Showing posts with label organising the home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organising the home. Show all posts

Friday

The 5 Best Organising Apps


I love to try to get organised in everything I do but I'm not saying I always manage it completely.


However I really do want this year to be my best organising year in our home and other aspects of life and to help me in this I will definitely be using





My iPad is like my diary, filo fax, novel, organiser, all rolled into one and a lot more.

It goes everywhere with me and when I'm at the computer it is sitting beside it.

There are certain apps which just have to be on the first screen of the iPad and on the dock at the bottom so that I can easily open them quickly.

These would include what I consider to be the 5 best organising apps I have.

Of course if you know me any way well you will know that I like free things and all but one of these 5 apps are free.


These 5 apps keep my everyday organised, just exactly as I want it.





Spark   by   Readdle
     FREE
They have a phrase "Love your email again".
This is exactly what happened - I did fall in love with dealing with my emails again.
You really have a look at this because it has a Smart box thing for sorting out your emails as they arrive but also it senses where you will probably want to file your emails and it just looks good.






Google Keep   by   Google
     FREE  
Great for short notes, lists, messages, I use it regularly.
So easy to slip in and out for quick note and easy to add photo.
My husband and I use it for those things we need to remind each other about "buying on the way home" or things we need to "find a day to do around the house" etc. plus keep short notes for easy access later.
Syncs great to android phone and sharing with other people and you can colour code everything.






Documents    by   Readdle 
     FREE
My favourite place to download files and Pdfs to.
Quick and easy to find and open and read through my files again.
I can move files around easily and it can deal with pictures too.







Doc Scan    by    Ifunplay
     FREE
I no longer use the scanner on my printer this is just far handier, in fact I haven't even bothered to link up my new laptop to scanning software for my printer.
If is called a PDF scanner but you have the option to save as a picture too.  Printing from it and sharing from it are simple.







Things 3   by   Culture Code
     PAID
I use it every day,  and in so many different ways.
It's a ToDo app plus so much more.
You can organise everything with this app, make all your lists, have deadlines, make projects, decide when to start work on something and check things off, have repeating todos plus have notes on your todos plus more and more.


Are you looking for the 5 best organising apps for every part of your life?



I have choice between them all and within each one so to me they are ideal for all I want to do and not hard to learn to use  -  definitely the 5 best organising apps for me!












One of the Best Ways I Stay Organised - Organising


Today I thought I would share 1 of my favourite apps for keeping me organised in all aspects of my life but very much so in the home situation.







I am very much a


"what's the best free app for this situation?"


type of gal


so most of the apps I have are free.


However the one I am going to talk about today is not.


This is what happened......

Once upon a time there was a handsome prince who went on a journey to a far off land and returned to his beautiful princess with a precious gift (which at that particular time she did not realize she wanted).

But because of the personality of the handsome Prince, he insisted that his Princess do something immediately he had given her the gift.

He told her she had to buy something to add to the gift.


Ok so the handsome Prince was my husband Fred and I'm his beautiful Princess.

He had gone to America on business and returned with an iPad for me.

( yes it really was a present just for me and even though he said later we were meant to share it, that was too late because I had completely fallen in love with it by then and he had to get his own)

As soon as we set it up he said we had to buy a certain app for it because he had heard it was very good and knew I would want to use it.

Of course I knew nothing about apps at this stage and certainly did not know you could get free ones so I did as he said ( yes I'm an obedient Princess too)





And this is the app we bought



Things     PAID
I use this app every day and I use it in various ways.






At this point I would like to state that I am not being compensated or sponsored in any way for this post about the Things App - I just wanted to tell you about one of the ways I stay organized.



UPDATE:    The app is now called   THINGS 3  and  looks slightly different to the pics below but it is even better than before.










Firstly I use the Today feature in the listing to see all the things that I should do each day or that need to be done soon and today might be the best opportunity to do them.

So everyday I keep checking off in this list hoping that someday I will do everything that falls for that day - not happened ever yet!


Any time I want to add a todo item I can either just leave it without a due date so that it just appears in my today list all the time until it is completed or sits in my Next list.

If I choose a due date I can also pick how many days before that date I want it to appear in my today list coming up to the date.







Then there is the great scheduling feature where I can schedule something for a particular day.
Not only for a particular day but I can also have it as a recurring todo ie. every week, every month, every year, every 9 days even.

There is a section for Projects as well and depending on what you want to do you can adapt the project feature to suit you.

There are also Areas that you can place your todos in.






For the Home I have some areas as you can see above like housework, and the odd project but I also use some of the other areas like daily, weekly, monthly.

I love the way I can keep track of when things need paid or need to be cleaned or need to be bought like birthday cards, presents and especially coming up to Christmas I utilize the Projects section for different lists.

You can see my Christmas List by Names below and then when I click on each name I have my Notes within that one for the ideas I have for their gifts.






Another thing I find very helpful is keeping track of the food in the house especially in the freezer.

As I put something away I note it in my Next list with the date I need to use it by and how many days in advance of this that I want to be notified by.

Then I use the Tags feature so that any time I want to check up or plan ahead about meals I simply go into the Next list and filter it by my choice of tag which would be food in this case and it will bring up all the food in different cupboards and fridge and freezer and the date it is due by.






I can refine this even further because I have tags in for each of the cupboards and fridge and freezer so can turn up just the contents of one of these at a time too.

Other tags can be centred around time, priority, or any kind of category you can think of.

I can also order everything by due date as well.







Most of my home life can be ordered by this app but I do love to use other list apps too.



One way to help stay organised






Definitely FUNWORK  because anything on the Ipad is funwork to me and didn't I say it involved lists and lists and lists and you know I LOVE LISTS




A to Z of Organising our Home!


A little Round-up of things we say, do or use during the organising and housework in our home.









A  -  Accidental Reducing of Articles 

The times when you accidentally break some plates or mugs and they just have to be thrown out.

Funny how I used to be annoyed; now unless it is something special, I just think

 "that's another one of my 365 items to be decluttered in 365 Days"   -   smiley face.







B  -  Beautiful Clearouts

When you get rid of those items in the wardrobes that were there because you had paid money for them and thought you should get the most time out of them but really thought that you didn't look good in them or the wife thought the husband didn't look good in them and he hadn't realised it yet.



C  -  Careful Clearouts

Those times when you are supposed to empty out a cupboard and sort everything out and then return only some of the things but in reality you return all but maybe one!

Now I would never do that!!!!



D  -  To the Dump!

A good phrase in our house because it means something is going out of the house, garage or garden and it is more than can fit in the bin.







E  -  Easier Housework.

Yes there really are some things that help me along the way.

I use them for many, many tasks because anything that makes the work easier and done more quickly is a bonus for me.



F  -  Fred????

There are so many sentences that begin with this word when it comes to the organising of our home and mostly the answer is

"I don't know!!!!!"




G  -  Garden Shed Sort out.

Well in our case it was a bit more than that - Plus we made a video.







H  -  Helping each other?


Where is it?

I don't know.

But you had it last.

No, You had it last.

No I didn't.

Yes you did.

Well where did I have it?

I don't remember.





I  -  Inside & Not on Top of!

You know when you have designated a good drawer or container for an item and the husband comes along and just sets it down on top of the container, or the kitchen worktop.

Enough said!







J  -  Just a Little Time before Bed

That's the time I keep saying I will just do a little tidy up in the bedroom and Fred just laughs - well he has known me for all these years.



K  -  Kitchen Organising

The one place I do like to seriously think about before I move into a house and designate areas to specific tasks.

The Tea & Coffee corner being the top priority of course.






L  -  Leave me some space to sit down!

The words I have often heard when in the middle of sorting out something and I have cluttered up the entire room.

There was an entire table covered as well as the couch.






M  -  The "Man Drawer"

Yes I wrote about that last year, there is one in our kitchen but still his "things" end up in other strange places.  Plus I'm always asking the question "What is that thing?" about most of the things in the drawer.



N  -  Nowhere to put it?

That is definitely not what you hear in our house!

More like - I know I had decided where those were to go but I've forgotten again.



A to Z of Organising in our home? well trying to not fail at organising!




O  -  Opening the Post

Should mean exactly that - you open it and deal with it.
You know - throw it out, respond to it, or file it away for future reference.

In our house it gets opened and looked at and then put back in the envelope!!!



P  -  A "Place for Everything"

Yes I wrote about this one before too.





And we really will get there one day, I'm sure.
Well pretty sure.
Well really hoping!



Q  -  Quite a Productive Day

This is how I feel when I have managed to actually get more than half of my day's ToDo List completed.



R  -  Remembering.

Okay I know that certain people on reading this will just laugh and say:
Some hope!

Yes I may be always saying I forget things but I do have a few things that I need to remember when cleaning the house and not just the fact that having a coffee does not get the house cleaned.







S  -  Spread the work on Spreadsheets.

I have my Organising and Cleaning Schedule for the year on a Spreadsheet.




Fred & I both love Spreadsheets.

Trouble is I could easily get distracted away from the organising of the house once I get on the spreadsheet because it is on the computer.



T  -  Take Time for the Tedious Things Before the Coffee.

The thing we hate to do but often gives us the most sense of satisfaction when we actually get round to it is one of those tedious things that just have to be done but I can always think of another word -

procrastination and it goes well with coffee.







U  -  Unusual Uses for Simple Products.

There are things around our homes that don't only have to be used for one purpose.

We need to be a bit more imaginative and find other uses for them.
Which can actually be more interesting than using them!








V  -  Very Good Ideas

Unfortunately those are the ones that I have when I am in the middle of doing something else, or just about to fall asleep and I'm sure I will remember them because they are so good but then I have forgotten them the very next day or hour or even in 5 minutes time.




W  -   Do Without It?

The Housework?          Yes! Please!

But what about those things in the Kitchen that you just feel you can't do without.

They may be small but they are so useful.







X  -  Xtra Special Days 

The times when you get away from the house for a really enjoyable time and are completely refreshed and ready to tackle the house again.

Those breaks are xtra important in the better weather because the sun is tempting you, or in the cold dark weather when you need something to brighten up your day, or just any time because you can always find some excuse.







Y  -  YOU didn't put it away AGAIN!

Those times when we get fed up because something is not in the place we actually do have allotted for it because neither of us have put it away yet again.

How will we ever be organised?



Z  -  ZZZZZ when it's all done.

Or when we are just too tired to do any more.

Just kidding with this one because it is never done and I would claim to be tired at any time to get out of the housework and on to the funwork.



But there is always




to keep me going.







Do you have any great ideas to add that just keep your house organised or are you more disorganised like me?