“To do or not to do, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of organization through an erasable wall calendar and color coded storage cases or to take arms against a sea of disorganization with my Gmail and my Outlook Calendar and by opposing end it. To be organized - to sleep, perchance to dream; and by sleep to say only until the twins wake up at 5:30 AM, the heartache and a thousand natural shocks.”

What? You think that’s a bit melodramatic? You’re not a parent yet, are you?

Day Runner, the pioneer of personal organization materials, has launched a new line dedicated to families, and our parent bloggers, who fall all along the organization continuum, were eager to check it out:

• “Organization is one of my favorite interests. I read organization magazines, enjoy several of the clean up and organize your home/life/everything shows, and am fascinated by the organization stores which seem to be focused on every facet of life.“
• “The English language does not contain a word that accurately describes how unorganized I am. I lose bills, the boys’ monthly reading logs, phone numbers, notes I’ve written to remind myself not to forget things - you name it, I can misplace it.“
• “To say I am unorganized is like cookie monster informing you that he likes cookies - huge understatement. The odd thing about my disorganization is how deeply I crave order but can never seem to keep a toehold on it.“

The bloggers received a variety of materials, including an erasable wall planner, a wirebound appointment book, color-coordinated activity folders and storage cases, and erasable door reminders.

The wall planner received largely positive reviews:

• “We really enjoyed using the Erasable Wall Planner which the boys were able to help me keep a tab on based on their name and color.“
• “The wall calendar is terrific. Now I have a place to list each of the things going on in a week instead of merely keeping it all in my head. I’ve already filled it with upcoming things for the next month…“
  
• “The erasable wall planner let me put up all our monthly plans in one place that both [my husband] and I could see on a daily/weekly basis. With all our information in one spot, there were fewer discussions about where [our son] and I would be on Wednesday afternoon, or whether we had dinner plans on Saturday night. I could also mentally prepare for the week ahead when I saw it all written out in front of me.“
• “The designated day spaces are big so you could fit a lot of necessary info on each block. But I wish the erasable marker that accompanied the package had a finer point…“
• “I will admit to having a hard time keeping up with the erasable calendar. I function much better when I don’t have to remember to erase and relabel a calendar every month.“

The wirebound appointment book is dated for 2008, so the bloggers weren’t yet able to give it a test run.  However, two bloggers in particular are already planning how they will use it.  One noted: “The wirebound monthly/weekly appointment book looks super cool…[and] 2008 is the year I will most likely be looking for gainful employment. This could, no doubt, come in very handy when I need to juggle a work schedule with [my son's] education and my hubby’s job, which happens to involve A LOT of travel.” Another blogger has even higher expectations for the book: “…this desk planner is going to organize my entire life come January. It has a spiral binding so it can lay flat on the desk, and each tab opens to a two-page month at a glance. But then turn the page, and each page within that month is only four days of the calendar, with five colored columns…and then the bottom row is a Priority/To Do column with check boxes. It’s BRILLIANT.”

The folders and storage cases are extremely versatile, and the bloggers used them in a variety of ways:

• “Assign a colored folder to each family member to help keep track of all those loose papers. We used it to organize all the homework assignments that needed to be done. With all these folders, you’re going to need someplace to put them. These color coordinated storage cases worked like a charm.“ 
• “Everyone was assigned a color, coordinating folder, and storage case. This immediately helped to control my piling instinct. Everyone’s papers ended up in the proper case, albeit a little messy, but together with their companion papers.“
• “I used one for each of the boys’ school papers and three for myself. [My daughter] doesn’t really have anything that needs filing yet, although I now have the urge to start having her color real pictures so I can save them in a folder just for her.“
• “I found the Storage Cases to be extremely helpful with the barrage of paperwork that seems to accumulate each and every week. Each boy now comes home and places their items from school folders in their assigned case. I can easily see what is due immediately as well as having an easy space from which to file or declutter items.“
• “I do have one storage case downstairs to catch stray school papers and newsletters. But the rest now reside in the office. As a result? Bills aren’t getting lost under mounds of kindergarten art work, charity solicitations, insurance paperwork and other stuff. This is GOOD! Very, very good. When you can FIND stuff, its far easier to be a proactive person.“

And the erasable door reminders got mixed reviews.  Some bloggers adored them:

• “…by far my favorite item. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten to take something with me when I leave the house. It always crosses my mind to leave myself a note on the door but I never take the time to do it. This handy, erasable door reminders does the trick. The best part is that there’s a place to hold the write on/wipe off marker. Doesn’t get much easier than this!“
• “Another big hit were the erasable door reminders. These were great! We hung one on the front door, one on the kitchen door, one on the bathroom door, and [my husband] took one to the office. I actually remembered tons more errands that I needed to complete since this list was the last thing I saw as I ran out the door.“
• “These things are awesome! My usual mode of reminder notes is taping them across the door and/or microwave. While effective at being seen, they seem to have little impact once my husband has ripped them off. The door hanger catches him at the last second. He reaches for the door knob and it brushes his hand. He grabs it and reads my note Take out the garbage sucka! or Please my loving wonderful husband, before you leave mop up the dog’s barf, and it leaves him no time to forget.“

But for some bloggers, particularly those with toddlers, they posed too much of a challenge to be truly useful:

• “…the door hangers are nothing but a plaything for a toddler, so those quickly had to be relegated to a higher surface.“
• “I realized anyway how foolish it would be to hang anything with a marker on it that low in a house with two preschoolers.“
• “The erasable door reminders are a great idea. Unfortunately, they don’t work very well with our doorknobs, so we stopped using them after a few days.“

A couple bloggers have immersed themselves so completely in digital-based organization that this analog model just doesn’t work well for them anymore.  One blogger lamented: “It all is very logical, and it is all designed to work in a family information center. My problem? It doesn’t work for our family. If [my husband] or I have an appointment we need to notify the other of, we email each other. I am not kidding. Really, sometimes we will be in the very same room, both working on our computers and talking to one another at the same time, and one of us will remind the other of something, and the inevitable end to the conversation is, Email me a reminder, please.“  She went on to conclude that: “…as much as I like the concept and the logic of the Day Runner products, and as much as I was looking forward to using them, they don’t seem to work for us. The system might work for us when [our daughter] is old enough to have a large number of activities but not old enough to have her own Outlook account.”

But even though most of the bloggers agreed that the system is best suited for families with activity schedules that can’t be contained in one mom’s overworked brain, almost all of them found a way to incorporate at least one of the products into their own organizational plan.  As one mother put it, “I have to say I am very much in love with these products, and will be buying the wall info center when it becomes available. Hopefully Day Runner will help me make 2008 a little more organized!”

We’ve got many more reviews coming up - check the schedule below!

Tues 11/27 - Cootie Chronicles
Wed 11/28 - In the Trenches of Mommyhood
Thurs 11/29 - Crazy Momcat, Creature Bug
Fri 11/30 - Mayberry Mom
Mon 12/3 - A Gaggle of Girls, Mommy Needs Coffee
Tues 12/4 - Lather Rinse Repeat
Wed 12/5 - Mommy’s Must Haves
Thurs 12/6 - Lipstick to Crayons, Seabird Chronicles
Fri 12/7 - Get in the Car, Mom to the Screaming Masses, Rookie Moms
Mon 12/10 - Three Kid Circus
Tues 12/11 - Mama Maven
Wed 12/12 - Round-Up Review on PBN