcoming holiday season. There’s so much to look forward to. Of course, summer is fun too, but after all the crazy busyness, I’m ready to get back to a, somewhat, normal routine. So, before fall gets here, let’s get organized. The following is a checklist of things to get yourself, your family, and your household organized and ready for fall.
- Organize your calendar and planner. My daughter just bought me a new one for my birthday and I can’t wait to organize it. Buy one that you really like and functions the way you need it to. I like to have a monthly view and weekly view with the days shown vertically. If you have a blank page for notes, write in your goals and weekly schedule. Remember to plan ahead by writing in when to start planning for the holiday season, summer vacations, and other big family events such as weddings, birthdays, and reunions.
- Organize your family. Plan a good routine for your family that will keep everything running smoothly. Write it down, if that helps you. Consider the ages and grade levels of all your kids. Plan, especially, your morning routine for getting everyone out the door on time. Then, plan your daytime routine, whether at home with kids, or at your job. Also, plan a smooth evening routine that goes from the time everyone in the family gets home from school until bedtime. Remember to plan fun activities for this fall and winter and put in your planner. Your family needs activities to look forward to.
- Organize your menu planning and grocery shopping. First, plan a regular day for menu planning and grocery shopping and try to keep it the same day each week. Print out my Month of Menus. Write down your family’s favorite dinners and use this each week to make your menu planning easy and efficient. Read my complete system for this here.
- Organize your house cleaning and maintenance. Set a regular day each week to clean your entire house if possible. Print out my Cleaning checklists and go through the lists. It will become automatic and simple after you get used to the system. See my complete house cleaning system here.
- Organize your financial goals and budgeting system. Take a couple hours before this fall to write down your financial goals for this coming year. Then, set up a budgeting system that will be easy for you to maintain, whether it’s digital or on paper. After you set up a system, it will be easy to maintain on a weekly basis. Also, plan early to save for Christmas and next summer’s vacation.
- Organize yourself. Remember to take care of yourself. Get ready for fall by planning healthy meals and snacks that you will actually like. Get some workout clothes ready, decide on an exercise routine that you will enjoy doing, and get ready to start by a certain date. Also, put a date on your calendar to organize and plan your fall wardrobe. This is always fun. Even though it might still be warm where you live, you can start putting some outfits together to transition to cooler weather. Plan a shopping day for adding some new things to your fall wardrobe. I’ll have an upcoming post on this very soon.
- Organize your career/volunteer work/hobbies. Whether you have a career, do volunteer work, or have hobbies, plan on what you would like to do this year to improve in this area. Maybe you want to try something new. Or, if you love what you do already, maybe you would like to sign up for a new class or do some reading on your own to improve on what you already are doing.
Those are just 7 areas to get organized for fall and beyond. Maybe you have even more. The point is that fall is a time for new beginnings, so let’s get off to a great start, by getting organized.
I’ve got some more great ideas coming soon for this fall, for helping you and your family to keep everything running smoothly. Also, for me, September makes me think of fall fashion (my other passion). I’ll be showing you a complete system for organizing your wardrobe for fall. Come back for more simple, fun, organizing!
Have a wonderful day!