Organise the year ahead

As I was saying in my last post, Rhonda from Down to earth will take us through her Simple home book this year and I would like to join from my perspective. Chapter 1 is called 'organise the year ahead'.
I have started with my new style of diary. I use this one here: Leuchtturm1917. It contains 

• all birthdays, public holidays, holidays
• upcoming invoices (e.g. car registration, insurances, rates)
• income and expenses
• meal plan
• electricity readings
• harvest
• rain
• list of fruits/vegetables we eat, so I know how much to plant in future

In the back it has an address book which I don't use, so I changed its use to a notebook containing the following information:

• addresses (only from my family)
• books I want to read
• Craft I want to do
• To Do list
• garden ideas
• recipes to try
• ideas for simple life
• Webpages to visit
• shopping (one off items other than groceries)

The diary has the week on one side and a 'notes' page on the other. So when I think about something I need to do, I can write it on the page and then do it when I have time available. So I always have everything I ever need with me at all times. Some people prefer a digital calendar but I'm old fashioned in that regards. I like to write it down.

I also created a system at home on how I deal with my paperwork and I try to deal with it once a week. I have set up folders for various items with the most important ones being '

• "Pay" for all current invoices to be paid
• "Do" for anything which needs to be done
• "File" for paid invoices and things done which then needs to be filed in the appropriate folder
• "Tax" for anything which I need to keep for the next tax return, so I can hand it over to my accountant and don't have to worry about a thing anymore.

Furthermore, I manifested my routines. I have morning, evening and weekend routines. In the morning, I tend the chooks, walk Janus, water my veggies, have breakfast and go to work. In the evening when I come home from work, I relax with a book or magazine in the garden, playing with Janus, tending my garden and so on. When it's time to cook dinner, I go inside and do that. I try to have a leftover meal on Mondays and Mr S cooks Tuesday to Thursday. So really I only need to cook Monday, Friday and on the weekends. Nice! We normally eat around 7ish and afterwards Mr S tends to go to bed and watch a movie. I then clean up the kitchen, put everything away and prepare my lunch for work the next day. Then I mop the kitchen floor, have a shower and go to bed to read a little but not until I have sat outside for a while and watch the stars with Janus by my side. 

Tuesday I have dog training which starts again in February and on Thursdays I go grocery shopping. 

I want to try to keep my weekends open, so I try to do my housework during the week. Unless it's the first Saturday of the month - then I do a bigger clean and therefore do these tasks on the 1st Saturday of the month:

• Dust ceilings, fans, lights, skirting boards
• Dust blinds
• Wipe down doors
• New linen, towels, tableclothes
• Brush flyscreens
• Clean couch
• Vacuum dining chairs
• Clean dishwasher
• Dust all surfaces with oil/conditioner
• Clean kitchen
• Clean bathroom
• Vacuum floors
• Mop floors

I have also set up some new savings and budgeting goals but more about that in another post. For now, enjoy your week and see you soon!