Next year's calendar

I'm getting to know Glendale, the city where I just moved. The other day I went for a walk and came across a store called Swain's. This is the kind of store I love. It has art supplies, fun things like stickers and toys and lots of office supplies. I was delighted to find their extensive section of calendars, wall, engagement and most any other kind of calendar. It reminded me that now is a good time to choose a 2011 calendar. I use two calendars. One is a wall calendar I keep within sight of my desk for easy reference when I am at my computer. The other is a weekly calendar that I keep in my purse at all times. It has two pages for a single week, and because I don't like to make my purse too heavy, I choose a small, compact style. I got my 2010 calendar at Office Depot, one of their inhouse brands, and it has been great. The one I picked out for 2011 at Swain's is the Time Master brand. It is slightly larger, and it has Monday through Thursday on the left page and Friday through Sunday on the right; this means that Saturday and Sunday each have a full sized window, which is great. My 2010 calendar splits one section into two for Saturday and Sunday, which makes the squares pretty tiny.

Getting next year's calendar now gives you plenty of time to write in the birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions that you already know. Technology can help here: if you are on Facebook, go to Events, then Birthdays and use the arrows on the bottom to navigate, and you can see a list of all of the birthdays of your friends who have shared them. I like to peruse that in advance, since Facebook only shows you their birthday on the day of. It's also a good idea to have a place to start gathering appointments and dates for 2011 so you don't forget them. Dentist appointments, graduations, weddings: these things often get planned far in advance, and though you think you may remember them. sometimes people forget things.

Lelah Baker-Rabe, professional organizer serving Los Angeles. 818.269.6671 http://www.lelahwithanh.com