The MOMager System *Post #1* in the beginning.

About 3 years ago I came out with the original prototype of my planner that I call the MOMager. The purpose behind it is that its custom to fit ME. The content is tailored to ME and MY life. The fonts and style are appealing to ME and even down to the amount of spacing between lines is just the way I like it. And I do this because its MY life...its not yours...or my best friends...or a corporate companies...it's mine and its unique to me. So why should I attempt to schedule and organize my unique life in a way that someone else designed? 

That is the trouble that I ran in to from the first time that I bought a planner (which was in 5th grade....This list making OCD scheduler thing is in my blood I tell you) There was ALWAYS something wrong...the size wasn't right or the layout didn't work for me...or it included sections I didn't use...or even worse, left out sections I actually needed. So a couple years ago I made the original. 

It was a HUGE 52 week planner with custom tabs and lots of different sections...I designed all of the pages myself and had it spiral bound at staples.

 The layout was done by month with a 2 page monthly spread followed by a 2 page weekly spread for all the weeks of that month 

The weekly layout was really similar to the design of the very popular Mom Agenda and the Erin Condren Life Planners.

Then there were sections in the back that held all the content I wanted...specific pages for all of my kids activities, school info, contacts, notes, etc.

But there was a problem. 

This thing was HUGE. about 2 inches thick and HEAVY. the other problem was that since it was spiral bound...it was permanent. and I'm going to let you in on a tiny secret here...I am literally OCD...I can't stand a page with imperfections...incorrect information...a misspelled word...it literally drives me crazy. I have thrown away entire planners because I made a scheduling mistake and the thought of having to cross it out and look at that blotch forever literally made my skin crawl. I know the simple answer would be to use pencil but, nope...I don't like the way my hand writting looks in pencil.

Go ahead and join me on the crazy train kids, your in for a ride ;)

So I made this planner last me until the beginning of 2011 and that is when I came up with the next addition to my MOMager family...lets call it The MOMager light ;)

I scaled down big time...I found one of these flex binders and that helped with the whole "not perminant" thing and I edited the inside a bit...

I kept the same 2page monthly calendar as that has worked really well for me.

But instead of the weekly page, I realized that I needed daily pages...so I printed these off a month at a time and kept it in the "ToDo's" Tab

I also edited the content and started using this only as a planner and created a separate "Home Management  Binder" to house all of the other things (kids activities, household tasks, school info, recipes, etc...)

This system worked great for me until I found flaws in this design...I didn't like that I could only plan a month  at a time...then there was the issue of the monthly "reload" and I would find that I wouldn't get around to that until mid month and I would end up scrapping the whole months worth of planning because "it's too late" (silly, i know) 

I also didn't like that I didn't have a week at a glance section or the ability to keep my meal planning/grocery list with me when I was on the go.

So I scoured Pinterest for the best Ideas I could find...home management books...calendar printables...I even broke down and bought a Mom Agenda...but I always ran in to the same problem...it wasn't tailored to me. So I compiled a list of all of my MUST HAVES and with some inspiration from this awesome system:

Source

I came up with this:

This is my MOMager File Box system...in the next few posts I will let you take a peek in to my Weekly Folder...The File Box itself...my Seasonal Folder...and my Ramblings Book. 

This is only about a 1/4 of my full MOMager system...but this is the brains of the operation :)

Check back later for the full peak in to my Weekly Folder and File Box!