Organizing with Creative Memories - the Kitchen

The new year always seems like the perfect time to clean up and re-organize your space. One of the first spaces to get organized is my kitchen command center - the old calendar comes down and gets switched out and all the bits and pieces on the bulletin board get cleaned off, freeing up space for info about the new activities ahead.

I have a very small space in my kitchen for all this stuff and despite my best efforts to keep it under control, it gets a bit crowded...witness the "before" photo!




So this year I decided to streamline a bit and use one of CM's 12 x 12 write-on/erasable Photo Panels as my kitchen calendar instead of a regular paper calendar that takes up the whole wall. I first saw the idea of making the photo panel into a calendar back in the summer in a post on the CM Digital 411 blog that featured this one made with one of the gorgeous Enchanted papers as the background.




It's lovely, but unfortunately it didn't go with the colors and decor in my own kitchen. I had already painted my command center bulletin board and a little wooden box that holds pens and notepaper in my favorite accent color (red!) so I created my own photo panel in Storybook Creator 4.0 and gave it a simple red and white checkerboard background and left as much space as I could blank for each date space. I uploaded it to the CM digital centre and it was on my wall within a week and a half! (Please excuse the glare...the photo panel surface is very glossy!)
 



It only takes up half the room that the old style calendar did, and now I have room to mount a large double wall pocket (from the Martha Stewart office line at Staples) to keep the boys school papers in below the calendar. I have another small Martha pocket mounted on the bulletin board where I keep a small paper calendar that I record dates for coming months in, and then I just wipe the photo panel calendar clean and update it each month. It's so easy to change and always looks good - no more scribbled notes and scratched out events. Now granted, we are only 5 days into the month, but so far it's working out fine! I love how my command center looks now, and that's half the battle to staying organized, right?





If I had a little more wall space I might have gone with our traditional 12 x 18 calendar hung on one of the new Calendar Frames! They are gorgeous, and I love the idea of having the calendar and white board integrated into one piece.


There are two sizes of frames - one will hold CM's 12 x 18 size calendar and the other fits our 8 x 12 calendar perfectly! The fact that you can personalize not only your calendar but the the actual whiteboard is a huge bonus! (PS: If you are thinking about purchasing a Photo Panel or a Calendar frame from the CM digital center, you will need a consultant ID#: mine is 75483791, and I would love it if I could help you out in any way with your digital projects!)

The other two organizational projects I have planned for my kitchen include organizing my recipes using the Nancy O'Dell Recipe Collection Quick Album (which is on sale right now!)...


...and updating my household binder using the same artwork as in the recipe kit above, but in digital format.




Who would have thought Creative Memories would help me get my kitchen under control? I'll be sharing more organizational ideas in the next few days, so be sure to stop by. And don't forget that the Creative Memories Awesome Annual Album Sale is on until Monday January 7th with 30% off albums, pages and protectors. The sale does continue through until January 21st, but with only 20% off, so shop early for the best selection and prices!

Are you organizing today? Whatever you are doing, have a great Sunday!



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