Cozi Clutter Cutter

A new year, a clean slate. It’s time to right the wrongs and not repeat mistakes we’ve made. As we closed the books on 2008 I secretly hoped that 2009 would be as fruitful and a little more organized. One thing jumped to mind… how are we going to get it all done and keep everyone on the same page?!

2009 will be our first year of having two children in full-time school and of course still have one at home. While I’m working very part time, blog, cook, clean and launder. And not to forget hug huddles and kiss fests which take up the bulk of our together time.

I’m already dreading next holiday season, shopping, recitals, parties… but then I think, I really shouldn’t. I just need to prepare and keep things organized and keep my other half in the loop. The question again is how to keep everything in place and on schedule.

<cue>Mom Central. An invitation to try Cozi at the perfect time. Cozi’s a free service that holds all your schedules in one place and correlates them. I’ve played around with it a little and I’m loving it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a smart phone – yet! So these are all of my observations from using online.

each person gets their own unique color dot so you can see at a glance who’s event you’re viewing
choose to view one person’s schedule or the day’s events
input an event once with an option of it updating every week
you can make grocery lists, view them on your iPhone or call in to get a text message reminder
import photos that will make a photo collage automatically and scrapbook right in cozi

In the short time I’ve been using Cozi, it has cut down on a lot of the stress and confusion between my husband and myself. Many times I forget early release days and extracurricular activities… not so anymore. When my husband has questions he can look things the same why I can. NO excuse to ask me what’s going on that day. Missed lessons are costly to your child for the missed instruction and for your pocket book because you’re not getting what you’re paying for. And YES, I even did the unthinkable, I missed a major event, girl2004’s Valentine’s Dance which really broke my heart. Not broken hearted enough not to return the dress but you know, it was still traumatic.

Eventually we will get Cozi mobile which will be even better, having all that information at my fingertips, organized without clutter! Speaking of clutter, can you imagine how much clutter Cozi will eliminate? I’m thinking at least a gabillion papers with that one sentence I need.

And now a word from Cozi:

“In addition to the ways that moms can get their shopping lists and calendars already on any mobile phone via text message and using our toll free number, Cozi now has a mobile version especially for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones. Families can now sign-in and access their Cozi account using their mobile web browsers. They can add and edit shopping lists and view and edit their family calendar using the mobile version of Cozi right from their iPhone. This is a new feature! You can learn more about it here: http://www.cozi.com/Promo-Cozi-Mobile.htm “