Joe & I are a busy couple; between long hours at work, decent amount of travel, lots of projects around the house and a new puppy to take care of, we always seem to have a lot going on. Since we’re both constantly on the go, we try to be intentional about keeping coordinated with ‘life stuff’ between the two of us. The system isn’t perfect (is any?), but we’ve found these 6 things help us stay organized!
top 6 ways to stay organized between spouses
1 Calendar Working in an office, we both are glued to our email and calendars for work purposes. We try to replicate that in our personal life. For example, Joe & I only have one car. Living downtown Seattle, this works really well for us, but does take coordination. Anytime one of us knows that we’ll need the car for a future date, we make sure to send the other a calendar invite with the times so that neither will forget. Another common calendar invite on both our calendars is our Thursday night reminder to take out the trash. Without it, we’d be drowning in garbage 🙂 .
2 Clutter Baskets are our miracle cure as it relates to clutter around our house. If either of us sees stuff from the other person sitting out that shouldn’t be, we’re allowed to store in the basket (but no where else). We also then know if we can’t find something, it’s likely in the baskets. Cleaning up a room can now actually be a 5 minute task!
3 Groceries I’m the grocery shopper of our duo and Joe is the cook. While these roles play to our strengths (arr…. mask my weakness in cooking), it requires us to be coordinated. We both use the grocery list app Anylist to coordinate weekly grocery shopping and meal planning. Joe is able to add groceries that he needs to make his fancy meals, while I can add on to the list for the essentials. Regardless of which app or method you use, I highly recommend you having a system to ensure that there’s a joint list for groceries AND needed household items.
4 To Do Lists No one has to force me to make a list, but I didn’t always keep a “Joe” list. I felt kind of silly having a list of things to talk to Joe about. I mean, do I really need to write down conversations to have with him to remember? Well, actually yes, you should write down ALL your to-do items, even if it’s things to discuss with your spouse. For example, asking Joe which dates he wants to travel for our upcoming vacation so that I can book the flights, deciding if we’re going to put a fence in our yard, or selecting a puppy classes to take Reagan to.
5 A Minute a Day I like to spend a couple minutes a day with Joe talking about our schedule for the rest of the week (or the next week). Now having a puppy, we’re learning to coordinate our schedules to take care of Reagan so chatting about our schedule regularly has been really helpful.
6 Meetings OK, this might sound a little overkill, but bear with me. Once a month we try to spend at least an hour going through ‘house things’. Going through our finances, figuring out vacations for the year, random items from the to-do list that we forget to talk about. It’s not always necessary and we don’t do this EVERY month, but the idea of having a scheduled time to just run through stuff is really helpful. I compare it to being a work and passing a coworker in the hall to discuss work things vs scheduling a meeting in a conference room. Yes, the drive bys are great, but sometimes it’s more productive to schedule a time to discuss. (No I don’t book a conference room for these meetings with Joe 🙂 )
CoachMom says
I love the shared calendars idea!! I don’t know why I didn’t think about that. I try to remind everyone and post actual calendars everywhere so everyone can use their own calendar and I still have to make sure I remind my husband and kids about EVERYTHING even when it is right there for them. Now I can just make them download an app to remind them themselves. The basket thing is something I might have to try as well. Clutter drives me nuts but when I don’t know what to do with someone else’s things, it becomes a neater pile of clutter in a new location!!
Lauren says
These are really good tips! I went over & read your post about the basket idea…genius! My boyfriend and I live together & this would be a super helpful way to cut down on clutter. Plus he would probably actually agree to it too…he is not the most organized & we are slight opposites in that sense – it sounds like your husband is pretty good though? Anyways, thanks! I think I’ll try a few of these : )
Lindsay @ Crazy Organized says
Haha, I can totally relate! The baskets really helped us! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Grandma's House DIY says
Great tips! Made my brain start working and thinking that my hubby and I should start a google calendar we could share on our phones, gosh that would help a lot! Now I just need to talk him into trying it lol
Lindsay @ Crazy Organized says
I LOVE sharing google calendars! I swear it helps so much!!
Kim~madeinaday says
We totally need a joint grocery list.. funny thing is if my husband goes with me to the grocery store we spend more, lol. Sharing on Twitter #MM
Kim
Shelby says
This is a great list! My husband and I are both so busy, so having a deliberate system in place to check in with one another would be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Becky says
Great tips. I have a couple of suggestions that would accommodate just about everything on your list that my husband and me use daily.
The first is a “sync” calendar through Google calendar. You can both see anything one of you puts on the calendar without having to go through the steps of inviting each other.
The second is the Google Keep app. It works beautifully as a constantly synced set of lists that both of you can see at any time (as long as you add each other to the list when you create it). I can literally watch him check items off the grocery list while he’s doing the shopping, and I can simply add an item to the list while he’s there if there is something I forgot… without even having to notify him! We have lists for practically everything in Keep: groceries (one for the grocery store and one for Sam’s), weekly household chores, his to-do list, my to-do list, home projects that need to be done, etc. And if some of the things on your lists are recurring (i.e., milk and eggs on the grocery list) they are marked through and moved to the bottom of the list as you check them off, and the next time you go to make the grocery list, you can simply uncheck the boxes, and they move back to the top. I actually also use Keep’s list function to order my list in the order of the store layout so I go in one full circle without trekking back and forth. (I know, I might be a little freakish when it comes to that one.) Hope this is helpful!
Lindsay @ Crazy Organized says
Thanks so much for sharing these! I had no idea Google Keep existed! I’m trying that out now!! I LOVE shared apps!
Amanda @ Spending to Save says
I love the shared list idea! I get so frustrated that my husband only seems to think of things he needs AFTER I get home from the store. Thanks for the tip!