Planner Obsession

Okay, I'm going to be honest with you guys...I LOVE my planner! I love my new DIYFish inserts! I love my new erasable Frixion pens...I think I have a problem. LOL

In fact, I spent some time over the weekend making a new planner for my office. I have been using a monthly 8 1/2 x 11 spiral bound calendar for the last few years, and then I add post-its for things like meeting notes, etc. But honestly, it just ends up a scribbled mess. So, I decided to try out DIYFish for work. I admit, I didn't get an ARC binder because I'm not ready to commit yet (and I don't want to carry my heavy punch back and forth from home to work...LOL) But, I found a half-size binder that will work for now. If this is something I think will work out well (and I suspect it will), I'll probably get an ARC for obvious reasons (reasons being: I love ARC. The End.).

Since I'm still fairly new to using DIYFish, I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on how others use planners to get some inspiration and ideas. I've just found even more awesome organization systems that I can't wait to implement, like Bullet Journaling. Where has this been all my life?? It's like something I've naturally gravitated towards doing already, but much more polished and logically laid out. I have a feeling this is going to be a great system for me.

I wish I could be super creative and decorate my pages or use my graph paper for sketching or whatever. But the honest truth is I'm just not like that. It's not my personality! But I'm so grateful for everyone else's creativity because it makes this world a more beautiful place. In the meantime, I will stick with the basics.

And, just so this isn't a random post about a somewhat strange obsession (although I'm not alone in this--did you know there is a whole internet subculture out there all about planners?), I wanted to share with you a find: I ordered this personalized freezer inventory printable from IHeartOrganizing and I love it! For just $3 I have an unlimited supply of these (I can print them as much as I need). I punched it and keep it in the Menu section of my planner. Since we've moved, our garage freezer has just been a glorified ice bucket, so I am looking forward to refilling it and doing it organized!

DVD Storage

I finally jumped in and organized our DVD collection! I saw this idea on Pinterest months ago, and I couldn't wait to try it out. During the move, I pulled DVDs from every room, every drawer, every laptop bag I could find and collected them all into well labeled bankers boxes. I had a plan and knew I'd get to them eventually, so they went straight into the garage at the new house so I could sort through them once all the essentials were unpacked.

As we were moving, I went to Target a lot. A LOT. And each time, I would look for something that would work to store them in when we got settled in. That's when I found these boxes (at the bottom of the entertainment center).

They are no longer there, unfortunately--unless you are lucky enough to find them on clearance. But anything about this size would work! They are called "media boxes". Even a shoe box would work, though! Get creative!

Then, I went on the hunt for the DVD sleeves that were mentioned in the Pin I found...with no luck. So I bought some of these at Target (but you can get them anywhere, really). They are paper with a clear plastic window.

We already kept our DVDs in binders (well, most of them), so dropping the cases wasn't a huge deal to me. If that's a problem for you, or you're afraid to commit, you can always store the empty cases somewhere else if you have the room? I do recommend saving anything that you plan to resell someday...for obvious reasons. Also, there are quite a few apps out there that you can use to catalog your collection--and they use your phone's camera to scan the barcode and find the DVD for you in the library. That is a lot easier than typing each title by hand, so you may want to look into that before you ditch the cases as well...I speak from experience here. LOL

Anyway, even after I collected all of my supplies, I kept putting it off and putting it off (story of my life). But as family members decided they'd like to watch something and couldn't find it, I figured it's now or never...right?!

I pulled out some old scrapbook supplies and decided to use these strips as my dividers. I used my label maker to add a letter at the top, and I also made one with # for movies that start with a number (13 Going on 30 anyone??), and I made a label with a bicycle icon for exercise DVDs. 

I took the DVDs out of the binders and cases and sorted them into piles according to the letter they start with. Then I just went through each pile and put one DVD at a time in their new paper sleeves. Once that was finished (that's what took the longest, honestly), I then put them in alphabetical order...well, somewhat. I decided not to be too anal about it. All the As are behind the A tab, but they may be out of order within that category. Does that make sense? I figured for my own sanity, this was best because most likely someone isn't going to return them to the exact spot, so I'm not going to worry about it. As long as Wolverine gets returned behind the W divider, does it really matter if it's in front of What About Bob? Not to me...LOL

The only spot I felt needed a little subcategory attention was the S section...we have a LOT of Star Wars & Star Trek movies so I felt they needed their own sections.

I plan to go back through them all in the near future and put a special marking on children's movies and Christmas movies...so that way when we're thumbing through we can pick them out easily. Maybe I'll make a catalog of titles as well...if I do, I'll let you know!

A video is soon to come, so check back later!

Life with DIYfish System

Yes, I know...another planner-related post!

I just had to do another one...because I finally decided to just spend the money and get the inserts I've been drooling over for months. Introducing...DIYFish Life Mapping System (specifically version 2.1/8.5" x 5.5" size/Day on Two Pages)!

Can you just stop and take it all in first? Then we'll go on...

That is (in a nutshell) the most perfect thing I've ever seen: in one sweeping glance, you can see your entire month, your entire current week and your entire day (on 2 pages even!) all laid out before you. Remember, I have complained before about all the flipping involved with planners. I have done everything I can to minimize that in my planner. But this? This is genius.

I have spent a lot of time looking at videos on YouTube to see how they work. And to be honest, I thought it would be overkill. I don't need to write and rewrite and then write stuff again...so I didn't think this would work for me. But then I realized I wasn't using my monthly & weekly pages in my old set-up for that very reason: I didn't want to rewrite and flip back and forth. I just used the weekly pages the most, but then I would get frustrated because I like seeing it all in one month sometimes, too. This solves my problem completely.

And...I found awesome pens! I talk a lot about them in the second half of the video (see it here) and you can also see them in action. But basically I love them because they are gel (they glide like butter) and they are erasable! So now I can take my correction tape out of my bag and reduce some bulk. :) See? Simplified.

And...I made another bookmark!

I ALWAYS do this...I make a video and THEN decide to fill in more stuff on my pages or update stuff or make a cool new bookmark, etc. Why can't I do things in order? LOL Anyway, since my week isn't split over two pages anymore, I made my dailies on one side, and then I put my weeklies on the other. I love it.

Check out my video here where you can see these inserts in action, and click on the links below the video for more information on everything else. 

Also, I have a post about DVD organization in the drafts...I'll finish that up soon and post it! I'm excited about how that project turned out, but I want to do a video and never seem to have the time! 

So, I want to know...do you start your calendar planning in January or September?