{Erin Condren} FUNctional Family and Notebook Review

Have you heard of Erin Condren?  Well, if you have, then you already know.  🙂  But, if not, let me introduce you…..she’s a mother of twins that started a “little business” creating gorgeous planners.  She designs other amazing products as well.  But, I think they’re most well known for their awesome Life Planners.  (I have one.  I love it.)  They also make gorgeous wrapping paper, labels, cards, stationary, notebooks, stickers and more.  It’s all so colorful and well made.  The products are high quality and the patterns are just fantastic and customizable.   I can get lost on the site just looking at all the possibilities.

I love my Life Planner so much and I’ve been wanting to try out the Erin Condren FUNctional Family System for a loooong time.  I was so stinking excited to finally get one.  We’ve tried a lot of chore systems in our family.  Some have worked better than others.   My Type A self has a serious love and need for lists and calendars.   My kids do much better when the chores and responsibilities are spelled out for them clearly.   (And when the incentives and rewards are spelled out clearly, too.)  Don’t we all?

We’ve been using the FUNctional Family System for a couple of weeks now and it is working perfectly!  I thought you might like to know more.  So, I am going to review it for you!  🙂

Tackling chores, tracking accountability, charting meals and creating and managing to do lists has never been so pretty!

There are different options when ordering your own FUNctional Family System.  You can go with the Chore Chart to establish responsibility and accountability with a reward at the end of the week or with the Weekly Schedule Pad which is a great place for your entire family to check the PLAN for the week.   We have a dry erase calendar that I keep updated for checking schedules.  So, I went with the Chore Chart.  But they come separately, too, so you can order both if you like.  😉

What the FUNctional Family System comes with….

• Super cute, stylish dry erase clipboard
• with an “all about” section for important numbers and info for babysitters and grandmas
• a nice dry erase section at the bottom for meals, to do lists, goals or reminders for the day
• you can add a favorite photo right to the clipboard when ordering
• a removable magnetic pad for to do lists, grocery lists or honey do lists.  (I LOVE LISTS)
• you choose Chore Chart pad or Weekly Schedule pad.  (or get both – I was tempted)
• you can also add personalized Reward Cards,  a great way to acknowledge achievements and completed tasks.
• A handy notch on the back of the clipboard makes it easy to hang on the wall.

I like that the chore chart is easy to customize for our needs.  You can list the chores in the far left column and then put initials of who is in charge of that responsibility in the day spots.  Which would work well, but for our family, I divided up the chore chart in half (since I have two kids) and listed their responsibilities in those spots and they check off the day spot when they have it completed.

I also purchased the spiral notebook.  I do love my Life Planner, but I was interested in a full sized notebook as well.  I use my Life Planner for family stuff and I just use a regular spiral notebook for keeping track of blog posts and events for the site.

This notebook is heavy duty!  It has a double sided “Keep it together” folder and a zipper pouch, reposition-able stickers and a clear ruler.  You can also purchase additional covers and tabbed dividers…. because they are removable.  GENIUS!

I used washi tape like this, from my stash, to simply tape in a calendar and some other bits.  I love that I can customize this notebook for all of my needs with a little washi tape.  Nifty, ‘eh?

I ordered enough to get a free gift from Erin Condren and it was a T-shirt.  It came in a cute little clear zipper bag.  I use it to keep all my pretty pens and washi in!  SCORE.

I used the removable stickers that it comes with to make tabs at the top, for easy flipping.  I also found some flower clips at Staples to use for that, too.  But I am in love these Woodland Creature Tabs!  Pretty sure that they’ll be my next planner purchase!

 Have you ever had an Erin Condren product?  Do you want to know if they are worth the money?  Yes.  YES!  All of the products that I’ve tried are very well-made and well laid out.  A lot of thought has been put into these things.  And they have helped me stay organized.  You should give them a try.  And you can use my code to save 10 bucks!

If you’d like to try out any of Erin Condren’s products or give them as the best Christmas present ever, you can save $10 off of your order by clicking on this link.

Serisouly.  You would win Christmas, if you gave Erin Condren anything.  🙂

Just set up your new customer account with Erin Condren. You’ll receive an email with a $10 off coupon code that you can use on your purchase. So, if you want to set up your account and then wait for your coupon code to make your first purchase, then that’s fine!  Click here to save TEN BUCKS!

 Here is a video of the package.  It’s like Christmas when you get an Erin Condren box!!