Parents have enough to keep track of these days, so anything to help make life easier would be a welcome addition to any household. And with the computer being the central gathering place for many families, it makes sense to find a service that allows parents to create calendars, schedules, and even grocery lists all from their lap or desktop.

Enter Cozi Central, a free service for both Mac and PC users that helps families get organized. No more double scheduling, worrying about paper grocery lists, and keeping track of 500 pictures. Families can leave messages for each other, upload and create picture collages, and maintain a family calendar.  

Our bloggers tried out this system for the past week and here’s what they had to say. And if you’re organizationally challenged, or made a resolution to get rid of the post-it notes and scrap papers (and find a better system), you might want to give it a try yourself.

My first concern was whether the set-up and use of the system would be easy. According to our bloggers, it was. “The download and installation was very simple, and the learning curve for using the program is super-short.  I was able to set up the calendar with color-coded tabs for each of our activies in a matter of minutes.”

The bloggers found the calendar system very useful, particularly the entry and zoom features.  ”This calendar is amazingly useful for the family that doesn’t spend all day together. (And really, who does that?) Aaron can update the calendar from work via the Web, while I’m adding appointments to it from home using the downloaded software.” ” It’s easy to see at a glance who’s going to be where at any given time.” And, no need to email if you need to remind your spouse — just have them check the calendar. “Scott can access the calendar from his office and doesn’t have to weed through a bunch of emails to remind himself of when I said I needed him to be home early.”

The interactive grocery shopping list seemed rather cool. Just program the 1-800 number into your phone and you’ve got an automated grocery list. “Cozi read me my grocery list (because I don’t have text messaging - that is another option…makes me ponder texting, to be honest) right there in produce.” ”In the end, I’ll use it for the grocery list feature because it’s so easy to just add things to the list as I’m at the computer instead of walking 12 feet to write it on the fridge list (like right now, I just added eggs).”

Many bloggers loved the photo collaging feature of Cozi, and recommended it just based on that feature alone. ”For all the amazing things that it does, my most favorite feature about it is the photo collage screen saver. It’s so super duper fabulous.”

One blogger noticed that the login for the online version is sometimes very slow. “And I would like to see more customization of the homepage beyond one picture - maybe different display layouts, or a selection of backgrounds.” Another commented that “the only change I would make would be allowing syncronization with PDAs so that I wouldn’t have to double up on my record-keeping.  It does interface with Outlook calendar, but because I use Thunderbird (mostly because it has a wicked cool name), I can’t benefit from that function.”

But overall, it seemed like a great service with something for everyone.

I’d recommend Cozi for any family who has little time at home, a lot to do, and has at least one or two techno-geeks with a computer attached to them for a significant part of their day. But even the non-geeks in the house can use this simple, intuitive software to manage the family calendar.

If you’re interested in learning about more of the features (including the messaging as well as interfacing with a PDA) as well as getting more feedback, check out our next set of reviews. And remember, it’s a free service, so why not give it a try?

4/19 - Builder Mama & mothergoosemouse 

4/20 - Mama Tulip

4/23 - Sweatpants Mom & Mommy Needs Coffee

4/24 - Managing  Motherhood & Chicky Chicky Baby

4/25 - Mama Maven

4/26 - Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting

5/2 - Round-Up Review on PBN