dry erase board | 4 little Fergusons

Did everyone have a Merry Christmas?!?!?! We are still recovering from fun-filled family function after family function, with more to come this week! Most years, by the time it’s all said and done, we have had 7 Christmas get-togethers! (And, no we do not do gift exchanges at every one, thank goodness!) I’ll tell you one thing, next week will be filled with naptimes and early bedtimes to get ready for school again!!! 🙂

So, I recently joined Pinterest. Oh my GOODNESS, there are so so many things on that I am interested in making, but let’s be honest, it’s just not going to happen until I have a bit more free time on my hands and some serious cash flow. But, away I pin: pinning it away for a future day with future extra time and future extra money, when my future kids are old enough to not need me to meet all their future basic needs. 🙂

However, balancing 3 different school schedules from 2 different school districts, has taken its toll on this ol’ brain, and when I forgot a school thing for the 2nd time, I knew it was time to up the Organization around here.

My calendar sits on my desk in the office/playroom at one end of the house:

My laundry room, where all the kids lockers and school notes live, is allllll the way at the other end of our very long, ranch-style house.

(Check out our laundry room makeover here.)

It is just not feasible to run to my office as they walk out the door, to make sure I didn’t forget “Bring a $1 day” or some other event written on my desk calendar.

So, as I was thinking about what to do, I remembered a pin I had re-pinned to my “Home Sweet Home” board, shared by Makes and Takes.

Here is what I did:

Bought a Poster frame at Wal-Mart for around $7.50, it was a nice big 18 x 24 one, but naturally I didn’t take a photo of it, so here is the crumbled paper from inside the poster frame that I pulled out of the trash can. Nice, right!?

The “glass” (plastic) on these kind of poster frames will be perfect for writing on with a dry erase marker! And they are much lighter than a regular frame for the hollow door I plan to hang this on.

Next, I went to Hobby Lobby and got scrapbook paper at 50% off, spent around $3. I picked brown, cream and deep red to match the laundry room colors.

I had Dale Spray paint the black metal frame a bronze color: this was free since we already had a can.

Then, I printed an empty Calendar page: found online for free.

Next, I started working on paper layouts until I figured out how I wanted them.

I decided to do a Calendar, Grocery list, To Do List and 4 Empty Squares: 1 for each kid. I am excited about being able to easily keep track of each child’s needs for school that week, as they empty backpacks at the end of a school day.

Here is the finished product:

(Yes, I am aware that I do not have pretty handwriting!) LOL 🙂

Here it is in the laundry room:

My new Organization Board aka “Brain Board” is on the door of the pantry, nice and accessible to me, but high enough to not get erased by little fingers. Plus, clever Dale found me a WET erase marker for calendar dates and the children’s names, so when I erase notes, the “basics” don’t erase too.

Cool, right?! I was pretty proud of it! {Pats self on back}